TeenAsthma.ca : Asthma Facts & Stats

In Ontario, when you’re born you have a 40% chance of developing asthma at some point before the age of 40 (from http://www.ices.on.ca/file/Burden_of_Asthma.pdf).
Asthma is very common - about 2.5 million Canadians and 300 million people worldwide have asthma.

The direct and indirect costs of asthma in Canada are estimated to be $1 billion.
You can initially be diagnosed with asthma at any age, but it is most common to be first diagnosed when you're under the age of 10.
In childhood, more males than females have asthma. In the teen years, this shifts to more females than males with asthma.
Asthma is the leading cause of hospital admissions among children.

Every day, 15 billion cigarettes are smoked worldwide (from http://www.who.int/tobacco/en/ atlas8.pdf).
More than 200 different agents have been identified in a wide range of work environments as possible asthma triggers, and this list is growing (see list here: http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/diseases/asthma.html).
About 9% of children in Ontario (500,000 kids) are exposed to second hand smoke in their home.
A female dust mite lays about 100 eggs during her short life and each of these mites will produce 10-20 tiny waste pellets a day. Many people are allergic to these pellets.
Since dust mites have very sticky feet that make it difficult to vacuum them up, you are better off with wood, tile or vinyl flooring than with carpeting.

If you replace just one old school incandescent bulb with a new energy saving bulb, over one year at eight hours a day it would save 130 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity and reduce air emissions by up to 120 kg.
Setting air conditioners up two degrees can save 100 kWh, which equals up to 100 kg of air pollution and greenhouse gases.
One hour using a gas-powered lawnmower can produce the same amount of air pollution as a car driven for 550 km.

The main goal of the lungs is to pass oxygen to the blood and remove carbon dioxide. The barrier between the air in the alveoli and the blood in the capillaries is only 1/1000 of a millimeter thick.
Airways are the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs. There are about 100,000 airways in your lungs for a total distance of about 2400 km, the same distance as between Toronto, Ontario and Corner Brook, Newfoundland.
Airways get smaller the farther you go into the lungs. The width of your tiniest airway is less than the width of a pin (< 0.5 mm).
Cilia are hair-like structures in the lungs that brush out excess mucous and foreign particles at a frequency of 1000 beats per minute.
Alveoli are tiny sacs at the end of the airways which pass oxygen to your blood and remove carbon dioxide. If you laid all 300 million of your alveoli on the ground, they'd cover a tennis court.
Since the heart is slightly on the left side of the chest, the left lung is a bit smaller than the right lung.
The number of breaths we take every minute is called the respiratory rate. Adults at rest take about 15 breaths every minute, which equals over 20,000 breaths every single day. That's over 7 million every year.