SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 3

        A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION, Designating the month of November as COPD Awareness Month in the State of South Dakota.

    WHEREAS, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a term used to describe airflow obstruction that is associated mainly with emphysema and chronic bronchitis; and

    WHEREAS, COPD affects an estimated twenty-four million people and kills more than one hundred twenty thousand Americans every year; on average, one person dies from COPD every four minutes, an alarming statistic for a disease many have not learned about; and

    WHEREAS, in 2008 COPD became the third leading cause of death in the United States; and

    WHEREAS, pulmonary experts predict that by the year 2020, COPD will become the leading cause of death worldwide; and

    WHEREAS, COPD currently accounts for one million five hundred thousand emergency department visits, seven hundred twenty-six thousand hospitalizations, and eight million physician office and hospital outpatient visits, all of which are a detriment to the United States economy; COPD costs the nation an estimated forty-nine billion nine hundred million dollars in direct and indirect medical costs annually; and

    WHEREAS, chronic lower respiratory disease, which includes COPD and asthma, accounted for six and two-fifths percent of the 2010 South Dakota resident deaths; and

    WHEREAS, there were over fifty-seven thousand hospitalizations for acute respiratory diseases in South Dakota between 2000-2009 for residents sixty-five years of age and older; and

    WHEREAS, the American Lung Association in South Dakota is implementing the South Dakota COPD Strategic Plan, a state-wide effort to increase early detection, improve care and treatment, and prevent and reduce the prevalence of the disease; and

    WHEREAS, research has identified a hereditary protein deficiency called Alpha-1 Antitrypsin; people with this deficiency tend to develop COPD, even without exposure to smoking or environment triggers; and

    WHEREAS, recently the death rate for women with COPD has surpassed the death rate of men with COPD; women over the age of forty are the fastest-growing segment of the population

developing this irreversible disease, due in large part to the equalization of opportunities for men and women to smoke over the past several generations; and

    WHEREAS, there is currently no cure for COPD; spirometry testing and medical treatments exist to address symptom relief and possibly slow the progression of the disease; and

    WHEREAS, until there is a cure, the best approaches to preventing COPD and its considerable health, societal, and mortality impacts lie with education, awareness, and expanded delivery of detection and management protocols:

    NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Senate of the Eighty-seventh Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the House of Representatives concurring therein, that we designate the month of November as COPD Awareness Month in the State of South Dakota in recognition of this deadly disease and its effects on the citizens of this state.

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Adopted by the Senate,

Concurred in by the House of Representatives,

Matt Michels President of the Senate	Fee Jacobsen Secretary of the Senate
Val Rausch Speaker of the House	Karen Gerdes Chief Clerk of the House