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DRIVE4COPD campaign gets widespread attention as COPD awareness campaign reaches Tampa, FL
TAMPA — Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll joined John Walsh, president of the COPD Foundation and Alpha-1 Foundation, as the public awareness campaign called DRIVE4COPD drew widespread media attention in Tampa this week.
Carroll told interviewers from multiple local TV stations that COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) affects as many as 24 million Americans. But a lot of people aren’t aware how pervasive it is, she added.
DRIVE4COPD — Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, center, talks with John Walsh, left, president of the COPD Foundation and Alpha-1 Foundation, and artist Michael Kalish, with Kalish’s huge pinwheel monument for COPD on display behind them in Tampa.
Walsh pointed out that not only do half those 24 million not even know they have COPD, but many are completely unaware that genetic factors and environmental pollution are major causes of COPD. “It’s not just about smoking,” said Walsh. He said he has never smoked but has COPD due to Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency, often called “genetic COPD.”
COPD causes progressive shortness of breath. It can’t be cured, but it can be treated, Walsh said.
“COPD is the third leading cause of death in the United States, and the second leading cause of diaability,” Walsh said. “It is the cause of more deaths in this country than diabetes and breast cancer combined.”
To draw attention to COPD, artist Michael Kalish brought his giant “24M” pinwheel sculpture to Tampa. “It’s a huge monument for a huge problem,” Kalish said.
The hope is that people will visit the monument, learn about the disease – which kills more people each year than diabetes and breast cancer – and take a brief five-question screening test online to see if they are at risk.
The sculpture, which weighs more than two tons and stands 14 feet at its highest point, is covered with 2,400 license plates from across the country. Kalish uses license plates in all his works.
Carroll said the monument will encourage people to take ownership of their health. “I think it’s a wonderful art piece to draw people in for curiosity and then inform them in the process,” she said.
Kalish’s work is known as “24M: the DRIVE4COPD Monument.” It will be on display through Nov. 20 at downtown’s Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park. Kalish sculpted 24 pinwheels representing the 24 million American with the disease.
DRIVE4COPD is the nation’s largest awareness campaign for COPD; the campaign’s icon is a pinwheel, which symbolizes the campaign’s movement and momentum. Auto racing’s Danica Patrick and country music’s Patty Loveless are among the celebrities taking part in the campaign.
