EFA eZine November 2005

Welcome to the November 'World COPD Day' issue of the EFA online newsletter

Despite the fact that COPD affects 44 million people in Europe and weights heavily on the pockets of European governments, the awareness of the disease is low, even among the health NGOs, and the European Community has failed to recognise COPD as a major public health problem in its programmes and strategies.  Today is World COPD Day 2005: 'Breathless Not Helpless!' We would like to draw your attention to EFA's press release: 'Breaking the Silence: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease' and information about COPD on the EFA website.
We look forward to hearing about your activities on World COPD Day!

Best wishes,
EFA Central Office

Newly renovated allergy and tobacco literature library re-opened in Brussels

EFA members FARES and Prevention des Allergies (PA) re-launched their Brussels library on allergic diseases and tobacco control, which is open to the public (For details: biliotheque@fares.be). Newly included in the renovation is that the library now caters to allergic visitors and offers educational materials, studies, legislation, as well as newspapers, journals and even articles. FARES and PA have used this opportunity to raise awareness of actions to improve the indoor air quality in public and workplaces, school and home, including banning smoking, the use of low emitting finishing products and furnishing, easy to clean surfaces and limited access to pets.

LHL General Assembly calls for less inequality and more health

350 voting members of the EFA member Norwegian Heart and Lung Association (LHL) gathered for their 21st assembly 29-30 October in Oslo and adopted their priorities for the next three years. These include voluntary work, lung patients and rehabilitation. In line with their mission statement 'joy of life, meaningful life and solidarity' their new political programme calls for reducing health inequalities and discrimination and smoke free society among others. EFA President Svein-Erik Myrseth was re-elected as LHL President and awarded with gold medal for his lifework for heart and lung patients in Norway and abroad. The warmest congratulations for Svein-Erik!
Full report available to EFA members.

Report discredits patient groups due to pharmaceutical funding

A Dutch-based non-profit organization called 'Health Action International' (HAI) has produced a report in July 2005 entitled, 'Does the European patients' Forum represent patient or industry interests? - A case study in the need for mandatory financial disclosure' which discredits patient groups over pharmaceutical industry funding and for lack of transparency. This 'evidence' is being presented to the UK Health Select Committee's inquiry into the influence of the pharmaceutical industry with the support of UK MEP Paul Flynn and it seems that the spotlight is now widening the investigation to a European level with the Select Committee's report being prepared for presentation to the Council of Europe. EPF have had contact with the European Commission and Mr Flynn to clarify its position, innocence and new draft sponsorship programme, and regretted the fact that it was not contacted for information before the report was made public. EFA has also been contacted and has responded with full cooperation and transparency.

If you have been contacted by any such organization or individual, we look forward to hearing from you and if you are an EFA member, please go to the EFA online discussion to discuss this further.

Latest on the EU Chemicals Policy Review (REACH)

The debate on how to regulate the untested chemicals in our daily lives intensifies as both the European Parliament and the Council gear up for their final positions on the EU chemicals regulation known as REACH in November. Despite intensive industry lobbying to water down the proposals, the European Parliament Committee for Environment and Health held its ground and voted to improve the REACH proposal by supporting amendments to protect children's health. The Environment Committee also strengthened the procedures to restrict the continued use of hazardous chemicals.

Prior to the vote of the European Parliament this Thursday, NGOs and other public interest advocacy groups across Europe are dismayed at the current political developments in the REACH debate, as many members of the EP (MEPs) and the new German government seem to conspire to ensure that REACH will be weakened and delayed. EPHA Environment Network (EEN) together with some MEPs are advocating to make sure that we end up with a healthy REACH, without delay. Doctors, young people and trade unions are all calling for a strong REACH that puts enormous cost savings to people's health and environmental protection above narrow industry interests.
Source: News via EEN website

EFA's briefing on REACH is available to EFA members and you may be interested to read a report by University of Sheffield on the potential Impact of REACH on Occupational Health. According to this report 40.000 asthma, 10.000 COPD and 40.000 dermatitis cases in the future could be prevented among the EU workers by the regulation.

Conferences and events in 2006

The International Alliance of Patients' Organizations (IAPO) is holding its 2nd Global Conference in Barcelona from 22-24 February 2006. The theme of the Congress is "Together we can..." reflecting the strong sense from the inaugral conference of the opportunities to build the capacity of our organizations through sharing best practice, knowledge and experiences. For more information see the IAPO website.

The Healthy Buildings 2006 International Conference on Air Quality, endorsed by EFA, is being held in Lisbon from 4-8 June 2006. Topics to be covered during the conference include: indoor air quality (IAQ); indoor climate; building related diseases and human response; design and operation of healthy buildings; materials, systems and technologies for healthy buildings and policies and practice issues in creating healthy buildings. For more information see the HB2006 website.

New EU food labelling Directive enters into force at last!

The new labelling rules for foodstuffs in the EU will enter into force 25 November 2005. Following a successful campaign by EFA and our members, the directive aims to ensure that all ingredients in foodstuffs will have to be included on the label, which will enable consumers suffering from food allergies take better control of the treatment of their disease. The new Directive also establishes a list of ingredients liable to cause allergies or intolerances, which always have to be labelled with clear reference to their name and that this list will be updated according to new evidence.

Last July the Commission published guidelines drafted together with the member states on how to label the allergens listed. Currently the best ways on how to interpret these guidelines from the regulators, allergic consumers and industry perspectives are being debated both at member state and European level. The directive as well as the guidelines is available online.

EU action to tackle health inequalities

UK Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt, speaking at the Tackling Health Inequalities - Governing for Health Summit (cf: ezine 3)in London on 17 October 2005, called for action by all EU Member States to counteract the cycle of poor health among disadvantaged groups. She said: "Almost all important health problems, and major causes of premature death across Europe are more common among people with lower levels of education and income." EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Markos Kyprianou, said: "We want our social model and our economic model to deliver prosperity and a fair distribution of health. By helping to share and promote best practice on solutions that work, this summit can help us in this goal."
Source: UK Department of Health via ENSP

New reports on passive smoking

On 29 March 2004, Ireland became the first country to ban smoking in indoor workplaces. The effectiveness of this major public health initiative on exposure and risk for bar workers in Galway city was assessed and nine city pubs were sampled for particulate matter as a marker of second-hand smoke concentrations. There was a significant reduction; up to 96% in PM 2.5  and PM 10 76% compared to pre-ban. The Report 'How does the Irish Ban measure Up?' may be a useful tool in promoting smoke free policies in your country.

A report on passive smoking by the Tobacco Advisory Group of the Royal College of Physicians  entitled "Going Smoke-Free: The medical case for clean air in the home, at work and in public places" has been published and is available online. Compiled by leading experts in the field, and based on extensive research, this report addresses the serious consequences of passive smoking in the UK. It appraises the health impacts and policy options for preventing passive smoke exposure in the home, at work and in public places.

EFA values your privacy and respects the Belgian law of December 8, 1992 on 'Privacy Protection in relation to the Processing of Personal Data' as modified by the law of December 11, 1998 implementing Directive 95/46/EC, with particular respect to article 4.