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News Brief

Nov. 11, 2019 |  By: Jim Faris

November is COPD awareness month

November is COPD awareness month. The City of Saint Joseph's Health Department
Public Information Officer with the Health Department, Stephanie Malita, says that COPD is a variety of diseases.

"COPD is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.  It's kind of an umbrella term used to describe progressive lung diseases including emphysema, chronic bronchitis, non-reversible asthma, characterized by increasing breathlessness.  And it's progressive so it gets worse.  At this point in time, it's incurable, but with the right diagnosis and treatment, there are many things a person can do to manage COPD and breathe better."

Malita says that smoking causes COPD, and that vaping may as well.

"In terms of vaping and COPD, I mean vaping is too new; there's so much unknown about vaping.  I am not a medical professional but using common sense I believe that anything you put in your lungs has the potential to do damage.  Smoking is obviously the number one cause of COPD.  That being said, smoking has been studied for decades and the affects of smoking on the human body have been studied for decades."

For more information on COPD, visit the Saint Joseph Health Department on Facebook.