Causes of Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a very common problem that consists of chronic bronchitis and emphysema. It is common knowledge that COPD may be caused by cigarette smoking. In fact up to 90% or more of the COPD cases may be caused by smoking and it is the most common cause. However, there are many other etiologies for this disease that need to be considered. These include occupational exposure, air pollution, genetics, or autoimmune processes.

Occupation exposure is a known cause for COPD. People that work in coal mines, gold mines, textile factories, welding jobs, or jobs that involve working with cadmium or silicone are examples occupations that often lead to COPD. As an example of how real this is, you can see commercials by lawyers that promise big rewards for suing companies that exposed their workers to these chemicals without proper protection. This also leads to the point that certain occupation exposures can lead to other health problems as well (such as cancers or silicosis). However, keep in mind that this is still not as major a risk factor as cigarette smoking.

Air pollution is another cause of COPD. This is more of an issue in larger cities where there are a lot more automobile traffic producing the harmful gasses that can cause COPD. Besides outdoor air pollution, indoor air pollution can also occur (for example from not have having ventilated living areas and being exposed to chemicals or toxins from burning fuel inside a home).

Genetics (what you get from your parents) is another possible cause for COPD. Some people are more prone to get COPD than others. This explains why some people can smoke all their life and still not get lung cancer or COPD (because they have genes that allow them to repair damage caused by cigarette smoke).

An autoimmune process is another etiology to consider when thinking about causes of chronic obstructive lung disease. It has been observed that there are inflammatory processes (caused by the body's own immune cells) going on in the lungs of COPD patients. This is a process that is independent of smoking but may be triggered by smoking and then continue on its own (even after the person stops to smoke).

In conclusion, we must realize that smoking is the most common cause of COPD or chronic obstructive lung disease but we should also be aware of other causes of this debilitating disorder.