As part of our commitment to become a more sustainable practice, we have decided to look at our inhaler prescribing.  This has the biggest carbon footprint of any of the things we do in General Practice.

One tiny salbutamol CFC inhaler is equivalent to a 175 mile drive. A different version, called a breath actuated device is only 4 miles!

It has been quite topical with this programme on the BBC about it:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013hry

And some information for patients can be found here: https://greeninhaler.org/

We are therefore keen to switch patients across to this other device which is just as effective to controlling asthma.  It is worth noting that we will keep this situation under review and in a few years, there might be other better devices but for now we think the dry powder inhalers are best.

This is actually our asthma nurses preferred inhaler as she thinks it is easier and more reliably used.

If you would like to be switched across, watch this video about how to use this next device.

And next time you want a prescription, email us to let us know you’d like to change and have watched the video.

Return your inhalers to any pharmacy to reduce chemical leak and waste

If you decide to stay with the CFC inhaler, please try to return it to the pharmacy so the propellant chemicals in it can be disposed of safely.