Quitting smoking would help prevent Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (COPD), and early diagnosis and treatment would minimise the bad effects, said M. Palaniappan, Senior Consultant Pulmonologist, here on Monday.
World COPD Day is observed on November 19 to raise an awareness of the disease which has been identified by the World Health Organisation as the fourth leading cause of deaths.
“In India, 30 million people are affected by the disease and half a million die every year. COPD progressively obstructs airways and slows air flow in lungs,” Dr. Palaniappan said.
“Around 20 to 50 per cent of people do not even realise that they have COPD because they ignore the symptoms or attribute them to old age. The symptoms include chronic cough, breathlessness during physical activities and sputum in the colour of dark yellow or green,” he said.
While cigarette smoking, exposure to dust and hazardous chemicals at workplace and smoke from biomass fuels were the chief causes for COPD, ‘third-hand smoke’ was becoming increasingly dangerous, he said.
“Third-hand smoke is residual nicotine and other cancer-causing chemicals from tobacco smoke that clings to any surface and endangers people long after a person has smoked,” he added.
