Hello and welcome to this month’s round-up of EFA activities, updates and news!  This month EFA has been busy writing a position paper on pollen forecasting, submitting a paper to EMA on the involvement of young people in reviewing medicines as well as an open letter to Commission President Barroso calling for the release of the new tobacco products legislation, we report on EFA member activities for World COPD Day, EFA reports from the Finnish

EFA is pleased to announce it has written a position paper on pollen forecasting in Europe. The paper draws attention to the fact that the current economic crisis is threatening the future of European pollen forecasting services, and calls on the EU to take action to prevent this.  EFA position paper calls for legislation to ensure pollen forecasting in Europe EFA has written a position paper on the need to legislate for pollen forecasting in Europe,

In treatment news this November EMA reports on new COPD medicines and a UK body plans do discourage the use of a previously approved asthma drug.    EMA report on newly approved COPD medicines published The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has released European public assessment reports (EPAR) on three COPD medicines for relief of symptoms in adult COPD patients. The medicines, for which approval was issued in September, are Enurev Breezhaler, Tovanor

In member news this month, EFA members have told us about their activities to mark World COPD Day 2012, our Finnish members join the bid to make Finland smoke-free by 2040, FFAAIR holds a COPD session and a new asthma iPhone app is launched in Ireland.  World COPD day! EFA members from Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden all marked World COPD Day in their home countries through a large number of activities. In France FFAAIR reported

In policy news this month, EFA is pleased to announce we have submitted a paper to EMA calling for increased involvement of children and young people in reviewing medicines that are targeted to them, we have collaborated in sending a letter to President Barroso calling for the speedy release of the new tobacco products legislation, a new EU health Commissioner has been appointed, Cyprus has organised a debate on respiratory diseases and healthy aging

This month EFA reports from the education meeting it co-hosted in Helsinki  on the Finnish Allergy Programme, from a lunchtime debate in the European Parliament on Healthy Ageing with Respiratory Disease, from a conference on telemedicines in Germany and more.    EFA and the Finnish Allergy and Asthma Federation co-host first Finnish Allergy Programme Educational Meeting in Helsinki On the 8th and 9th of November, representatives of the Finnish

In media news this month, EFA has collaborated in writing a paper on research needs in allergy and is pleased to announce its data is mentioned in a new WHO-WMO ‘Atlas of Health and Climate’   EFA collaborates in new paper on research needs in allergy EFA and the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) have collaborated to publish a new research paper on research needs in allergy. At a time when allergy has evolved into

The EU health Commissioner resigns causing fears to rise that the upcoming Tobacco Products’ Directive will be further delayed. John Dalli resigns as Health Commissioner as fears rise that progress on the Tobacco Products’ Directive will halt News broke on the 16th of October that John Dalli had resigned as EU Health Commissioner. This followed allegations made by a Swedish tobacco company that a Maltese acquaintance of the former Commissioner

After extensive presentations of the Finnish Allergy Programme, EFA is now taking delegations from 3 member countries to Finland 8th-9th November to first hand educational event on how the programme was initiated and how it is run in view of initiating similar programmes in their countries. This is part of the EFA Allergy Project and the successful launch event for the EFA Book on Respiratory Allergies: Raise Awareness, Relieve the Burden to promote

The adoption of the new EU regulation on the provision of food information to consumers by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU was welcomed by EFA as a positive step to enhance the protection of the health of people with allergies. Clear and understandable food information helps consumers make better-informed choices and safe use of food, important for people with food allergy or intolerance or with special dietary requirements because

Greetings from the EFA Board who held their meeting on the 19th of September in Brussels. Please save the date and venue of our next AGM and network meeting in your diary: the 31st of May to the 1st of June 2013 in Rome, Italy, invited by Associazione Italiana Pazienti BPCO. This month the Board discussed a draft paper on strategic priorities for 2013 and reviewed the excellent progress of our work plan this year. EFA is organising an alignment meeting

EFA launched a new video earlier this month in which Austrian MEP Karin Kadenbach speaks about how EFA’s EU work can contribute to concrete change for allergy patients across Europe. At the annual Congress of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) in Vienna this year, EFA’s Symposium was proud to display a new video of Karin Kadenbach, Austrian Member of the European Parliament, who spoke to EFA on the subject of EU healthcare policy and why