A friend recently began having attacks where he couldn’t breathe, and his doctor prescribed him an asthma inhaler. Asthma inhalers aren’t something you think much about if you don’t have asthma, but the government thinks about them. Not how they’re saving lives, but how they’re causing the depletion of the ozone layer (never mind that Air Force One and its associated entourage of jets probably causes more ozone depletion in one day than America’s entire population of asthma sufferers).
To put it succinctly, the government’s “solution” for this “problem” was to mandate a new kind of inhaler, one that doesn’t contain CFCs and “cost twice as much and simply don’t work as well.”
Imagine that! Many doctors and the government insist they work just as well, but asthma sufferers such as Megan McArdle disagree.
ETA: A reader points out to me that it was not necessarily the American government mandating this change- it was actually an international treaty that America signed along with many other countries which forced the switchover to non-CFC inhalers. This is even more of a reason why many of the international treaties we agree to are completely worthless for what they’re meant for and should be avoided. The consequences are simply not adequately studied ahead of time, and are different than the intentions.
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