Weather Warnings for Easy Breathing

A Scheme offering weather warnings to people with a lung condition could be rolled out if local health chiefs back the plan.

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are sent Met Office alerts when cold weather is forecast.

People with the condition already suffer from acute breathlessness, but freezing cold temperatures make airways narrower, leaving them struggling to breathe. In Wales, Rhondda Cynon Taf Teaching Local Health Board (LHB) is already involved in the scheme, which has helped to cut hospital admissions for the condition by a fifth across the UK.

An Assembly spokesman said: “It would be for individual LHBs to consider whether such an initiative would be appropriate for their population.”

(c) 2008 South Wales Evening Post. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.