RAWALPINDI, Oct 4: Respiratory physicians and health experts on Thursday warned that the increasing environmental pollution would soon make pulmonary disease the third leading cause of death worldwide.

This was said in an awareness seminar held at a local hotel and organised by a multi-national pharmaceutical company. Pulmonologists said the most common cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was exposure to pollution and smoking, predicting that by 2020 COPD would be third major cause of death after heart disease and stroke.

Dr Charles Feldman, professor of Pulmonology at University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, said: “Both pollution and smoking are common causes of the disease, and the solution is to improve the environment and avoid smoking.” People exposed to pollution while working in coal mines, manufacturing companies, brick kilns and vehicular emissions were particularly vulnerable to the disease, he added. —Our Reporter