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Taking the CFCs out of your MDI

© Leigh G. Kirtley

The way you take your asthma medications is going to start changing. Eventually, the metered-dose inhaler, or MDI, as you know it will look and taste differently. The reason for this is that drug companies are finally finding ways to deliver needed medications without needing chlorofluorocarbons, CFCs, as a propellant. Although safe for inhalation, CFCs provided to be devastating to our atmosphere.

Remember the early 1980s? That was about the time that scientists finally admitted that CFC's in the atmosphere were responsible for the depletion in the protective ozone layer. The ozone layer, by the way, protects us from the sun's damaging rays and filters out other non-desirables. To prevent further damage and hopefully restore the ozone layer, many countries volunteered in 1987 to eliminate CFCs from common products like hair sprays, coolants and other convenience products. Fortunately, medicine delivery systems were excluded because at the time there was no other safe and effective way for people with asthma and related conditions to get the medications they needed.

Within the last year, drug companies have developed an alternative delivery system to replace CFC-propelled MDIs. One of these you may already be familiar with: the Serevent® diskus inhalation device by GlaxoWellcome. Serevent®, salmeterol xinafoate, is a long-acting bronchodilator which can be effective for as long as 12 hours. Although it is also available in a typical CFC MDI, you and your doctor now have the option of using a medication that is safe and effective in controlling asthma that is also ozone-friendly.

The medication inside the diskus is in the form of a fine powder. Because of this, it is taken differently from a standard MDI and, according to my son who uses one, tastes differently, too. One added feature to the new diskus is a built-in counter that starts at the maximum number of "blisters" inside the diskus and counts down. My son and I know if he's remembered to take the medication and exactly how many inhalations are left so we can order refills in plenty of time. With the MDI, it was always a strategic guess by shaking it or by doing the float test, which always seemed inconvenient.

(For those who don't know. If you place your regular, CFC-propelled MDI canister in a glass of water it will float. If the nose points down, it is full. If it floats horizontally or nearly horizontally, it is probably empty.)

Inhaling the diskus involves a different technique from that used with a standard MDI. Your health care professional will give you a mini-lesson to ensure you are using it properly so that it will be equally effective to the MDI. It's not difficult. Just different.

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