Healthy lungs mean that a person can breathe easily and carry out daily activities without difficulty. In unhealthy lungs with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), the air passages are blocked, narrowed or inflamed, air sacs are damaged and breathing becomes increasingly difficult.

How does smoking cause COPD?

• Toxins and tar in tobacco smoke cause narrowing, irritation and inflammation of the delicate airways of the lungs. Tobacco smoke toxins also damage the hair-like cilia that clean out mucus and particles from the airways.

• Lung damage starts with severe chesty coughing, also known as a smoker’s cough.

• This can develop into COPD: chronic bronchitis and then emphysema.

• Bronchitis is the inflammation and infection of the airways and the production of excess phlegm.

• Emphysema develops after years of repeated imitation and infection of the lungs. The airways become blocked and the air sacs (alveoli) which absorb oxygen from the air eventually break down.

• With fewer air sacs a person has difficulty absorbing enough oxygen and becomes very breathless.

Key facts

• Smoking is the main cause of COPD.

• COPD includes bronchitis and emphysema. Most people with COPD have both

• COPD damage to the lungs cannot be reversed.

• Symptoms start in middle age and gradually get worse.

• About 90% of all deaths from COPD are due to smoking.

• Around 25,000 people die in the UK every year from COPD

• Heavy smokers are 30 times more likely to develop COPD.

• Around 900,000 people are diagnosed with COPD in the UK.

• Stopping smoking will reverse a smoker’s cough. Cilia can recover and start to clean out the mucus and smoke particles from the lungs.

• If the smoker has COPD, it is better to stop smoking sooner rather than later. This will stop the disease from progressing even faster.

• There is no cure for COPD, but there are treatments to ease the symptoms and improve quality of life.