Recent news coverage raises concerns on the part of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) of these two long-acting medicines.
Both are taken twice a day, and both are bronchodilators which work by relaxing your breathing tubes and allowing them to open up.
If you are supposed to use these daily for emphysema, that's perfectly safe to do.
The safety issue on these medicines is around asthma. Asthma involves unusual sensitivity of your lungs to allergens or irritants and needs to be treated with inhaled steroids (such as Advair, Flovent, Beclovent, AzmaCort, etc.) which prevent sensitivity reactions from occurring.
The problem, then, is that if you just use the bronchodilators without the steroids (treatment without prevention), inflammation in your lungs can progressively worsen and cause potentially fatal asthma flare-ups. Using bronchodilators alone is a bit like hiding the smoke without putting out the fire.
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