New Inhaler Cuts Climate Impact 99.9% While Treating COPD

Millions of people who rely on inhalers to breathe can now get the same life-saving medicine with almost zero climate impact, thanks to a simple but powerful switch.

AstraZeneca has reformulated its COPD inhaler to use a new propellant gas that cuts warming potential by 99.9% compared to the old version. The inhaler works exactly the same way, contains the same three medicines, and helps patients just as effectively, but its environmental footprint has dropped by roughly 1,000 times.

The timing matters more than ever. Over 90% of people worldwide breathe air that fails to meet World Health Organization standards, and climate change is making respiratory diseases worse through wildfires, pollution, and longer pollen seasons.

Traditional inhalers use hydrofluorocarbons to spray medicine into the lungs. These gases carry a massive global warming punch. In the UK alone, inhalers account for about 3% of the National Health Service's entire carbon footprint.

The problem creates a painful irony. As climate change triggers more asthma attacks and lung disease flareups, the devices treating these conditions contribute to the very crisis making patients sick. Healthcare systems worldwide generate about 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Therese Laperre, who heads the respiratory department at University Hospital Antwerp, sees the cycle play out daily. Changes in air pollution levels directly predict emergency room visits for asthma and chronic lung disease just days later.

The new inhaler, now approved in the UK and European Union, replaces the old HFA-134a gas with HFO-1234ze(E). Production is already underway at the company's facility in Dunkirk, France.

The Ripple Effect

The innovation goes beyond one product. Other major drugmakers are racing to follow suit, with Pfizer committing to net-zero emissions by 2040 and Johnson & Johnson targeting 2045.

Doctors say catching respiratory diseases earlier helps patients and shrinks healthcare's climate footprint at the same time. Better disease control means fewer emergency visits and hospital stays, which are among the most carbon-intensive parts of medical care.

Philippe Tieghem from French respiratory association Sante Respiratoire puts it simply: "If we are detecting earlier, we are controlling earlier. It's good for patients, it is good for carbon, it is good economically as well."

With 400 to 500 million adults living with COPD and over 250 million with asthma worldwide, scaling these cleaner inhalers could prevent millions of tons of emissions while protecting the lungs of people who need help breathing in an increasingly polluted world.