Emphysema causes almost as many deaths as lung cancer
Jump to full article: MSNBC, 2002-08-01
Author: Robert Bazell / NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT
Intro: Aug. 1 — The rate of emphysema is growing rapidly in the United States, especially among women, report federal health officials. And for the first time, women have edged past men in deaths from the debilitating lung condition.
LAVERTA ODEGAARD started smoking at 17, continued for 40 years and now she can walk only when breathing with an oxygen tank.
“It’s the most depressing thing, it’s confining, it’s embarrassing, it hurts. It’s not the way I wanted to spend my golden senior years,” Odegaard said.
Odegaard has emphysema and severe bronchitis — conditions that often go together. The figures released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal a massive public health problem caused by smoking.
Ten million Americans have been diagnosed with the lung disease and another 14 million have it but don’t know it yet.
The death rate is increasing dramatically — especially among women — because so many took up smoking after the 1940s.
In 1980, emphysema killed 16,000 women and 37,000 men. In 2000, it killed 60,000 women and 59,000 men.
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