How could I have gotten emphysema?

I'm 27 years old and had emphysema and collapsed lungs since I were 20 years old.
I used to play football alot with my friends and my brother across the road from an old abandoned and now torn down brick yard, it was during those times that I felt that something didn't feel right with me but I didn't find this out for definate until I felt a bubbling feeling in my chest (which ended up being air leaking out of my lung).
My other mates also used to smoke pot & weed near me.
So my question is could any of those two had caused me my lung illness?
However my sources point to the brick yard because Sulfur Dioxide Exposure is said to cause emphysema, and brick making produced Sulfur.
I am a non smoker nor did I ever work in coal mines, but also as a child we did once go on a school trip to a coal mine & brick work place.
Now also I do not have Alpha 1 anti tripsin.
So all of this is a complete mystery to me and would be nice if I could pin point how I got it :/

Your emphysema could be the result of MacLeod syndrome (caused by an adenovirus when you were young), or pulmonary artery sling (aberrant course of LEFT pulmonary artery between trachea and esophagus - this may cause obstructive emphysema of the right lung if the right main stem bronchus is compressed) or even exposure to cadmium. I would probably lean more towards MacLeod syndrome (adenovirus). Brief exposures to coal dust and brick material are probably not going to cause your condition. Look back into your childhood and try to remember if you swam in small lakes or swimming pools that were not chlorinated. Infection with adenovirus 7 acquired by inhalation is associated with severe lower respiratory tract disease. Good luck in your search for answers.

Sounds sad. Sorry I hope you get the best care. You're so young for this disease.

I wish I could tell you how or why, but I can't. All I can do is pray that you are able to get better.

Yes it is probably the brickyard that damaged your lungs...I have emphysema too...I did smoke but had pneumonia twice and got a lot of scar tissue on my lower lobes...we can still be active but we must be careful...pollution, smoke, etc will give us fits!!!

Were you born prematurely? Premature babies often have pulmonary disease when they grow-up because their immature lungs were subject to positive pressure from mechanical ventilation. Since you're 27, less was know about and available for neonatal ventilation at the time. 27 years ago wasn't quite the dark ages of Respiratory Therapy, but some things were standard practice then that would cause me to lose my license if I did them today.

The environment around the brick yard could have been saturated with toxic chemicals. Emphysema is a pretty hard thing to develop. It requires long-term exposure to harmful materials. Maybe there was something in the ground that managed to get into you? If you wanted to know for sure, a soil sample from the site would give you more information.

Premature babies get something called Pulmonary Interstitial Emphysema (PIE), or air leak syndrome. That would account for your bubbling feeling in your chest, if you were a premature baby. It's another problem related to premature babies being on ventilators.