Peter Gzowski

"I have what the health care system, bless its heart, calls COPD, for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, but which everyone knows really means emphysema, just as acne really means boils and pimples."

- Peter Gzowski, "How to Quit Smoking in Fifty Years or Less," in Addicted: Notes from the Belly of the Beast

COPD is an often-fatal lung disease and a leading cause of death and hospitalization in Canada.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a progressive and irreversible blocking of the airway, which is usually caused by emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Emphysema occurs when the tiny air sacs in the lungs weaken and break, stiffening the lung tissue and causing the airways to collapse.

Chronic bronchitis causes excess mucus to form in the airways, leading to bacterial infection in the lungs, which blocks the airways.

The symptoms of COPD – shortness of breath and coughing – emerge over time, usually after age 55. As breathing becomes more difficult, people with COPD find physical activity more and more tiring.

In the vast majority of cases, smoking is the cause of COPD, but chemical fumes and dust from coal and gold mines can also cause the disease. Air pollution has been shown to increase the severity of COPD symptoms.

While traditionally most people with COPD have been men, Health Canada says the increase in the number of women smokers will mean that more women than men will die of COPD by 2004.

According to the Canadian Lung Association, as of 2004, more than 750,000 Canadians lived with COPD.

South of the border, COPD is ranked the fourth leading cause of death, accounting for 118,000 deaths in 2003.

COPD is projected to be the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2020.