Anybody with asthma has been issued an urgent safety warning this weekend.
With Diwali celebrations in full swing and Bonfire Night to be celebrated across the weekend there will be firework displays nationwide.
But firework displays can be potentially fatal to anyone who suffers from the inflammatory disease with the celebratory items potentially causing reactions for asthma sufferers.
Firework warning to asthma sufferers
Dr Andy Whittamore, Clinical Lead at Asthma UK and a practicing GP, said: “Fireworks and bonfire displays might look pretty but if you have asthma triggered by smoke, they could land you in hospital.
“While many people will be looking forward to watching firework displays, the increased levels of soot in the air can get into people’s airways and trigger asthma symptoms such as wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath or even an asthma attack.
“The good news is if people with asthma follow our top tips such as taking their preventer inhaler (usually brown) as prescribed, keeping their reliever inhaler (usually blue) with them in case of emergencies and making sure their family and friends know what to do if they have an asthma attack, they should not have to miss out on festivities.
“We have more information at asthma.org.uk/bonfire-night.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here