Life cycle environmental impacts of inhalers

Abstract

Pressurised metered-dose inhalers are a method of choice for delivering drugs into lungs for the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease across the globe. HFC-134a and HFC-227ea propellants, which are currently used in these inhalers, have significant global warming potentials. To reduce the climate change impact of inhalers, several options are available to the industry, including alternative devices, such as dry powder inhalers and nebulisers. In addition, the manufacturers can reduce the propellant quantity per dose or use a different propellant with a lower global warming potential, such as HFC-152a. This study evaluates the life cycle environmental impacts of different types of inhaler and investigates possible scenarios to reduce their impacts. The environmental impacts are estimated through life cycle assessment, following the ReCiPe impact assessment method. The results suggest that HFC-152a inhaler has the lowest impacts for ten out of 14 categories considered, while the dry powder inhaler is the worst option for eight impacts; however, it has the lowest climate change and ozone depletion impacts. Considering the annual use of pressurised metered-dose and dry powder inhalers in the UK, they generate 1.34 Mt CO 2 eq., largely due to HFC-134a inhalers. This represents 4.3% of greenhouse gas emissions of the NHS (National Health Service). Replacing HFC-134a with HFC-152a would reduce the climate change and ozone depletion impacts of inhalers in the UK by 90%-92%. Most other environmental impacts would also decrease significantly (28%-82%). Switching from pressurised metered-dose inhalers to dry powder inhalers would lead to an even higher reduction in the climate change impact (96%). However, several other impacts would increase significantly, including human toxicity, marine eutrophication and fossil depletion. Since changing propellants or replacing pressurised metered-dose inhalers with dry powder inhalers requires further research and development, pharmaceutical companies should continue to work on minimising propellant usage in inhalers and on achieving higher rates of recycling of current inhalers.

Environmental impact of inhalers for respiratory diseases: decreasing the carbon footprint while preserving patient-tailored treatment

“…In addition, the CF was calculated for the same MDI products when manufactured with HFA152a, considered as a candidate to replace HFA134a to reduce the environmental impact, due to its 10-times lower CF. 6 results The CF for the selected MDI products ranges from 82 to 119 gCO 2 e/actuation, rounded (table 1) while for DPIs it is 8 gCO 2 eq/actuation, rounded. As reported for other products, a higher CF for MDIs is related to the propellant, with the majority of CO 2 e emissions arising from the use phase and disposal, while for DPIs, primary contributors are represented by the device components/packaging and production phase.…”

“…Indeed, with the systematic approach, we were able to estimate the CF of the same products if formulated with HFA152a and were able to confirm a significant reduction by approximately 85%-90% (table 1), and to within the range of CF values for DPIs 3 9 and consistent with published CF values from studies testing only the propellant. 6 In terms of applicability of HFA152a for medical use, recently presented data and UN publications report that the propellant has shown some promising MDI formulation benefits in initial research. 3 The toxicology of HFA152a is well known as an industrial gas (similar to HFA134a).…”

Minimising the environmental impact of inhaled therapies: problems with policy on low carbon inhalers

“…We must not stifle innovation. Concerted research and development has developed low GWP alternatives (HFA-152a) for use as pMDI propellants [24], which are now incorporated into the clinical development programme of environmentally friendly commercial inhalers for patients that will be available by 2025 [25].…”

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“…UU, 7% en Australia, 4,6% en Canadá y 7% en Inglaterra. 24 El 24% de las emisiones anuales a nivel mundial (3,6 Mt CO 2 eq.) proviene de productos farmacéuticos.…”

“…Algunas de las posibles opciones son el uso de dispositivos alternativos como los DPIS 29,30 y nebulizadores; reducir la cantidad de propulsor usado por dosis y utilizar pMDIS con propulsores con un PCG más bajo. 24 Estos inhaladores que pueden ayudar a disminuir la huella de carbono se conocen como inhaladores verdes por ser opciones más ecológicas.…”