Access to Salbutamol Inhalers

Debate between Stewart Hosie and Nick Fletcher

Monday 29th November 2021 Westminster Hall

[Stewart Hosie (in the Chair)]

Before we begin, I remind Members that they are expected to wear face coverings when they are not speaking in the debate, in line with current UK Government guidance and that of the House of Commons Commission. I also remind Members that they are asked by the House to have a covid lateral flow test twice a week if coming on to the estate, which can be done at the testing centre in Portcullis House or at home. Please also give each other and members of staff space when seated, and when entering and leaving the room.

[Nick Fletcher (Don Valley) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered e-petition 578676, relating to access to salbutamol inhalers.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hosie. I begin by thanking the creator of the petition, Brian McElderry, who took the time to speak with me recently, and Elaine Cunningham, whose daughter Lauren Reid died as a result of suffering an asthma attack while working in a commercial kitchen because she did not have access to her inhaler. I am also grateful to Asthma UK, which supports the petition and provided many of the statistics that I will reference.

More than anything else, Lauren was known for her generosity. On the day she died, she called her gran to say that she was buying lunch for 10 of her co-workers. She was a beloved Rangers fan and she loved music and, of course, cooking. She was devoted to her job and worked so hard that she finished her apprenticeship a year early. She was only 19 years old.

Lauren had suffered from asthma since she was an infant. At 16, she became an apprentice at a restaurant in Glasgow and, three years later, she was a fully qualified chef. Her mum has talked about how Lauren kept her inhaler with her almost everywhere she went; but with severe asthma, one attack can have life-changing consequences.

We do not know why Lauren did not have her inhaler with her, or what triggered the attack, but on this occasion she did not have it when her asthma flared up. The first Elaine knew of the incident was when she received a call from Lauren’s boss to say that Lauren was struggling to breathe and needed her inhaler. The asthma attack led to cardiac arrest and, although her manager gave her CPR, she could not be revived.

Lauren was hospitalised with severe brain damage. Her friends and family stayed by her bedside round the clock but, a few days later, Elaine had to make the heartbreaking decision to turn off her daughter’s life support after doctors said that she would never recover. Since then, Elaine has been campaigning for Lauren’s law, which would legally require salbutamol inhalers to be stored in commercial kitchens.

The UK has one of the highest rates of asthma in Europe, which costs the NHS £3 billion every year. Sadly, we also have one of the highest asthma death rates generally—nearly 50% higher than the European average—and for people aged 10 to 24, it is the highest. Unfortunately, the rates of asthma nationally are going up, not down.

In the UK, 200,000 people suffer from severe asthma. In Scotland, where Lauren lived, one in 14 people receive treatment for asthma and in England, the figure is one in 11. Those statistics demonstrate that asthma is a relatively common condition and, although it is manageable for most people, it remains a serious risk for those who have it. Most people with asthma are acutely aware of that and carry their inhalers with them, but Lauren’s story shows that one attack without an inhaler on hand is enough to cause serious harm or even death. We have all forgotten something in our time.

Working in a commercial kitchen poses more of a risk for people with severe asthma than most other settings, which is why the inhalers would be only for staff, not restaurant customers. Asthma UK considers a high-risk environment to be one where the triggers for an asthma attack on the respiratory system are exponentially greater than in normal environments.

In commercial kitchens, that includes the presence of inhalable materials such as powder, flour, dust and sometimes toxic fumes. Heat and humidity are also known to cause asthma attacks. Compounding those issues is the fact that stress can make a person more likely to react to asthma triggers; I think most people would agree that professional kitchens are not known as a calm environment. One might be tempted to argue that if kitchens are such a dangerous place, perhaps people with asthma should not work in them, but I do not think that is the only or best solution to the problem.

Inhalers are an effective way to treat asthma attacks. They are self-administered and do not require any previous training. Adding one to the first aid kit that professional kitchens already have would be an easy way to make them a safe environment for employees with asthma. At the same time, salbutamol inhalers are a prescription medicine, so keeping an emergency one on hand is not as simple as picking up a spare one from Boots. Keeping asthma inhalers in commercial kitchens would require an exemption from prescription control, which would have to be granted by passing legislation.

The salbutamol inhalers currently in use have been licensed for more than two decades. Their risks are well known. Side effects are typically mild and do not last long. When the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, whose representatives I met last week, looked at the effect of salbutamol inhalers on children, for instance, it found that they would not cause serious harm if accidentally given to a child without asthma or one whose sudden breathing difficulties were not caused by asthma.

Although overuse of salbutamol inhalers can sometimes cause problems, the petition seeks to keep them in kitchens only for emergency use, and their stocks could be easily monitored. We have a precedent for this already. Since 2014, an amendment to the human medicines legislation has allowed schools to store emergency inhalers for asthmatic students.

Asthma is not an uncommon condition, and working in the food industry should not be impossible for people with asthma. Keeping asthma inhalers in commercial kitchens would be a simple, inexpensive way of reducing the chance that anyone else will suffer the same experience as Lauren. I am therefore asking my hon. Friend the Minister whether the Government will commission research on the benefits and risks of requiring salbutamol inhalers to be kept in professional kitchens. That research could then be reviewed by the MHRA, which would make its own recommendation on whether to change the law. I know that that is a long process and today’s debate will not cause any immediate change, but I do hope that it raises awareness and is the first step towards creating Lauren’s law.