HI. In 1954 I was employed as an apprentice gas fitter with the Wales Gas Board. The job entailed daily exposure to lead; town gas (carbon monoxide); concrete and plaster dust; wood rot, from crawling under floors; fresh sawdust; and asbestos dust from cutting and filing asbestos sheets and flue piping. When I was diagnosed with COPD (2011), it was blamed on smoking which I had given up in 1985! IMHO the early industrial exposure lasting 14 years would have been a more influential element in the development of COPD. Has there been any research into similar industrial causes?
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micox
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I think exposure to other things can be a contributing factor to COPD. Pete gave up smoking in 1991 and was diagnosed with COPD some 14 years later. He worked for a cargo airline for 12 years and at a bus garage for 9 years. He was exposed to diesel fumes, dust and goodness knows what else so who knows. Xxxx
I worked among locomotive diesel fumes for years, i was told (in the 90s that diesel fumes weren't dangerous) and that my c.o.p.d.was through smoking, never mind all the ships i worked on with asbestos lagging.how dangerous is diesel fumes now?
Given the types of things you were exposed to almost daily for 14 years I would think it is a reasonable conclusion that it contributed to your COPD, if not being the main factor.
Hubby was diagnosed with asbestosis and COPD, the COPD was attributed to smoking however the asbestosis we can attribute to working lagging pipes at an electricity station when he was in his late teens.
I thought I had a head cold starting 9 years ago, 24hrs later I was struggling for breath, couldn't walk more than 6 feet without stopping. Locum doctor "didn't know what I had but it wasn't good" . When taking notes on my history, was asked if I worked with or near lead. I couldn't believe it, but I had worked in the office of a Paint manufacturing company. That was apparently the cause of my copd.
I saw an orthopaedic surgeon in 2010 about a degenerate lumbar
scoliosis. He noticed I was breathless in the walk to his office and put that in his report to my GP. GP thought I'd developed asthma but the tests diagnosed COPD. Lung X rays were clear. I was born 1938.
I worked in the bingo for many years before the smoking ban was introduced .. believe me some nights my eyes would stream with the smoke .. on the busy nights I couldn’t smoke at all it was so bad!.. x
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