The 13th EFA meeting entitled the Future of Patient Organisations
was held in Rome in June and ASL attendees included Dr. John McKeon (CEO) and Dr. Tim Yeomans (Senior Scientific Researcher). EFA is a European network of patient organisations that was established to serve the needs and safeguard the rights of patients and their carers.
The subject of the conference was the future of patient organisations with interesting presentations on this topic. There were also very informative talks on food allergy, indoor air health, consumer products and the prevalence of asthma and allergies.
Some key points included:
- By 2015 it is likely that 1 in 2 people will suffer from some form of allergy [1].
- Under-treatment of allergy in Europe last year led to a cost of €100 million [1].
- One person dies from asthma every hour in Western Europe [2].
- The EU should fund studies on environmental factors that cause/affect asthma [2].
- Man made chemicals account for 8-20% of indoor air health risks [3].
- In order to reduce allergies, the causes must be tackled, known causes include tobacco smoke, poor local air quality, poor indoor air quality [4].
Although the presentations on asthma and allergies covered a variety of areas, a common theme linked the majority of presentations; indoor air quality.
Control of indoor air quality plays a large role in the management of asthma and allergies.
At Allergy Standards, through the operation of the asthma & allergy friendlyTM Certification Program in conjunction with our partner organisations, we are committed to improving indoor air quality for consumers through their use of our certified products.
References:
[1] Torsten Zuberbier, Global Allergy and Asthma European Network
[2] Rob Horne, University of London
[3] Matti Jantunen, EnVIE
[4] Geir Endregard, Norwegian Asthma and Allergy Association (NAAF)
