EFA ezine December 2005

Welcome to the December edition of the EFA ezine

Let me take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful Christmas season and a happy and healthy new year 2006 from myself and everyone in the EFA Board and Central Office in Brussels. I am delighted to be welcoming you to the sixth edition of EFA’s online newsletter, which is going from strength to strength.

I have been asked recently ‘What is the purpose of the ezine?’ Generally, it is to provide you with information on current developments in issues related to allergy, asthma and COPD in Europe and to inform and educate the reader on related EU policy issues which we feel may be useful for you to know, so that you and us all as an EFA network can take action where needed and possible or discuss them with your organizations if you so choose. The ezine, along with EFA’s website, are EFA’s main information tools – they are electronic, fast, easy to distribute and share with your colleagues and up-to-date. We therefore hope that that both answer many of the queries you may or may not have voiced by email, phone or fax and we are always striving to improve the ezine and the website, so do send us your comments and constructive criticism. We are also very keen to hear your news, either for inclusion in the ezine or on the website, so please start thinking about what you can send us either sporadically or regularly by way of interesting and useful information about your activities and I will be writing more about this in the January ezine.

Best wishes,
Svein-Erik Myrseth - EFA President. 

Debate on EU Air Pollution

A public debate on the ‘EU Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution’ (See: October ezine) took place in the European Council under the UK Presidency on 2 December 2005. A directive on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe was on the agenda for discussion and input was accepted from members of civil society and NGOs. As you know, EFA produced a joint position paper on this issue with the EPHA Environment Network.(EEN) outlining the importance of clean air and the need for tough regulations on air quality. Opinions were given by representatives from the Environment ministries of various EU Members States. The strategy is in its very early stages and we are waiting to see when and how it is to officially proceed through the European Parliament. There will be further opportunities for EFA members to influence the outcome.  You can keep tracking the process also via EU Legislative Process website.

European Council reaches agreement on EU Paediatric Regulations

In their 9 December 2005 meeting, European Health Ministers reached political agreement on a draft European Parliament and Council Regulation on medicinal products for paediatric use. You may recall from our September ezine article, that this piece of EU paediatric legislation has been the subject of debate: The use of unlicensed and off-label medicine for children is widespread and it has been of increasing concern in recent years. This is of major concern in allergy and asthma, the most common chronic childhood diseases, and EFA has therefore supported the regulation, which will improve the availability of high quality medicines tested for use in children.

In its meeting last week, the Council agreed on a combination of incentives and obligations for pharmaceutical industry. The main obligation is that a paediatric plan must be submitted as part of the procedure for marketing authorisation of a medicine. There will also be broader public access to information on paediatric clinical trials and three representatives from patient organisations will be invited to take part in the Paediatric Committee, which according to the regulation will be created with expertise in all aspects related to medicines for children is central to the proposal and its operation.

The Paediatric Committee, which will be managed by the EMEA (European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products) will be responsible primarily for the assessment and agreement of paediatric investigation plans and requests for waivers and deferrals, whilst in all its work considering the potential significant therapeutic benefits of studies in children including the need to avoid unnecessary studies. This is good news for patient groups, though this agreement has yet to be formally adopted by the Council. It will then be passed to the European Parliament and enter into its second reading, as part of the EU legislative co-decision procedure. You can keep tracking the process also via EU Legislative Process website..

The State of the Environment in Europe: New EEA report

The European Environment Agency in Copenhagen have just released an enlightening  report on 'The European environment - State and outlook 2005' that provides a valuable overview of the state of the environment in 31 European countries over the last five years and points to the main environmental concerns such as climate change, air pollution etc. on which policy makers, businesses and individuals must act on now or pay a heavy price later.

While progress has been made generally on air pollution, much remains to be done. According to the report, Europe loses 200 million working days a year to air pollution-related illness. While some of us look mainly at the effect of diseases on patients and the immediate causes, this report gives a wider view and we learn about outdoor air pollution, for example: “The OECD estimates that 6.4 % of deaths and illnesses in young European children are caused by outdoor pollution… Improvements in transport technologies, from hybrids to hydrogen fuelled vehicles, all have their parts to play in reducing the exposure. So, too, does urban planning“…   See the Executive summary of the report. 

Patient Conference on Stem Cells

Stem cells are thought hold the potential for new therapies. A European conference is being held in Brussels focussing, for the first time, on what patient representatives think about stem cell research and therapy. Although the conference is not focusing specifically to allergic and respiratory diseases this is an area of ethical debate and of interest for all chronic diseases. The Conference , which takes place 14-15 December 2005 has a website with useful background information on stem cell research and collection of news stories on the topic.

Belgium implements picture warnings on cigarette packs

Picture warnings will appear on all cigarette packs in Belgium by World No Tobacco Day 31 May 2007. This news was published in the Belgian Official Journal on 30 November. Belgium is the first Member State to implement the European Commission decision 2003/641/EC to publish picture warnings that depict and explain the health consequences of smoking. Scientific data from countries such as Canada and Brazil, that already publish pictures on cigarette packs showing the dangerous effects of tobacco use on health shows that they help curb tobacco use and uptake. It is hoped that other European countries will also decide to follow this initiative.
Source: ENSP bulletin

REACH could lead to improved information and regulation of cigarette ingredients

In EFA’s November ezine we wrote to you about the debate going on at EU level on how to regulate the untested chemicals, the EU Chemicals review (REACH). Although we know that some of the chemicals contained in the review are surely contained in indoor air pollutants such as tobacco smoke, the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) has recently shown that there are up to 600 additives in cigarettes and that when it is implemented, EU-wide uniform regulation on chemicals would not only force tobacco companies to disclose all chemicals in cigarettes, it would also compel them to prove the harmlessness of each substance.
For more information: German newspaper ‘Stern’ and DKFZ fact sheet on additives
Source: ENSP News Bulletin 

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