Dr Surinder Kumar Gupta of Right Chest Clinic said: “Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) remains a major public health problem, and is the fourth leading cause of all deaths worldwide.” He is the only DM specialising in pulmonary diseases in the private sector in the city, and also the organiser of the event.

He added that according to the recent report of the Centre for Disease Control, nearly 21 million or 35 per cent of children are exposed to secondhand smoke on a regular basis. This is responsible for more than 1,00,000 lower respiratory tract infections every year.

Dr Gupta said that almost half of world’s population and nearly 90 per cent of rural households in developing countries rely on unprocessed biomass fuels for cooking and heating.

“According to the report of the Indian Council of Medical Research 28 per cent of all deaths due to indoor air pollutions in the developing countries occur in India,” added the doctor.

He further said, “In our country nearly 5 per cent of men and 2.5 per cent of women above the age of 30 years suffer from a chronic lung disease — COPD — caused due to smoking and exposure to biomass fuel.

Professor S K Jindal, Head of Pulmonary Medicines at PGI, said that oxygen therapy is the only intervention which could help increase the life span of patients with chronic lung diseases.