Can anyone tell me is copd caused onl... - Lung Conditions C...
Can anyone tell me is copd caused only from smoking or can it be caused by other toxins.
According to the NHS some fumes and dust can cause it and also a small chance of a genetic problem.
thanks for this, I will look it up sometime
Hello Red,
I have COPD after working in the construction industry for 30 years-the dust got me long ago with no symptoms till its too late to do anything about it- my doctor showed me an X-Ray of my lungs and said see the black marks it is consistent with dust from 25 years ago !!!
Hi stan5, like you I see trade persons and labours every day working without ppe, if they can't wear something as simple as steel toe cap boots no way are they going to think to care about their lungs, but they are the first to complain about a"DUTY OF CARE if the management or safety reps don't react.
Now we have something incommon, I too have been in the construction industry for 30 years, but my GP said it (copd) is down to smoking,funny gave that up 17 years ago.
I am a Diamond Drilling manager still at work but mainly office bound nowadays-today I walked around to the shops and there was a balloonhead , fag hanging from lip , using a stihl saw with no water suppressant-dust / fumes everywhere in the high street in Chapelhall-I had to say something-when I told him that the concrete dust contains silica and once in your lungs reverts back to solid concrete-he told me to f***k off as he had a job to do - ignorance is bliss but for him it will eventually catch up with him and he will think its from all the smoking he has done-the job he is doing is killing him slowly.
In some areas where Mining was a big industry, there's a higher rate of COPD thanks to coal dust. Working with Asbestos, on a farm harvesting grain, cleaning jobs, painting and decorating (stripping old wallpaper, distemper and so on), foundry workers, plastic injection moulding, working with textiles - lots of irritants that could trigger COPD. Passive smoking too, like bar staff in a pub, before the ban. Smoke inhalation from fires, who knows what was burning...?
I hate to think of the many dangers I put myself into over the years. As a kid playing in an old brewery that had limed walls, as well as dust. Messing about on building sites with cement. I worked in a textile company for a while, with some odd things in the blends they made like human hair and goats hair. I went from there to engineering, handling items plated with cadmium. Then office work, computer printers and copiers generating paper and toner dust. I was exposed to trichloroethane quite often in the engineering company, which I even used at home for cleaning printing ink off the press I used.
Smoking is probably the biggest culprit, but I don't think anyone has exact figures.
I started as a painter & Decorater apprentice 3 days after leaving school 27 May 1980, from the very first day I was rubbing down old paint, which possibly had lead in. My Employer did not give me dustmasks, I guess he was old school, it happened I don't remember even being given masks while at college only if there was sparying to be done.
I started smoking when I was 13 stopped when I was 31, so doing the maths it is a close call as to which is the rock and which is the hard place
most GPs blame smoking rather than look into your history,it's easier for them.Ive suffered pneumonia,plurisy,TB,collapsed lung,numerous chest infections.Ive worked all my life in factories and as as cleaner.When I was 60 years old my GP decided to send me for tests etc.It was only then that I was diagnosed with Bronchiectasis & copd.(Alpha 1 D).My sons have all been tested and as far as I know they are clear.Though my brother and 2 of my nephews have it.My mother died from it.For the past 7 years I have and still am having the best care from my lung unit team at my local hospital.I will never again rely on my GP.
Most people see their GP as nothing more than a automobile engineer, my mother died age 38 because the doctor missed the early signs of liver cancer, so I beleive if you think you have a problem keep on asking questions, so far it has worked I don't like what i have found out but at least I know the future.
Occupations
HSE has looked at research and the following occupations are linked with a possible increased chance of getting COPD:
Agriculture
Brick making
Cadmium workers
Coal mining
Construction, building trades
Dock workers
Flour and grain workers in the food industry
Foundry workers
Petroleum workers
Pottery/ceramic workers
Quarrying
Rubber and plastics manufacturing
Stonemasonry
Textile workers
Welders
Substances
A wide variety of dust or fume have the potential to cause COPD if exposure is high and over a long period of time, for example studies suggest the following substances have the potential to cause COPD;
Cadmium dust/fume
Coal dust
Cotton dust
Grain and flour dust
Mineral dust
Organic dusts
Silica dust
Welding Fumes
Hi stone, sorry for the long delay for the reply, looking at the list I guess there is no escape form dust in any occupation, funny now i only see the word dust in Industry.
A friend of mine had a horse that had COPD
In my case my copd was caused by having whooping cough as a baby. Scientists and many specialists now admit that copd is not only caused by smoking. Not that this is a reason to be complacent. Whatever reason the cause for the illness. Smokers will go downhill much faster than smokers. It is essential if a smoker to quit as soon as diagnosed with lung illness.
My consultant at Nottingham city hospital ,established a link with emphysema and recurrent bouts of pancreatitis . Not a toxin I know but may be of some interest.
Hello Timber, may be the consultants should look at all illnesses to see if there is a link, I mean my doctor gave me something to help with vertigo, it was a spary I used up my nose, a month or two later I am told I have copd????!
In my case its been a bit of a cocktail. I smoked 10 fags a day between ages 20 and 40, (now 66). Also some cannabis which is said to be lethal, but i quit everything 25 years ago; then dx at 55.
But i think its about co-factors too - I did lots of building work when living in short life housing, but never wore a mask - plaster dust is dreadful, as is paint stripper etc etc. Plus i had a major exposure to DDT in my early 20's which did some damage and triggered asthma. Accident waiting to happen.
But in Africa many cases of copd are being recorded with rural women, who dont smoke as its not culturally acceptable, but do cook over wood stoves in unventilated spaces.
DDT wasn't that used in veitnam?
Not sure about that - maybe. The main thing i remember there was napalm. But I know DDT was banned in the UK not long after my exposure - until then it was in all insect sprays. We had had a flea infestation from the cat; the council came round twice, but i found several on my legs after a bath (turned out they loved the rush matting we had, should just have chucked it out!) So i freaked out and sprayed the DDT powder all over the bed and slept amongst it all night. Stupid or what? Woke with terrible pain in the chest. It certainly triggered my asthma, which id never had before and never got rid of after.
My Grandfather and his brothers were farmers fruit & veg, they used all kinds of insect sparys, I was never around when they sparyed, only after when the mixing was done,the smells were enough to make you feel sick, so you got to think if they sprayed food stuffs with it have we taken it in when eaten, and they still say it's because you smoke.
Yes, as far as possible I try to avoid exposure to chemicals - car fumes, cleaning products etc. For myself Im sure smoking was one major reason but they are finding more and more cases where ppl with copd never smoked. The stigma involved can make people - both doctors and patients - take up very fixed positions about it, and blame and guilt can get in the way of clarity.
hi im 70 and lived with smog as a child also had tb my father had copd and never smoked in his life and he was in the army .I smoked for 40 years and i am told all the time its because i smoked ' but when i said my father never did they said he was in the army so how do i know !!!
Well you lived with your father, did they? NO, so how can they say they know more than you about your fathers' life style.
He could have got copd when he was on active duty in army, I take it he was in ww2.
hi yes my father was in ww2 in fact he was in the wate at dunkirk for goodness how long the family thinks thats the more likely reason
Hello again, well i guess even if the Doctors can't, that he would have had a lot of fumes and smoke around him and the cold water would have done some damage.
As far as I know the term COPD has been coined as a usual way to treat Obstructive Lung Disease, which can be caused by many factors , many of which you have outlined above.COPD is a syndrome, which encompasses many symptoms and that has been useful in terms of getting treatment and support for us all.
I wonder if before copd came along, the user word of the day was consumption?
By specific toxins as already mentioned or by a combination of same and smoking or just smoking and as mentioned previously the hereditary form of COPD named alpha-1 antitrypsin. Smoking is the one thing that will continue to cause further lung damage with each cigarette you smoke.
Hi Zoee, I gave up smoking 17 years ago, but My wife and her mother and best friend still smoke, makes you think even though they know what I have, still if you stand in the middle of the road one day youre going to hit by a bus.
Heres a thought when I in my teens and twentys the disco's had smoke machines.
Sadly passive smoking can also cause the non smoker further lung damage.
Yes I remember those days of cigarette machines and choccy dispensers too 
I think you have it !!, saturday fever night now has new meaning.
Doctor: "Good aftenoon sir, what can I do for you?"
Patient: "I think I have broken my leg doctor."
Doctor: "Do you smoke sir?" (this attitude has gone beyond a joke)
I had whooping cough as an adult and much later caught a bad lung infection while living at 9000 feet - without breating problems. I had to get back to sea-level.
My lung specialist here ignored those facts and wrote back to my GP that I was an ex-smoker.
I was told there was "no funding" to help me and I had to threaten the surgery with a complaint to my PCT to get their attention.
My father , had prostate cancer was told to give up smoking, he got though that only to die in April this year from a heart attack, he had gone to his GP about pains in his right arm was told to go and enjoy his holiday, he died three days after his 74th.
Doctors
I haven't been diagnosed properly as yet with COPD but have all the symptoms.
I worked in the print industry for 30 years with lots of chemicals and spray mount glue. No air filtration.
Smoked for 30 years and live within a couple of miles of Heathrow Airport and Northolt Airport.
Dr's are not looking at this properly - same old nonsense about not smoking Hmmmmmmmmmmmm 
My Grandfather on my fathers side was printer, he smoked until he was in his late seventies, he died of a heart attack nine days before his 88th, no copd, his other son was also a printer and for awhile smoked, he is still with us age 65 no copd.
My grandfather was also in the merchant navy in the 30's, so he would he been exposed to both steam and diesel shipping, no as i keep thinking more research is needed, yes i agree smoking is bad but i think it's not the only answer.
Take care.
redmod
Hi Redmod, as you can see by the replies you already have, copd is caused by quite a few different things. Pete has it because of the damage done by his sarcoidosis and I have known of people contracting it through industry so no, smoking is not the only cause. Too many people think that lung conditions are solely caused by smoking but they are wrong. Pete also worked at Heathrow inside the bellies of aircraft with no mask etc. for quite a few years so maybe that contributed to the sarc. Who knows? xxx
Hello sassy59, when all calculations are given up coalfires, bonfires, coal dust. occupational dusts,gas vapours, paint vapours,vehical exhust fumes from both petrol & deisel,medicens, smog , I like everyone on this planet could have have been exposed to these things but the Doctors say "Ha it's because you smoked" one day the Doctors will change their thinking, and say if you smoked it would have added to problem but it's not the main reason.
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