Lung-related diseases kill as much as 400,000 Americans each year, the American Lung Association reported.
And more than 35 million Americans ar suffering from chronic lung diseases. Among the many types of lung diseases include asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, pneumonia, influenza, tuberculosis, lung cancer, respiratory failure, edema, embolism, hypertension, fibrosis, sarcoidosis, mesothelioma and asbestosis.
The Association attributed directly most of the deaths to smoking, including heart and lung diseases. Likewise, millions of children and adults are exposed to levels of ozone and particle air pollution that could particularly make them sick.
The Association said that the death rate is 121.4 per 100,000 Americans. Although, it added that death rates had been declining.
Studies showed that air pollution is the primary cause of cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses, cancer, birth defects, and deaths.
These lung-related diseases are bleeding the federal government a total of $81.6 billion in direct healthcare expenditures every year, plus direct costs of $76.2 billion, or a total of $157.8 billion in expenditures.