Fire disasters have been known to claim a lot of lives every passing year. While some of these lives are lost to the actual fire, one of its bye-product – smoke, is also responsible for close to half of the death toll. To this end, it is very important that a thorough smoke damage repair and remediation be carried out in the event of a fire disaster before people begin to live again in affected areas.
Smoke inhalation is a very serious issue as it can lead to several diseases in a person or exacerbate the ones a person might have already. Take a look at some of these diseases:
- Bronchitis
Bronchitis, as the name already suggests, is a condition that affects the bronchial tubes – the bronchial tubes are responsible for transporting air in and out of the lungs.
A person suffering from bronchitis is one whose bronchial tubes have become inflamed and also has an excessive amount of sticky mucus blocking the air path to and fro his lungs. This would make breathing difficult for such a person.
Bronchitis is of two types – acute and chronic. Acute bronchitis is less dangerous as it can last for only as long as a few weeks. Chronic bronchitis, on the other hand, is much more severe and can last up to years if not properly treated.
- Emphysema
This basically is a disease that stretches out the lungs, makes it inelastic and eventually makes it incapable of absorbing oxygen. All these don’t just happen at once; it is a process that builds up with continuous exposure to smoke.
It is thus important that a thorough smoke damage repair is carried out once there is a large fire.
It is noteworthy that emphysema is an incurable condition as treatment have only been known to slow down the progress of the disease, not eliminate it.
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
This is a case where the chronic bronchitis leads to emphysema. It is a highly dangerous condition, and serious consideration should be given to avoiding it.
- Asthma
A number of children today are considered asthmatic. Asthma is caused by inflamed airways, which deprive the lung of enough oxygen thus making breathing difficult.
Smoke is a major factor that could make things worse for asthmatic patients. They already have tinier airways due to inflammations already present in them, and smoke doesn’t help the situation at all.
Whether it is soon after the fire or long after the fire has been put out, smoke is dangerous to people with asthma. To ensure the safety of such people, it is important that an extensive smoke damage repair be carried out by professionals.
There are number of other diseases that anyone living in a smoke contaminated area can become infected with that are life-threatening if not immediately or eventually.
If you consider your health to be of value to you, it would be wise that you enlist professional services in carrying out a smoke damage repair as a DIY might not be thorough enough to eliminate all the smoke that might have found resting places in spots that you wouldn’t think of.
