Vent-Axia helps raise awareness of lung disease with Breathe Easy Week
Published: 15 June, 2016
British fan manufacturer Vent-Axia is supporting Breathe Easy Week. Held between 13 and 19 June, the annual awareness week focuses on lung health and is run by the British Lung Foundation (BLF).
The event is designed to highlight the widespread effect of lung disease, which affects about one in five people in the UK.
Indoor air quality (IAQ) is an important issue to lung health. The Royal College of Physicians recently published the report ‘Every breath we take: the lifelong impact of air pollution’, which states that around 40,000 people are dying in the UK every year due to air pollution. Exposure to indoor air pollutants such as kitchen products, faulty boilers, open fires, fly sprays, air fresheners and second-hand smoke further add to these figures and impact on indoor air quality. Health problems such as lung disease, cancer, asthma, stroke and heart disease, diabetes, obesity and dementia have all been linked to poor air quality.
This new report backs up the findings of other recent research, including the BEAMA survey ‘My Health My Home’, which revealed that over one-third of UK homes are at an elevated or severe risk of having polluted indoor air. It follows on from the IAQ research ‘The Future of Indoor Air Quality in UK Homes and its Impact on Health’. This found that as new and refurbished homes become ever more airtight to meet the government’s carbon emission targets for 2050, the number of people suffering with asthma could increase by 80% from current levels. It also found that indoor pollutant levels could increase to the upper end and beyond of World Health Organisation recommended limits. The report suggests that the solution for good IAQ is continuous ventilation and that, in newbuild homes, continuous mechanical ventilation, preferably with heat recovery (MVHR) is the most efficient and effective option.
“Vent-Axia is delighted to be supporting Breathe Easy Week this year,” said Jenny Smith, marketing manager at Vent-Axia. “The British Lung Foundation’s aim is that one day everyone will breathe clean air with healthy lungs. At Vent-Axia we support this and are committed to helping to achieve this by providing effective, energy efficient ventilation to help provide good indoor air quality in our homes.”
The theme for this year’s Breathe Easy Week is ‘breathlessness’. Millions of people ignore being out of breath in situations where they would not expect to be, such as taking a short walk, unaware that it is one of the most common symptoms of lung disease. This Breathe Easy Week, the BLF is encouraging anyone who experiences this kind of unexpected breathlessness to visit their GP.
The BLF’s Breathe Easy support groups will be holding events across the country to help raise awareness of lung health and offer support. Throughout the week, the BLF aims to communicate the seriousness of maintaining lung health and the risk factors that can affect lungs causing a number of major lung conditions, for example, lung cancer, asthma, bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and many more. With 230 Breathe Easy support groups around the country, people can locate their nearest group and see what they are doing by visiting the BLF’s Breathe Easy website: https://www.blf.org.uk/support-for-you/breathe-easy.
