Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, November 17, is World COPD Day.
COPD is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and affects 714,000 Canadians, mostly smokers or former smokers, and is rapidly rising among women. Tragically, it is targeted to be the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2020.
People with COPD often struggle for every breath and have difficulty performing simple tasks such as walking up stairs. The burden on the health care system is enormous. It is now the fifth major cause of hospitalization in Canada.
There is no known cure for this chronic disease, but it is treatable and preventable. Lung association staff and volunteers work very hard in the area of prevention to educate young Canadians about the dangers of smoking. If young people never start smoking, chances are they will never contract this disease.
I encourage us as parliamentarians to support the work of the lung association. Its slogan says it all: “When you can't breathe, nothing else matters.”