. Asthma treatment. Father helping his young (21-month-old) son to use a nebulizer. The nebulizer delivers fine droplets of a drug into the face mask for inhalation. The drug being used here is salbutamol, which is a bronchodilator (relaxes constricted air passages in the lungs). An electric or hand-operated pump sends a stream of air or oxygen across a chamber containing the drug, dispersing it into a mist. This is part of the boy's daily treatment, but nebulizers are also used in emergencies to treat severe acute asthma attacks. MODEL RELEASED