Stockholm, November, 18, 2015 –– Blueair, a world leader in health enhancing mobile indoor air purification technologies, today issued a call for greater public awareness about the causes and alleviation of chronic obstruction pulmonary disease (COPD), which kills over 3 million people every year. WHO says 600 million people worldwide today have COPD, which will become the third leading cause of death by 2030 after heart disease and cerebrovascular disease.
“Known also as emphysema or chronic bronchitis, COPD is a preventable disease of the lungs caused by exposure to tobacco smoke as well as dust and airborne chemicals,” said Bengt Rittri, founder and CEO of Blueair, a Swedish company that sells life-transforming indoor air purifiers in 64 countries globally.
Mr. Rittri said there is an urgent need for the public to be made more aware that COPD is a global epidemic caused by many more factors than smoking cigarettes. He noted that while COPD is not curable, WHO says it is preventable by reducing exposure to indoor air pollution such as dust, smoke, fumes, air freshener sprays, and household cleaning products.
“Humans on average take around 960 breaths an hour, which means we breathe in something like10,000 liters of air – and all the nasty stuff in it – each day,” Mr. Rittri said. “Even worse, airborne pollution impacts children more than adults because their young lungs are still developing.”
Speaking at Blueair’s Stockholm head office, Mr. Rittri urged people to take greater individual responsibility for the indoor air they and those around them 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, like those made by Blueair, which can capture up to 99.97% of airborne particles such as smoke, dust, chemicals and fumes,” Mr. Rittri said.
BACKGROUND
– It is now recognized that 10-20% of COPD patients have never smoked! Furthermore, only a fraction of smokers develop COPD, suggesting that both genetic and environmental factors influence the risk of developing COPD.
– COPD death rates for women have risen steadily. Today, more women than men die from COPD each year.
– Approximately 12 million adults in the U.S. are diagnosed with COPD, and 120,000 die from it each year. An additional 12 million adults in the U.S. are thought to have undiagnosed COPD.
– WHO says mortality due to COPD in the Southeast Asia region is expected to grow by 160% to 2020, totaling more than the combined numbers of deaths due to malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
– In India, approximately 30 million people are estimated to have COPD and half a million die every year from it, according to medindia.com.
– In China, WHO says chronic respiratory diseases are the second leading cause of death
– In Europe 4-10% of adults have COPD.
– Total COPD related expenses for outpatient care (= not in hospital) in the EU is approximately € 4,7 billion per year
(sources: various, including U.S. National, Heart, Lung & Blood Institute:http://report.nih.gov/nihfactsheets/ViewFactSheet.aspx?csid=77)
Sold in some 64 countries around the world, Blueair delivers home and office users more clean indoor air for enhanced user health and wellbeing faster than any competing air purifier thanks to its commitment to quality, energy efficiency and environmental care. A Blueair air purifier works efficiently, silently to remove 99.97% of allergens, asthma triggers, viruses, bacteria and other airborne pollutants.