A DOCTOR who specialises in chest diseases has welcomed the national smoking ban that is due to come into effect this July.

Dr Diane Laws, a respiratory consultant at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, says while most smokers know they could develop lung cancer, few realise the risk of another life-limiting condition - chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

"COPD is the term used to describe conditions where there's a narrowing of the airways.

"For the majority of those patients, it's smoking-related," she explained.

"Once the damage is there, it cannot be reversed, but because you have two lungs, it's not until there's a lot of damage that you become aware of it.

"A lot of people say they're worried about cancer, but I would personally worry more about getting COPD because there's such a protracted period of time when you can be frightened, struggling for breath and unable to live a normal life."

Early symptoms could include breathlessness, a cough and bouts of bronchitis.

Once diagnosed, patients are advised to give up smoking - if they have not already done so - and follow an exercise regime to improve their lung function.

They may also be given inhalers.

When they are ill, they may need to go into hospital.

Occasionally, in very severe cases, part of the lungs may be removed, but the only hope of a cure is transplantation.

Although the prevalence of smoking peaked after the Second World War, since the 1970s more young people - especially girls - have been taking up the habit.

In 2000, US model Christy Turlington announced that she had early stage COPD at the age of 31, despite having given up her decade-long smoking habit five years earlier.

Dr Laws has treated a patient in her thirties who ended up having a lung transplant.

"With people starting smoking at a younger age, I fear we're going to continue seeing this condition for generations to come," said Dr Laws.

"We very much welcome anything that's going to reduce people's opportunity to smoke."