Irish suffer high death rate from lung illness

Ireland has some of the highest death rates in Europe for a little known but preventable chronic lung condition, experts have said.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is mainly caused by smoking. Sufferers find it hard to breathe due to obstruction of airways in the lungs. It affects about 440,000 people in the country.

But the level of deaths is higher than in the likes of Kazakhstan and Romania — about 1,300-1,500 Irish people a year are affected.