Emphysema and pollution

When I was diagnosed with Bronchiectasis I was confused about the causes, until I realised that it was caused by childhood illnesses like Whooping cough, measels, Mumps, etc

However the next diagnosis of Emphysema left me standing, wondering where I was, and what was going on, as well as wondering what caused it all

Yes I had worked in industry, but in the end the illness seemed to creep up very fast.

However it seems, that because I have Bilateral Bronchiectasis brought on  through childhood illness like Whooping cough etc,  as well as a Chronic Heamophilis Influenza bug inside my lungs, i was open to everything that was comng my way, while working in industry.

This is all confusing and hard to understand,  but when you have memory problems it causes havoc, because remembering to take all of the medication at the right time is causing total havoc

While I did smoke earlier in life , I did not smoke a lot, and stopped after a doctor told me that I would not live to see my children grow up.

That was enough for me to give up there and then.

Admittedly I was doing other jobs as college engineer,  such as working on oil fired boilers, which had to be serviced quite a lot.

The fumes and soot here were nasty, but it was part of my job and I accepted it.

Many buildings had asbestos panels in places too and I guess that it adds up.

However I now understand that's it's made much worse by things I worked with in years gone by,  like wood dust, asbestos, fumes, and pollution to name but a few.

Pollution is worse these days than it was ten years ago, however it should have been a lot better, but for incompetent Governments who refuse to accept the obvious

I must question whether garages etc, really test for pollution coming from cars or indeed trains and heavy goods vehicles these days.

I say this because it's been noticeable, the number of vehicles on the roads etc, which are pumping out pollutants, so how do these vehicles pass a test in the first place

There was also the VW scandal which faked emission regulations just to sell cars.  Everyone expected the Government to demand compensation but this never happened.

This was the only case we heard of, but I often wondered if other vehicle manufacturers faked emission tests and got away with it. Perhaps we will never know until it's too late.

It seems that everyone else in this country has to campaign for cleaner air, in the vane hope that someone inside the government will take notice and do something

I never ever thought that I would see the day when school children would be issued with face masks to help protect them from pollution.

Is it going to be a case, that our grandchildren children etc, will grow up with damaged lungs, through all of this pollution we are seeing these days.

I don't know about anyone else, but that thought frightens me, just the fact that we as a nation  could be poisoning the young children at school

Many schools also have busy roads running past them, and this is wrong.

To me it's time that the school inspectors measured the Polution around these schools, and forced Councils and the Government to do something positive about it.

These days like many thousands of other people,  i have to learn to pace myself, so we don't get overtired while trying to get on with a normal life.

However this is a struggle trying to pace myself, because my brain is telling me where I want to be, and it's not easy when you are sometimes gasping for breath.

While I have problems,  it worries me that our grandchildren will group up in a heavily polluted country, unless someone stands up and  try's something positive to clean this country up very soon

I have a Breezometer app on my phone and this alerts me when the air quality is getting bad.

Today while I was out at a garden centre with my wife, i realised that the air quality was starting to drop, because I was struggling to breathe, and the alarm on my phone kept going off.

When we got home the air quality had dropped to 36 out of 100, and I was gasping to breathe.

I can recommend this app to anyone who has breathing problems, because it gives you warning and allows you time to get inside where you can take it easy.

In this day and age we should not need gadgets to warn us about air quality, but sadly many would be lost without them