A high-tech solution being tested in Iceland gets rid of waste carbon dioxide by pumping it 1,000m underground.

Women who are obese face an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, even if they have maintained good metabolic health for decades, according to a new study.

A study with more than 3,300 participants in 12 countries has established a relationship between occupational exposure to biological dusts, gases, fumes and pesticides and COPD. The researchers did a follow-up of the participants 20 years after the first assessment.

The internal anatomy of our lungs is surprisingly variable, and some of those variations are associated with a greater risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a new study has found.

Increased arterial stiffness is a known predictor of cardiovascular diseases in different populations, including healthy subjects and patients with hypertension, diabetes, or renal disease. A new study examining arterial stiffness in a large population determined that both restrictive spirometry pattern and reduced forced vital capacity (FVC) were associated with a higher risk of arterial stiffness not only in men but also in women. The investigators found that arterial stiffness increased fourfold when FVC decreased.

Older people who use steroid inhalers for asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are more likely to suffer particular bacterial infections, according to a large study.

Older adults with COPD who recently started using opioids have an increased risk of coronary artery disease-related death compared to non-opioid users, researchers have found. Among these patients, new opioid use is associated with a 215 percent increase in coronary artery disease-related death for long-term care residents and an 83 percent increase in coronary artery disease-related death for those who lived at home compared to non-opioid users, according to the study.

In a new study, CT-measured vascular pruning – the diminution of distal pulmonary blood vessels (vessels on the outer edges of the lungs) – was associated with increased risk of death in smokers without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Investigators describe 13 new genetic regions associated with COPD, including four that have not previously been associated with any type of lung function. The researchers also found overlap of the genetic risk of COPD with two other lung diseases, asthma and pulmonary fibrosis. These findings create an improved understanding of the genetic basis for this deadly disease.