Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis, and alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency-related (ATT) emphysema - diseases that are characterized by obstruction to air flow.
Chronic bronchitis and emphysema are largely smokers' ailments and they are often present together.1
A smoker is ten times more likely than a nonsmoker to die of COPD.1
80 to 90% of emphysema cases are caused by smoking.2
Nearly 16 million Americas suffer from COPD, the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S.
Emphysema causes irreversible lung damage. The walls between the air sacs within the lungs lose their ability to stretch and recoil. They become weakened and break. Elasticity of the lung tissue is lost, causing air to be trapped in the air sacs, impairing the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide.2
1 Lung Disease Data 1997, American Lung Association.
2 Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, American Lung Association Fact Sheet, August 1997. |
