Asthma care roadmap seeks to improve health and environment

A new project is aiming to improve the lives of people living with asthma, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from respiratory inhalers.

The National Sustainable Asthma Care Roadmap was developed through a partnership between Asthma Australia and Deakin University, in collaboration with 50 stakeholder organisations representing consumers, healthcare professionals, research, industry, peak bodies and government.

Aiming to improve asthma management while achieving environmentally sustainable outcomes, the roadmap recognises that respiratory inhalers contribute to carbon emissions and could be replaced by preventative medicines and more environmentally friendly dry powder inhalers (DPIs).

Around 25 million inhalers are sold in Australia annually. About 80 per cent of these are pressurised metered-dose inhalers (pMDIs) that deliver a dose of medication propelled by a hydrofluorocarbon gas with a large carbon footprint.

The recommendations from the Roadmap include a campaign to inform people with asthma about how to improve their asthma control – which has the potential to reduce emissions in itself – and how they can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from alternative inhalers where suitable devices are available.

Further recommendations included reducing the cost and improving access to combination anti-inflammatory plus reliever inhalers, which are more effective than reliever inhalers alone (and are available in DPI), and increasing clinician knowledge and adoption of best practices in asthma care and sustainability.

Barwon Health paediatrician Dr Mike Forrester led the national project as a Deakin senior research fellow, and actively encourages local sustainable practices as part of Barwon Health’s Environmental Sustainability Executive Subcommittee.

Dr Forrester said the campaign was a sector-wide collaborative effort and a great example of both health and planetary co-benefits.

“Our report details the underlying system challenges, the evidence regarding the evolution of guidelines, the footprint of care, and the eight collaboratively developed goals to support the Roadmap, with key recommendations and actions for the sector,” he said.

“Reducing the high rate of poorly controlled asthma and mitigating the environmental impact of pMDIs used to treat asthma represents a significant unmet need.

“Compelling evidence shows that transitioning to combination anti-inflammatory reliever asthma medication delivered using low-carbon devices can improve person-centred asthma outcomes while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“This Roadmap presents a compelling vision for the future of asthma care in Australia. We now hope to see investment and resources to translate these recommendations into a national implementation strategy.”