PSA

Running head: COPD 1

COPD 4

Team Project Part 1: COPD

Environmental Health

Introduction/ Disease Background

90% of people breathe in polluted air just by being in outside areas and indoors. Air pollution is a mix of particles and gases that can cause a bad atmosphere for humans and other living beings. Air pollution has been a problem since the 1940s is from when it was discovered. It still is a problem nowadays but with technology we learned to watch it more. Air pollution can be anywhere just coming with taking care of your body by making sure you clear all things in your body. Breathing harmful air can cause many difficulties in your life and some do not cause major issues with your body.

Air pollution leads people to hurt deep into the lungs and cardiovascular system. Can cause diseases including stroke, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. These diseases can cause something deeper like feature to individuals, animals, and more. Strokes can lead to things such as brain damage or death. When the blood supply to the brain is cut off it causes your body to react to a way that it shuts down. In this article I read it applied that “Lung cancer is the uncontrolled division of cells within the lungs, and it is associated with air pollutants, especially particulate matter pollution, and secondhand smoke.” Lungs are a sensitive part of your body and with air pollution it can go right through the airway.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, refers to a group of diseases that cause airflow blockage and breathing-related problems. It includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. According to CDC, “COPD makes breathing difficult for the 16 million Americans who have this disease”. Millions more people suffer from COPD but have not been diagnosed and are not being treated. COPD is a major cause of disability, and it is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. COPD develops slowly. Symptoms often worsen over time and can limit your ability to do routine activities. Although there is no cure for COPD, it can be treated.

Environmental impact on Disease

The environment has huge impacts on COPD, there are many environmental factors that make things so much worse for those that suffer from COPD. These factors can be from indoors and outdoors. Some of these factors include but are not limited to, pesticides, wood burning stoves, sulfur dioxide from cars and even dust! “People with COPD are more vulnerable to the effects of air pollution, at a lower level than people without COPD. Exposure to air pollution has been linked to increases in COPD-related emergency department visits and hospitalizations.” (COPD and the Environment). Some COPD patients participated in a survey in 2015 to find out what some environmental factors are or COPD. “More than half of the COPD patients surveyed reported that certain common dusty activities (sweeping, vacuuming, dusting), and exposures to cigarette smoke, wood smoke, vehicle exhaust, cleaning products, perfumes and other scented products (scented candles, insect spray, hair products) adversely affected their breathing.” (Holt et al., Environmental triggers of COPD symptoms: a cross sectional survey 1970).

Symptoms of Disease

COPD is a chronic lung disease that includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or both. Emphysema is a disease that damages the air sacs and may damage the small airways in the lungs. This significantly reduces your ability to release the normal amount of air from the lungs, which causes shortness of breath and prevents the lungs from delivering oxygen into the blood. Chronic bronchitis involves increased cough and mucus production caused by inflammation of the airways. Moreover, COPD affects the lungs and causes reduced airflow, which makes it hard to breathe. It is also progressive, which means it worsens over time. Each person is different, but with treatment, symptoms may improve. The other symptoms of COPD include: wheezing, shortness of breath, fatigue most/all the time, chest tightness, swollen limbs of the body, losing weight without trying to purposely do it, having a hard time clearing your throat, and a really gruesome cough. These symptoms can lead to many things and can affect someone in the long run especially with a long period of exposure. COPD does not have many symptoms, but these symptoms may lead to things that you do not want to get due to no cure.

Exposure Preventions

Nearly all incidents of progressive COPD are preventable. Thus, the following prevention measures can reduce an individual's or community’s risk of developing COPD.

The leading cause of COPD is smoking although a quarter of all those infected has never smoked. Quitting smoking for those that have already started and never smoking for those that have no is the single most vital step to take to lessen the possibility of developing COPD. Apart from quitting smoking, an individual can try to limit their exposure to secondhand smoke and environmental smoke from charcoal and burning wood. Furthermore, individuals need to become aware of environmental pollutants such as dust and fumes and therefore reduce their exposure mainly when air quality is poor. The community can ensure that hospitals, offices, and schools are not located in areas where the level of car exhaust pollution as it can affect the most vulnerable individuals within the community (Miravitlles et al, 2017).

Respiratory infections result in bronchial and lung scarring that leads to the development of COPD. It is therefore paramount that whenever possible for individuals to avoid close contact with people diagnosed with contagious respiratory infections. A pneumonia vaccine is recommended for people at a high risk of contracting pneumonia or those above 60 years. For individuals with a family history of COPD, they are recommended to have a blood test that measures their alpha-1-antitrypsin levels. The test evaluates if they have a genetic defect that predisposes them to the disease (Halpin et al, 2017).

Despite COPD being preventable, there is no cure since once the lungs are damaged, treatment efforts majorly focus on preventing additional damage to the lungs. Nonetheless, several lifestyle changes and treatment regiments can assist an individual with feeling healthy and slowing down the disease’s progress. The overall objective of a COPD treatment includes relieving the patient’s symptoms, inhibiting and treating complications, and improving the general wellbeing of an individual (Simeone et al, 2017).

The lifestyle that an individual can implement involves quitting smoking and avoiding lung irritants. They can also avoid places with dust, fumes, and other toxic substances that the can inhale. There are various medications available for individuals with COPD. For patients with mild COPD, doctors prescribe a bronchodilator to aid them in breathing by relaxing muscles around their airways. For patients with severe COPD, doctors prescribe a combination of a bronchodilator and inhaled steroids to relieve breathing complications and reduce airway inflammation (Inoue et al, 2016).

Conclusions

In analysis, to COPD we have gathered that COPD can be one of the most vital air pollutions there is depending on how much you are exposed to it. There are many things that can happen to you physically, and even mentally because COPD is strong and has an effect to where the symptoms can affect both. One of the biggest effects are the environmental factors, which is how most people receive COPD, because it is air pollution that can cause many things. Yet, it is hard to get rid of due to there not being a cure. The longer the exposure this air pollution COPD has on you the longer it will be there, and the symptoms will worsen and weaken the body. COPD influences people that is not a good one, but it is best to stay clean and protect yourself from any possibility of getting COPD or any other type of air pollutant.

References

COPD and the Environment. (n.d.). Retrieved October 08, 2020, from https://www.tn.gov/health/cedep/environmental/data/healthdata/chronic-obstructive-pulmonary-disease/copd-and-the-environment.html

Diseases Caused By Air Pollution - Risk Factors and Control Methods. (2018, February 09). Retrieved October 08, 2020, from https://cleanair.camfil.us/2018/02/09/diseases-caused-by-air-pollution-risk-factors-and-control-methods/

Halpin, D. M., Miravitlles, M., Metzdorf, N., & Celli, B. (2017). Impact and prevention of severe exacerbations of COPD: a review of the evidence. International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 12, 2891.

Holt, P., IB. Tager, L., J. Sunyer, X., JM. Anto, P., Becklake, M., PD. Blanc, M., . . . J. Bourbeau, M. (1970, January 01). Environmental triggers of COPD symptoms: A cross sectional survey. Retrieved October 08, 2020, from https://copdrp.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40749-015-0016-8

Inoue, D., Watanabe, R., & Okazaki, R. (2016). COPD and osteoporosis: links, risks, and treatment challenges. International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 11, 637.

Joshi, A. (2020, February 24). 5 Ways Technology Can Help Tackle Air Pollution. Retrieved October 08, 2020, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/346710

Miravitlles, M., Anzueto, A., & Jardim, J. R. (2017). Optimizing bronchodilation in the prevention of COPD exacerbations. Respiratory Research, 18(1), 125.

Simeone, J. C., Luthra, R., Kaila, S., Pan, X., Bhagnani, T. D., Liu, J., & Wilcox, T. K. (2017). Initiation of triple therapy maintenance treatment among patients with COPD in the US. International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 12, 73.