Patrick Kennedy: “Asthma kills roughly 5,000 people every year. There are over 30 million Americans who depend on those metered-dose…”

“Asthma kills roughly 5,000 people every year. There are over 30 million Americans who depend on those metered-dose inhalers, such as the one I have in my pocket, in order to relieve themselves of the terror of being gripped with asthma. What the FDA has proposed is they have proposed phasing out these metered-dose inhalers because of their CFC content. CFC content in metered-dose inhalers contributes less than 1 percent of the chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere, yet the FDA would like us to believe that by banning these inhalers, we will get about complying with the Montreal Protocol and achieving a reduction in chlorofluorocarbons. The point I am going to make is we are going after less than 1 percent of the CFC's in the atmosphere by banning these metered-dose inhalers when we have not taken into full account the public health impact on asthmatics all across the country who depend on these metered-dose inhalers in order to relieve them from their asthma.”