Banishing the airborne killer in homes and workplaces

Blueair issued a call for greater public awareness about the causes and alleviation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) on Wednesday.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) ranks COPD as one of the leading causes of death in the world and the second biggest killer in India, taking the lives of around 5, 00,000 men, women and children every year.

Speaking on the World COPD Day on Wednesday, Vijay Kannan, Head of Blueair India said, “It is staggering that a technologically advanced society like India, which can successfully put rockets into space, does not invest more into protecting the health of its citizens from CODP, which is preventable.

“Humans on average take 960 breaths every hour and while most of us don’t think much about it, this means we are breathing in 10,000 liters of air and all the nasty stuff in it. Even worse, such pollution affects children more than adults because their young lungs are still developing,” he added.

Participating in the awareness event, Dr PM Bhujang, President, Association of Hospital said, “The metropolitan cities are highly affected with outdoor pollution and one hardly realises how harmful inhaling this polluted air could be. The primary cause of COPD is tobacco smoke as well as air pollution, dust and chemicals in the workplace or at home.”

Blueair urged people to take greater individual responsibility for the indoor air they breathe. “There is not much we can do as individuals about the air pollution in our cities. But we can take simple steps to alleviate the potential consequences of indoor airborne pollution, such as COPD by simply installing an air purifier, which can capture up to 99.97 per cent of airborne particles, such as smoke, dust, chemicals and fumes,” said Kannan.