Welcome to the June 2006 edition of the EFA ezine!

I am delighted to let you know that the European Parliament has in their plenary session in Strasbourg 15 June voted in favour of the amendments on allergic and respiratory diseases as major diseases alongside with handful of other diseases to be targeted in translational, clinical and diet related research for the FP7, EU 7th Framework Programme for Research for 2007-2013. In other words, everything and more than we asked for! Moreover, the Parliament accepted the Commission proposal provided that they follow their amendments. EFA urges the European Council to follow the Parliament example and invest now in research on allergy, asthma and COPD to increase our knowledge, to prevent and to improve the health related quality of life of the hundreds of millions of Europeans with these diseases.

We also welcome the news of the forthcoming Commission Green Paper on Smokefree Environments, which will hopefully lead to banning smoking in workplaces, including public places across the EU, and pave the way to a coordinated European action to enforce and empower all of our patients' right to breathe healthy indoor air, as recognised by the WHO.
 
Svein-Erik Myrseth
EFA President

EFA THADE project results published in Allergy

The results of THADE (Towards Healthy Air in Dwellings in Europe) project results have now been published in Allergy - a peer reviewed journal. The project results underline the serious environment and health issue that poses air pollution in dwellings, which involves the medical profession, scientific societies, patients' organizations, lawmakers, architects and the building industry.  EFA wishes to thank all the THADE experts, EFA member partners and scientific committee, and in particular Lally Franchi, the THADE coordinator and author and Erkka Valovirta, the corresponding author for all their hard work on this project. With the help of our members, we look forward to continue our work by emphasising the importance of healthy indoor air at European and international policy levels at a time when it is finally moving up in the EU health agenda.
The complete THADE report - Abstract of the article

EFA at the IPCRG and EAACI congresses

For the first time, EFA was represented at the International Primary Care Respiratory Group congress in Oslo 9-11 June, which brought together 420 general practitioners (GP) from 32 countries with special interest in respiratory diseases. In the pro- and con session on 'Is there a role for prevention in allergy?' EFA was invited to present the patient perspective, and briefly introduced the EFA strategy on prevention, problems for patients in terms of prevention advice, such as conflicting information and how the GPs might address this problem in their 'primary position' as messengers in primary care. EFA is pleased about the new and evolving partnership with GPs and looks forward to continue the good collaboration and exchange. The abstracts and presentations will shortly be accessible at www.theipcrg.org

At the European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology Congress (EAACI) 10-14 June in Vienna, EFA had a stand at the exhibition and promoted to the specialists our new Learn to Live with Asthma patient peer support project, a toolkit including the award winning educational movie on asthma. In addition, the Severe Asthma European Survey: Fighting for Breath and the THADE reports were handed out to the participants. The Global Allergy and Asthma European Network (GA²LEN) held a symposium entitled Does Rhinitis Lead to Asthma? theme for forthcoming campaign of the network, who is now producing a scientific report on the topic.
The congress with the theme Basic Science: A Prerequisite for Improving Patient Care, was the biggest ever for EAACI, with over 6400 participants.

EU news: update on the ambient air quality legislative process

In the run up for the voting of the European Parliament (EP) on the EU Thematic Strategy on Quality, and the accompanying directive on ambient air quality , on the 21 June, European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), EPHA Environment Network (EEN) and EFA sent a joint letter to the MEPs in the Environment and Health Committee (ENVI) to remind not to follow the EP Rapporteur of this file and compromise, and calling for higher level of ambition, no weakening of PM10 (particulate matter) standards, new legally binding limit value or minimum 20% reduction of PM2.5 exposure. The reduction of the adverse health effects of air pollution is an important objective where the EU can show that it really makes a positive difference to people's everyday lives or alternatively where it utterly fails.

EU news: FP7 and Environmental Research

GA²LEN, of which EFA is a partner, presented their priorities for environmental research during the Open Stakeholder Consultation "Priorities for environment and health research in FP7", organized by the European Commission's DG for Research, section on Environment on 22 May 2006 in Brussels.  There is a need for more research studies to be carried out to understand the role played by environmental factors (indoor and outdoor pollution - climate changes) and the increase of allergic diseases. The aim of the meeting was to present the first draft of the FP7 research priorities under the research area on Environment and Health, and we are delighted that the air pollution is one of the priorities. The European Commission and DG Research have also announced a significant increase in the research budget for FP7 to 73 billion euros and a structure based on four specific programmes (Cooperation, Ideas, People and Capacities). 

EU news: Launch of EU Public Health Portal

On 10 May 2006, a newly designed EU Public Health Portal was launched at the EU e-health 2006 conference in Malaga, Spain. The website, which is now available in English, but soon also in all 26 EU languages, includes six themes. These are: Health; Lifestyle; Environment; Health Problems; Care for Me; and Health in the EU. It intends to help citizens, professionals and policy makers in following the health related activities at European level.

EU news: Bulgarian and Romanian membership progress

6 May 2006 the European Commission published a monitoring report stating that Bulgaria and Romania could become members of the EU, as planned, on 1 January 2007, provided that the two countries meet specific reform-related requirements. We will keep you informed.
Source: EurActiv, 16 May 2006
http://www.euractiv.com/en/enlargement/bulgaria-romania-receive-conditional/article-155360

EU news: 1 July marks the start of the Finnish Presidency of the EU

Finland will be taking on the European Union Presidency from Austria from the 1 July until the end of 2006. As we mentioned in the EFA January ezine, both countries agreed on some common issues, including prosperity, security, better regulation, transparency and the EU budget, however while the Austrian Presidency concentrated on the ongoing legislative process on air quality, alongside with climate change and environmental technologies, as part of its health policy, the Finns will be focussing on the impact of other policies in health. EFA welcomes this approach, which acknowledges that health is also impacted by decisions taken outside the health sector; a good example being indoor air quality. In particular, the Presidency will focus on active ageing and the importance of healthier work environment.

EU news: 2007 European Year of Equal Opportunities

On 1 June, the European Commission welcomed the decision by the Council and Parliament to designate 2007 as 'European Year of Equal Opportunities for All'. The year will aim to make Europeans aware of their right not to be discriminated against, to promote equal opportunities in areas from work to healthcare, and to show how diversity makes the EU stronger. EFA very much hopes that this will include awareness and consideration for people with allergy, asthma and COPD, so as to ensure that they too have the right to equal opportunities for participation in society, without barriers. The year will have four themes: rights, representation, recognition and respect, with a total budget of Euros 15million for the 12 months' activities.

Tobacco News: The New Tobacco Control Scale, World No Tobacco Day and and New EU Survey shows drop in smokers across Europe.

On 25 May, a new scale to measure country activity' was released and published in the scientific journal Tobacco control (BMJ publication). The scale, which looks at the implementation of tobacco control policies in 2005 in 30 European countries was undertaken at the request of the European Network on Smoking Prevention (ENSP) and financed by the European Commission.
30 European countries were ranked by their total score on the scale out of a maximum possible score of 100. Only four countries (Ireland, UK, Norway, Iceland) scored 70 or more, with an eight point gap (most differences in scores are small) to the fifth country, Malta, on 62. This shows that European Union countries have much improvement to make in the field of tobacco control. See also The Report on Effective Tobacco Control Polices in the EU. 

This comes around the time of the World Health Organization's World No Tobacco Day 2006 31 May 2006. This year's WNTD theme was: Tobacco: Deadly in any form or disguise, referring to the expressions 'light', 'mild' and 'low ta' commonly used, healthier names for cigarettes, fruity brands and more attractive packaging. The purpose of World No Tobacco Day 2006 is to encourage countries and governments to work towards strict regulation of tobacco products. To celebrate WNTD 2006, the European Commission released its latest Eurobarometer survey on Europeans' attitudes towards tobacco  which reveals that the number of people smoking in the EU has dropped from 33% in 2002 to 27% by autumn 2005, and 80% of Europeans would like to see smoking banned in public places. This belies a sharp fall in the number of smokers in the EU since 2002.

Tobacco news: EC Proposal for the modernisation of the Television without Frontiers Directive

The European Commission has released a memo (MEMO/06/208) outlining in the form of Frequently Asked Questions the proposals for modernisation of the Television without Frontiers Directive 1989/52/EEC, which was published in 1989, and which bans tobacco advertising from televisions across the European Union. This comes as the results of a resolution adopted on 4 September 2003, in which the European Parliament called for a complete overhaul of this directive to take account of technological developments and changes in the structure of the audiovisual market. The ban of tobacco advertising on television is untouched. The European Commission's Fifth Report to the European Council, the European Committee of Regions and Parliament on the subject of this modernisation is available online.
Source: European Commission Rapid Press Release, 18 May 2006

New book released in Patient Mobility in the EU

Patient Mobility in the European Union - Learning From Experience is the name of a new book launched on 29 May 2006 in the European Parliament by the Europe 4 Patients project and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.  The book includes a collection of case studies and insights from across Europe, provides a wealth of information on cross-border collaboration at a time when Patient Mobility is moving up the EU health agenda.

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