Almost 100 million adults have COPD in China

[Webdog]

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180409185331.htm

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is widespread in China with 8.6 percent of the country's adult population -- almost 100 million people -- suffering from the chronic lung disease, according to a new study.

The study calls for new national public health strategies to prevent COPD that include smoking cessation programs, stricter control of ambient air pollution and biomass use, and COPD screenings for high-risk individuals using pulmonary function tests.

 

[Melanie]

That is A LOT! They have a bad pollution problem in China. I remember when the Olympics was there they began decreasing the number of cars on the road, I guess by asking they carpool, for several years ahead of time. It did help.

 

[Mattie]

It's not too great here either,

From the WHO site:

Between 100 and 150 million people around the globe -- roughly the equivalent of the population of the Russian Federation -- suffer from asthma and this number is rising. World-wide, deaths from this condition have reached over 180,000 annually.

In Germany, there are an estimated 4 million asthmatics.
In Western Europe as a whole, asthma has doubled in ten years, according to the UCB Institute of Allergy in Belgium.
In the United States, the number of asthmatics has leapt by over 60% since the early 1980s and deaths have doubled to 5,000 a year.
There are about 3 million asthmatics in Japan of whom 7% have severe and 30% have moderate asthma.
In Australia, one child in six under the age of 16 is affected.
Around 8% of the Swiss population suffers from asthma as against only 2% some 25-30 years ago.