Chronic Conditions · Asthma & COPD
Breathing room, planned in advance.
A respiratory condition has two exposures a disruption can worsen at once: running short of inhalers or losing power to a nebulizer or oxygen unit, and the air itself turning against you in a smoke or dust event. Both are things you can prepare for on a calm day.
Planning guidance, not medical advice. Your pulmonologist, physician, and pharmacist provide the clinical guidance for your condition. This guide prepares the systems that support it.
Planning guidance, not medical advice. This page does not tell you how to manage asthma or COPD. It does not cover when to use an inhaler, how to respond to a flare, or anything about your treatment. Those decisions stay with your pulmonologist, physician, and pharmacist, and with the written action plan they give you. What this page does is help you keep the supplies, equipment, and clean air your care depends on from being interrupted by a disruption.
What this guide covers
Three things to prepare when breathing is the thing at stake.
A respiratory condition depends on a small number of things going right: the medication is there when you reach for it, the equipment that delivers it has power, and the air around you is clean enough to breathe. A disruption can threaten all three, and the first sign is often the worst possible moment to notice.
Research on people with chronic conditions consistently finds that interruptions in medications and equipment worsen outcomes, and that advance planning largely prevents it.1 This guide walks through the three areas that matter most for asthma and COPD: your inhaler supply and its storage, backup power for nebulizers and oxygen, and how to protect your breathing when the air quality turns bad.
What this guide does not cover
When or how to use any inhaler or medication, which belongs with your care team and your action plan
How to recognize or respond to a flare, attack, or breathing emergency
Whether or when to change anything about your treatment, which is your prescriber's decision alone
Setting up a clean room in full detail, covered in Indoor Air Quality During Outages
Why a respiratory condition needs its own plan
The supply and equipment exposure
Inhalers run out. Nebulizers and oxygen concentrators need power. A disruption that closes the pharmacy or cuts the electricity reaches straight into your daily breathing, and there is no improvising a substitute.
The air-quality exposure
Wildfire smoke, dust storms, and the particles stirred up by many disasters are far more dangerous for asthma and COPD than for the general public. The fine particles in smoke travel deep into the lungs. This is an exposure most households never plan for, and one you can.
Each of the three sections below closes one of these gaps. None requires medical training. All of it is best done now, before anything goes wrong.
Inhaler supply and storage
Never down to your last inhaler.
Two things matter here: having enough, and storing it so it works when you reach for it. An inhaler is a pressurized device with real storage limits, which matters most in a hot car or an evacuation bag.
Keep a buffer of every inhaler you use
Plan a buffer for both kinds of inhaler you may carry: the rescue inhaler you reach for in the moment, and any daily controller inhaler that keeps your baseline steady. Running out of either during a disruption is the situation to design against.
Watch the dose counter on each inhaler. The correct dose is not assured once the counter reaches zero, even if the canister still sprays, so an inhaler nearing zero is already a refill, not a spare. Use the oldest inhaler first and refill early so a fresh one is always waiting.
How large a buffer your prescription can support is a conversation for your prescriber and pharmacist. The general framework for building and rotating a medication supply, including your state's emergency refill rules, is in the guide below.
Store it like the pressurized device it is
A metered-dose inhaler is a sealed canister under pressure, and its labeling is specific: store it at room temperature, generally between 68 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit, and avoid extreme heat and cold. Some inhalers are labeled for a slightly wider range, so check yours.2
The pressurized canister carries a real caution. Exposure to temperatures above 120 degrees Fahrenheit may cause it to burst, so it must not be punctured, stored near heat or flame, left in a hot car, or thrown into a fire.2 A parked car in summer sun can far exceed that limit.
For anyone assembling an evacuation bag, this is the practical rule: the inhaler travels with you in a climate-controlled space, never in a hot trunk or glovebox. Keep a backup at home so you are never tempted to leave one in the car.
The records that travel with your inhalers
Your action plan is a preparedness document
Your written action plan
The asthma or COPD action plan your provider gives you is exactly the document you want on hand in a disruption. Keep a copy with your emergency records, not only on the refrigerator.
A current medication list
Every inhaler and medication with its dose and schedule, kept current, so any clinician you reach can pick up where your regular team left off.
Kept with your medical profile
All of it in one place that travels with you.
Build your medical profilePowered breathing equipment
If your breathing plugs into the wall, an outage is a medical event.
A nebulizer and an oxygen concentrator are both electrical devices. For anyone who depends on them, a power outage is not an inconvenience. It is an interruption in breathing support, and it needs a plan made in advance rather than improvised in the dark.
The planning has two parts: a way to keep the equipment running, and, for oxygen users, a set of safety rules that matter every day and even more during a disruption. The device-and-power framework below covers the backup power side in full.
Backup power for a nebulizer
Options range from a battery-powered nebulizer to a portable power station that can run your existing unit. Deciding which fits your household, and sizing it, is worth doing before an outage rather than during one. The Energy section covers portable power for medical equipment.
If you use home oxygen, plan for power and fire
An oxygen concentrator stops when the power does, so keep a backup oxygen cylinder, know how to switch to it, and keep your supplier's emergency number where you can find it. Tell your electric utility that you have life-sustaining equipment so your address can be prioritized during an outage.3
Oxygen also demands respect for fire. Oxygen itself does not burn, but it makes other materials ignite far more easily and burn faster. Keep it well away from open flame, heat, and sparks, never smoke near it, and keep tanks upright, secured, and out of closets or other tight spaces.3
Air quality and the clean room
When the air turns bad, you protect one room.
Wildfire smoke and dust events fill the air with fine particles that reach deep into the lungs, and asthma and COPD put you in the group most affected. The strategy public health agencies recommend is simple: watch the air, and keep one room as clean as you can.
Watch the air, and act earlier than most
The Air Quality Index has a level called Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups, and for a respiratory condition that level is your signal to act, well before the air is bad enough to trouble the general public.4
Follow the AirNow Fire and Smoke Map or your state's air quality site during a smoke or dust event. Knowing the air is turning before you feel it lets you close up the house and move to your clean room while it is still easy, rather than after breathing has already become difficult.
If you have an asthma action plan, this is when to have it in front of you and to follow your provider's guidance for poor-air days.
Set up a clean room before you need it
A clean room keeps smoke particles as low as possible in one space. Keep its doors and windows closed, avoid indoor activities that create particles such as frying or burning candles, and run a portable air cleaner with a HEPA filter sized to the room.4
If your home has central air, a high-efficiency filter rated MERV 13 or higher, where your system can safely use one, helps clean the air throughout. If commercial air cleaners are sold out or unaffordable, a do-it-yourself box-fan filter is a recognized temporary fallback, though it is not a permanent substitute and needs care to avoid overheating the fan.4
Choose the room you can also keep cool, since smoke events often arrive with heat. The full clean-room setup is its own guide.
If you must go out
In heavy smoke, an N95 respirator that fits well gives real protection. A cloth or surgical mask does not filter the fine particles in wildfire smoke, so it is not a substitute. Keep a small supply of N95 respirators with your emergency kit, and keep effort low while the air is bad, since exertion means breathing more of it in.4
Know your exit
Conditions can change quickly. If too much smoke gets into your home, the power fails, or you cannot keep cool, the plan is to relocate to somewhere with cleaner air. Many communities open cleaner-air and cooling shelters during these events. Know where you would go, and follow local alerts. A nearby wildfire risk is worth understanding before a season begins.
Common questions
Planning questions, answered plainly.
How many inhalers should I keep on hand?
The goal is never to be down to your last one when a disruption hits. Work with your prescriber and pharmacy toward a buffer that covers both your rescue and controller inhalers, watch the dose counter, and refill early rather than waiting for empty. The specific supply that is right and possible for you is a decision for your prescriber and pharmacist.
Can I keep my inhaler in my car or emergency kit?
Not in a hot car. An inhaler is a pressurized canister, and its labeling warns it may burst above 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Store it at room temperature, generally between 68 and 77 degrees, away from heat and freezing.2 A parked car in the sun far exceeds that. Keep a backup at home so you are never tempted to leave one in the car.
What should I do about air quality during a wildfire smoke event?
Watch the AirNow Fire and Smoke Map and act earlier than the general public, because asthma and COPD place you in a sensitive group. Set up a clean room with a HEPA air cleaner and closed windows, wear an N95 rather than a cloth mask if you must go out, keep your action plan handy, and be ready to relocate to a cleaner-air or cooling shelter.4
My nebulizer or oxygen needs power. What if it goes out?
Plan backup power before an outage. For a nebulizer, a battery model or power station. If you use an oxygen concentrator, keep a backup cylinder, know how to switch to it, keep your supplier's emergency number handy, and tell your electric utility you have life-sustaining equipment so your address can be prioritized.3
What should I keep with my records?
Your written asthma or COPD action plan from your provider, a current medication list, and medical identification, all together with your household medical profile so they travel with you if you are evacuated or cannot speak for yourself.
Sources
1 Rao et al. "Emergency and disaster preparedness for chronically ill patients: a systematic review." Risk Management and Healthcare Policy / PMC 4753992, 2016.
2 U.S. Food and Drug Administration prescribing information for albuterol sulfate inhalation aerosol (storage and pressurized-canister handling), via DailyMed. Accessed September 4, 2026.
3 American Lung Association, "Using Oxygen Safely" (lung.org), with home-oxygen power and fire guidance corroborated by fire-service and hospital home-care sources. Accessed September 4, 2026.
4 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Create a Clean Room to Protect Indoor Air Quality During a Wildfire," and AirNow.gov, "When Smoke Is in the Air." Accessed September 4, 2026.
Who to contact
The conversations to have now
Your pulmonologist or prescribing physician
For a written asthma or COPD action plan and, if they agree, advance emergency-refill authorization on your file.
Your pharmacist
For how large an inhaler buffer your prescription supports, storage questions, and emergency dispensing under your state's law.
Your oxygen or equipment supplier
For backup cylinders, battery options, and their emergency line, if you use oxygen or a nebulizer.
Your electric utility
To register life-sustaining equipment so your address is prioritized in an outage.
AirNow and your local emergency office
AirNow.gov for real-time air quality, and your local office for cleaner-air and cooling shelter locations.
Related guides
Keep going.
These guides connect directly to respiratory planning. Read them alongside this one for the complete picture.
Prescription Preparedness
The full framework for a medication buffer, emergency dispensing laws, and the pharmacist conversation.
Medical Devices and Power
Backup power for a nebulizer, oxygen concentrator, or any powered medical device during an outage.
Indoor Air Quality During Outages
The full clean-room setup, air-cleaner sizing, and how to keep indoor air breathable during smoke events.
Emergency Medical Documents
Assembling the action plan, medication list, and records that travel with you in an emergency.
Heart and Blood Pressure
Many people manage a heart condition alongside COPD. Smoke and heat affect both, and the planning overlaps.
Household Medical Profile
The one document that holds your medications, devices, providers, and records in a form you can grab and go.
"Forewarned is forearmed."
Traditional proverb
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