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• Chronic Lung Obstruction Now a Woman's Disease 

The death rate from chronic lung obstruction has tripled among American women in the last two decades, according to a new government report that also shows the disease in general is vastly under-diagnosed.

As many as 24 million Americans suffer symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), mostly due to smoking, the report says. But 14 million of them aren't properly diagnosed with these health problems, which include chronic bronchitis and emphysema, it adds.

Not only is the prevalence of COPD about 2.4 times higher than physicians formally determine, but women are now more likely than men to die from the disorder, according to the new figures.

"COPD is now a woman's disease," says Dr. David Mannino, a lung expert at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and lead author of the surveillance report. Mannino blames the "alarming" increase on the rise in smoking among women after World War II. . .

The rate of death from the disease among women tripled between 1980 and 2000, from 20 per 100,000 to 57 per 100,000. It rose much more modestly among men, from 73 to 82 per 100,000, during that period.

But in the year 2000, government officials say, there were 59,936 female deaths from COPD in 2000 vs. 59,118 male deaths.

Smoking is believed to account for 80 to 85 percent of COPD cases in the United States . . .

Hurd's group wants doctors to take a more active role in screening their patients, particularly smokers, for evidence of lung impairment. That includes using a device called a spriometer that measures airway function, and not simply relying on self-reported complaints.

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