General Facts About Emphysema

Here is an informative, but very general, slide show about lung disease, aimed specifically at the occupational risks endured by British coal miners, but there are a few references to emphysema here as well.

Apparently even non-smokers will develop emphysema eventually, just from exposure to germs, air pollution, and the degradation of age, perhaps reaching disability level around age 130 - 150, or so (if other things didn't put us in our grave first).

For example, an FEV1 reading of 0.8 liters is about 20% of the healthy 25-year-old reading of about 4 liters (slide 3). According to slide 4, a 20% reading is approximately halfway between the level of disability (about 30%), and death (about 8%). Judging from the curves, with such a reading, a person might be expected to have about three years left to live.