On June 5th, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) organised the World Environment Day. Established already in the early 1970s, the action day has become a global action opportunity, with more than 100 countries participating in encouraging worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment.
2019 World Environment Day focused on how to #BeatAirPollution
This year we all convened to #BeatAirPollution and share ways to improve air quality – an issue highly relevant for people living with allergy and airways diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Raising awareness for respiratory patients on World Environment Day
At EFA, we used World Environment Day and the parallel EU Climate Dialogue taking place in Turin, as an opportunity to raise awareness on how air pollution affects allergy, asthma and COPD patients in Europe.
On Social Media, we disseminated our messages and videos pinpointing the highly negative effects air pollution has on our health and asking EU policy makers to take the necessary steps to #BeatAirPollution. We need them to #ShowLeadership to improve the quality of the air we breathe.
Doing so, we were in good company. We are happy to see that related to World Environment Day, more than 26 thousand messages have been spread alone on twitter, and many more on the media, emphasizing the need to reduce air pollution and increase air quality.
Air pollution affects patients’ quality of life
In Europe, 422,000 people die every year due to air polluted by industrial and traffic emissions or agricultural emissions. In particular, patients living with respiratory disease such as asthma and COPD exacerbation their symptoms worsening, as air pollution reduces lung function, irritates the nose and throat, causes wheezing, coughing and pain when taking a deep breath.