Public urged to take five steps to ‘Love your Lungs’

Ahead of World Lung Day on Sunday September 25, the Irish Lung Health Alliance, a coalition of charities working to promote healthy lungs, has urged members of the public to take five steps to “Love Your Lungs”.

Members of the Irish Lung Health Alliance include: the Alpha-1 Foundation Ireland, the Asthma Society of Ireland, the Chartered Physiotherapists in Respiratory Care, COPD Support Ireland, Cystic Fibrosis Ireland, the Irish Association of Respiratory Nurses (ANÁIL), the Irish Cancer Society, the Irish Institute of Clinical Measurement Physiologists, the Irish Lung Fibrosis Association, the Irish Sleep Society, the Irish Thoracic Society, and the Tobacco Free Research Institute Ireland.

The call comes with latest statistics from the Department of Health’s National Healthcare Quality Reporting System (annual report 2020) showing alarming figures when it comes to the top three lung diseases in Ireland: Asthma, COPD or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Lung Cancer.

Other lung diseases which have a significant impact on the health and well-being of people in Ireland include: Obstructive sleep apnoea, Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (or Alpha-1), Cystic fibrosis and Lung fibrosis – with 400 people diagnosed with this condition each year, it can affect both smokers and non-smokers, and is known to develop in family members.

Among the people at the launch were Aoife Folliard, Chair of ANÁIL, the National Respiratory Nurses’ Association of Ireland and Rathfarnham native and Orla Wynne, Chief Respiratory Physiologist, Tallaght University Hospital, and Vice Chair of the Respiratory Board of the Irish Institute of Clinical Measurement Physiologists.