I'm getting very breathless, so I am very aware of how I breathe. Bending down, walking up inclines, climbing stairs, trying to rush....I find myself panting & struggling a bit. I thought a new pacemaker would make me bionic again, but it doesn't seem to have worked. I don't suppose complete heart block, atrial fibrullation & a floppy mitral valve help much.
The last two weekends have been spent working on a craft stall in a local market. My daughter & one of her friends are very creative & decided to give it a try. One is a ceramicist the other works in multi media. It was an absolute joy despite the cold. The thing is that the stall was on the side of the busy Banbury Road. Both weekends I ended up with a very sore throat & tickly cough overnight after doing it. I thought I had a bug, but it only lasted 24 hours. I now realise that it was probably exposure to the traffic pollution.
We take the air that we breathe for granted. We take breathing itself for granted. It is what keeps us alive, but we don't think about that.
The statistics for chronic COPD & Asthma don't make good reading.
https://statistics.blf.org.uk/
Someone in the UK dies from chronic lung disease every 5 minutes. 1 in 5 people in the UK has ever developed COPD or Asthma. It costs the NHS & the economy a fortune.
We should all take the importance of being able to breathe clean air much more seriously.
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