Obama Regime bans OTC asthma inhalers

From The Weekly Standard:

Obama Administration to Ban Asthma Inhalers Over Environmental Concerns



3:00 PM, Sep 23, 2011
By MARK HEMINGWAY

Remember how Obama recently waived new ozone regulations at the EPA because they were too costly? Well, it seems that the Obama administration is would rather make people with Asthma cough up money than let them make a surely inconsequential contribution to depleting the ozone layer:

Asthma patients who rely on over-the-counter inhalers
will need to switch to prescription-only alternatives as part of the
federal government's latest attempt to protect the Earth's atmosphere.

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday patients who use the
epinephrine inhalers to treat mild asthma will need to switch by Dec. 31
to other types that do not contain chlorofluorocarbons, an aerosol
substance once found in a variety of spray products.

The action is part of an agreement signed by the U.S. and other
nations to stop using substances that deplete the ozone layer, a region
in the atmosphere that helps block harmful ultraviolet rays from the
Sun.

But the switch to a greener inhaler will cost consumers more.
Epinephrine inhalers are available via online retailers for around $20,
whereas the alternatives, which contain the drug albuterol, range from
$30 to $60.

The Atlantic's Megan McArdle, an asthma sufferer, noted a
while back that when consumers are forced to use environmentally
friendly products they're are almost always worse:

Er, industry also knew how to make low-flow toilets,
which is why every toilet in my recently renovated rental house clogs at
least once a week.  They knew how to make more energy efficient dryers,
which is why even on high, I have to run every load through the dryer
in said house twice.  And they knew how to make inexpensive compact
flourescent bulbs, which is why my head hurts from the glare emitting
from my bedroom lamp.    They also knew how to make asthma inhalers
without CFCs, which is why I am hoarding old albuterol inhalers that,
unlike the new ones, a) significantly improve my breathing and b) do not
make me gag.  Etc.

Well, tough cookies asthma sufferers! You should have written bigger checks to the Democratic party while you had the chance.