Blog
Asthma never takes a holiday
It’s that time of year that everyone anticipates: weekend getaways to the cottage, playing outdoors all day long and fun family trips. But, if your child suffers from asthma, keeping it under control during the summer months is necessary to ensure he or she has an active and safe school break. Plan ahead and take precautions to reduce their risks. Because asthma doesn’t take a holiday, managing it
Surviving Summer Smog
Spending time outdoors during the hot summer months is a given, but for those who suffer from asthma and other lung diseases, air pollution can make it harder to breathe. Air pollution, a mix of particles and gases like ozone, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide, can negatively affect your health and breathing. Some of the effects are minor, while others can be more severe. Short term health
Meet some of the volunteers we’ve counted on for years!
Our volunteers provide critical support that help us to carry out our mission of promoting lung health and managing and preventing lung disease. We simply couldn’t do what we do without them. We are particularly lucky to have a stable core of devoted in-house volunteers, some of whom have been with us for more than 20 years. Meet Mina, our staff volunteer coordinator as well as a few of our
Meet Volunteer Anne Kennedy Mitchell
Anne is the volunteer president of our Lung Association Better Breathers support group in New Westminster (also known as the New Westminster Puffers’ Club). During the week, Anne manages a dental clinic. In her spare time, she finds it rewarding to be of help to others, like herself, who often feel isolated and alone in coping with a chronic breathing problem. Anne has struggled with respiratory
How air pollution is messing with our genes
Air pollution can make it hard to breathe. It also can increase someone’s blood pressure and heart rate. Those problems are well known. Now research, in part funded by the BC Lung Association, suggests breathing diesel fumes can trigger another toxic change. It can inappropriately turn some genes on, while turning others off. Just two hours of exposure to diesel exhaust fumes can lead to
Becoming Air Aware – How Canada’s AQHI Can Help You
The Air Quality Health Index or “AQHI” is a scale designed to help you understand what the air quality around you means to your health. It’s a health protection tool designed to help you make decisions to protect your health by limiting short-term exposure to air pollution and adjusting your activity levels during increased levels of air pollution – and it’s particularly important for those whose
Air pollution at home
When we speak of air pollution, we generally think about the air outside. However, the vast majority of our time is spent indoors. Few studies have looked at how outdoor air pollution affects indoor air quality. We sat down to gain some insight with Perry Hystad who completed his doctoral studies on air quality at the University of British Columbia. Why is it important to study indoor air quality
On love, laughter and lungs
They say you cannot fall in love with someone you cannot laugh with. True as that might be, laughter is not only the tell-tale sign of compatibility. Is it in fact the best medicine as the old adage suggests? Well, we won’t suggest that laughter will fix a broken bone, treat strep throat or help with a stomach ache. There is better medicine than laughter for those ailments. But while laughter does
A man of his word: Smoke Free Grad 2000
Curtis signed a contract in grade one, decades later, he has never broke his promise. There were a lot of exciting events happening in 1989. The Swift Current Broncos won the Memorial Cup in Saskatoon. The Riders won the Grey Cup that fall for the first time since 1966. My family was moving into a new house on the farm. It may have been these exciting events that forced The Lung Association’s
Eight Years Tobacco-Free and Counting. Honouring a loved one by honouring yourself!
Kristie’s Breathe Story While I was in high school and in my early 20’s, I lived a very unhealthy lifestyle. I ate anything I wanted, rarely exercised and smoked a half a pack a day for 15 years. Shortly after I turned 31, I was hit by a bomb—my mother was diagnosed with terminal lung and brain cancer. I was devastated beyond belief and it triggered a rollercoaster of emotions. For years, as I