>> Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD,
affects over 16 million Americans.
COPD causes lung damage that obstructs air flow,
interferes with the lungs taking up oxygen
and removing carbon dioxide.
And produces symptoms, such as productive cough, wheezing
and exercise limitations, due to shortness of breath.
In the U.S., tobacco smoke is the most common exposure
that causes COPD.
About 15 percent of all COPD cases can be attributed
to workplace exposures, such as dust, gases and chemical fumes.
This video illustrates some of the effects and the impact
that COPD potentially related to work has had on the lives
of several people living with the disease.
>> The impact to work related COPD
on patient's lives can be tremendous.
Patients will start with denial.
They will say, "I couldn't have developed COPD.
I never smoked."
But we do know that work related COPD occurs
in at least 15 percent of the patients
with COPD in the United States.
Often it has tremendous psychological impact
on patients.
They get really upset that they're unable
to do certain things at work and at home
that they could easily do.
Often this will lead to loss of jobs,
because they can't perform the essential duties of their job
because of shortness of breath.
This has devastating socioeconomic consequences
for the patient and for the family.
>> I have stairs in my house and by the time I start
at the bottom of the stairs to get
to the top, I'm out of breath.
I can walk one or two minutes up the street,
but then it's time to take a rest.
So my life has been impacted,
to where I can't do the things I used to do and I don't know why.
>> Now, I can't do much of anything.
I used to be -- I used to like to go hunting, fishing, hiking,
camping and now I can't do that.
I don't hunt or fish or anything.
Because I get tired walking and I run out of breath.
>> You know the diagnosis
of work related COPD can have profound consequences
for a worker.
Often these people feel diminished in their own eyes
and feel that they're not of significant use to their family.
>> Well, I can't really do a whole lot of nothing.
I can't walk from here
to my corrals back there where my horses are.
That's what, maybe 200, 300 feet?
Because I have to stop and --
if I don't have my little machine on, I have to stop
about every 10 or 15 feet and try to catch my breath.
Ever since I got this disease, my boys have had to take
over a lot of the ranch work
because unless I carry this machine with me,
I can't do hardly anything.
>> The impact on my family has been, of course,
we have to be concerned about what I do or go
or be anywhere, about my oxygen.
I'm not allowed, really, to fly because the pressures that are
in the aircraft are a little bit more than my lungs can handle.
>> So there's lots of physical and psychological consequences
of work related COPD
and patients can be depressed as a result of it.
>> After I couldn't walk and do the exercising anymore,
I started gaining weight.
So it's impacted my life a lot.
Mentally, I'm a strong person but it just, you know,
you start thinking why did this happen.
You know, and you don't have any answers for it.
You don't.
>> As far as people that I used to work with in the mines,
there's not very many left.
There's very few that are left that are my age.
And the ones that are left are just like me,
hauling around the little machine.
>> Well, I can't do the things I used to do.
We used to go to the mountains and have picnics
and stuff out there and things.
But I got so short of breath that I can't do it anymore.
It's not a way of life that I'm used to.
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