Lung diseases are commonly causing mucus accumulation, especially a disease called COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. COPD is common among smokers, but not all develop COPD and others develop COPD without ever been smoking. Some of these have been more exposed to air pollution and dust. From our studies, we have reasons to believe that there are genetic differences in genes encoding mucus components that might alter the risk of developing COPD. We are now going to study if our hypothesis is correct and if it turns out to be correct, we could help to advice people to avoid certain type of jobs.
