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The people who are most vulnerable to the hard-to-breathe air that comes with climate change may inadvertently be adding to the problem, new research finds.
About 34 million Americans have a chronic lung disease, including 28 million who have asthma, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America – and the number is expected to grow as higher temperatures bring more weather phenomena that trigger breathing issues like droughts, floods and wildfires.
To treat conditions like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, millions of Americans use what doctors often call metered dose inhalers, small boot-shaped devices that spray set doses of medication into the lungs in a quick burst using propellants called hydrofluoroalkanes, or HFAs.
Studies published Monday in the journal JAMA found that medication inhalers are "substantial" contributors to planet-warming pollution. It's not the medicine itself that's the problem; rather, it's the HFAs.
Read more at the link in our bio.
📸: Getty Images
