Although you don't smoke, COPD or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease also known as Smoker's Cough may kill you in the end. Caused by smoking cigarettes, it is easily preventable and though people consider it a smoker's disease there is always the hidden threat of you contracting it because of someone else's habit.
The report of a study in today's edition of the Lancet medical journal reveals that it is more common than has been thought so far. The disease which is the fifth leading cause of death in wealthier countries is caused because of poor ventilation, tuberculosis and allergies.
Over 2.5 million people die of the disease annually. According to the World Health Organization, that works out to the same number of people dying from HIV/AIDS each year. The World Health Organization believes that by 2020 it will rise in ranks to become the third biggest killer mainly because of continued smoking habits and aging populations.
The report says that a shift in the mindset of people with regard to the disease could help save more lives, but ``If every smoker in the world were to stop smoking today, the rates of COPD would probably continue to increase for the next 20 years,'' according to Sonia Buist, a medical professor at Portland's Oregon Health & Science University. Buist and colleague David M. Mannino, co authors in the journal.
In China, too, a study of 15,379 non-smokers, mostly women, led by K.K. Cheung in tandem with a study by Peymane Adab of Britain's Birmingham University found that people who had never smoked were 48 percent more likely to suffer chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) if exposed to heavy tobacco smoke.
This worked out to as much as 40 hours of exposure every week for over five years, at the workplace or in one's home where others smoked.
Countries are taking affirmative action to discourage smoking. Beijing, for example, announced its intention to ban the advertising of tobacco by the beginning of 2011, which is the latest possible date slated under the World Health Organization's treaty on tobacco control.
Smoking on public transport has also been banned, and the government has declared its intentions of making the Olympic Games to be held in Beijing next year "smoke free".
But Cheung suggested that much more needs to be done. Arguing for the rights of non smokers, he feels indoor public places should also be non smoking venues.
Cape Town, South Africa had the dubious distinction of having the highest rates of COPD, (22.2 percent for men and 16.7 percent for women. )
The lowest incidence of COPD was in Hanover, Germany- 8.6 and 3.7 percent respectively.
A separate study reported in the same issue of the Lancet found that poor lung function soon after birth has been linked to poor lung function in early adulthood.
The scientists theorized that a more advanced understanding of lung development in the fetal stage could help prevent COPD later on in life.
Chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, Dame Helena Shovelton, said, "There are people with COPD who have never smoked and this research shows that deprivation, dust exposure and lung development in the womb play a vital role in causing the disease. The research also highlights how much more work is needed to improve our understanding of how environmental, socioeconomic and other factors can cause COPD."
