Monday, July 11, 2005

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.

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