this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2025
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Inhalers drive carbon emissions equivalent to 530,000 cars each year, study shows (phys.org)
submitted 1 day ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/publichealth@mander.xyz
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Inhalers are the frontline treatment for asthma and COPD, but they come with a steep environmental cost, according to a new UCLA Health study—the largest to date quantifying inhaler-related emissions in the United States.

Researchers found that inhalers have generated over 2 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually over the past decade, equivalent to the emissions of roughly 530,000 gas-powered cars on the road each year.

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[–] finitebanjo@piefed.world 1 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

That might have been only slightly more appropriate but even then it doesn't represent one industry to another but instead some arbitrary metric.

If Carbon Emissions were a Pie then this would be just one incredibly tiny sliver.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 0 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

but even then it doesn’t represent one industry to another

Like.. Yes it absolutely does. Thats why we move EVERYTHING to CO2e for papers like this. CO2e is the lingua franca of discussing global warming. Its how we can compare cows to cars to trees to inhalers.

If Carbon Emissions were a Pie then this would be just one incredibly tiny sliver.

So that's a totally different argument, and if it represents more emissions (from vehicles) than 15 US states, I would hardly agree with you.

If Nebraska, or New Mexico, or Idaho, announced "We're going to outlaw all internal combustion vehicles to curb greenhouse gas emissions", would you dismiss that like you are dismissing this?

At the low end, typical northwest forest pulls in almost 6 megagrams per hectare in biomass annually. To just offset just these emissions, we would need to set aside about 321 sq miles of forest. That's hardly a trivial amount.

[–] finitebanjo@piefed.world 0 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Like.. Yes it absolutely does. Thats why we move EVERYTHING to CO2e for papers like this. CO2e is the lingua franca of discussing global warming. Its how we can compare cows to cars to trees to inhalers.

WE DIDN'T COMPARE CARS TO INHALERS. WE COMPARED ALL INHALERS BEING MADE TOTAL TO SOME ARBITRARY NUMBER OF CARS.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Its not an arbitrary number of cars? Did you just, not read the article (or even the headline for that matter)?

Its a specific number of which equates vehicle emissions to the CO2e of the annual number of inhalers.

The annual rate of prescribed inhalers (1.6 billion) results in about the same CO2e as ~530k annual vehicular emission. Why is this breaking your brain?