Fighting for cleaner air in Barcelona, Europe and beyond

The launch of the ERS booklet ‘Air Quality and Health’ took place at the ERS Annual Congress in Barcelona, with a copy given to every delegate. Part of the 2010 Year of the Lung initiative, it was initiated and reviewed by the ERS Environment & Health Committee, and written by scientists at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH; Basel, Switzerland) and the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL; Barcelona, Spain).

The booklet is primarily a tool to empower physicians and other health professionals to promote better air quality and defend the health needs of patients and citizens but also to provide politicians, journalists and informed lay readers with an overview of the current knowledge about the nature and health consequences of air pollution.

Professor Nino Künzli, of the Swiss TPH and University of Basel, is lead author and originator of the project. He says: Europeans need a far stronger and more articulate science-based voice in the EU air quality policy arena. The EU adopted air quality standards that lag far behind science-based recommendations of the WHO and the targets many progressive countries already adopted.

Far better air quality can be achieved through intelligent policy making, and researchers have shown that these improvements result in very substantial public health benefits. There is only one explanation why air quality in, e.g. Los Angeles or London drastically improved over the last 50 years, resulting in much clearer skies there than in many European cities in current days: it reflects the willingness (or lack of) to adopt and implement rigorous air quality policies.

Europe can do far better and we hope, the brochure helps all those willing to raise their voice to defend public health - not just in London or the North but in all European countries, particularly also in the South and East, concludes Professor Künzli

The booklet contains information on the degree of air pollution in Europe, the nature of its effects and the measures that are being (and should be) taken to combat it. In addition to the English-language version, the booklet will be available in a range of other languages.

Notes Bert Brunekreef, Professor of Environmental Epidemiology at the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Netherlands, and a past winner of the European Lung Foundation Award, in his introduction. "Once a severe but local problem of highly industrialised and densely populated cities, air pollution has now morphed into a more insidious threat to the public health of entire nations." It is more important than ever that respiratory professionals take the lead in fighting air pollution. This booklet is a vital tool in that fight.

The booklet is available in English, Catalan, Italian, French and German at www.ersnet.org/airquality, where it will be joined soon by versions in Portuguese and Turkish, published in conjunction with national respiratory societies and other funders. The Catalan version was officially launched at the Barcelona congress.

28-09-2010
http://www.ersnet.org/index.php?option=com_flexicontent&view=items&id=4119