What’s the big hurry?

Aug 25, 2008

On January 1, relatively cheap inhalers doctors most often prescribe for asthma will be banned. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which banned them, says the gas they use destroys the ozone layer.

The EPA has hardly been in a rush to reduce the main causes of ozone destruction. And these inhalers contribute only 1/10 of one percent to that destruction.

So what’s the big hurry? If the EPA had waited only two more years, asthma sufferers could have replaced the current low-cost inhalers with newer ones, which will become available then in generic, that is, low-cost, versions.

Oh, so that’s it – the EPA was rushing to give the four big drug companies time to make big bucks off the new inhalers before they have to switch to generics.

We should have known!