Dear CHEST Leaders, Members, and Friends:
The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) is an organization comprised of the world’s leading international professional respiratory societies presenting a unifying voice to improve lung health globally. Its members are: the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), American Thoracic Society (ATS), Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR), Asociación Latino Americana De Tórax (ALAT), European Respiratory Society (ERS), International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (The Union), the Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS), the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD), and the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA). FIRS has more than 70,000 professional members; the physicians and patients they serve magnify our efforts, allowing FIRS to speak for lung health on a global scale.
FIRS is working with the World Health Organization and the United Nations to make sure lung health is represented in national health agendas. FIRS’ position paper on electronic nicotine delivery systems was presented at a side-event at the United Nations High-Level Meeting (UNHL) in New York in 2014 and is now a world standard. At the recent World Health Assembly meeting (May 2017) in Geneva, FIRS launched its Global Impact of Lung Disease report that called for a global clean air standard, strong anti-tobacco laws, and better health care for patients with respiratory disease.
FIRS will be reviewing the new WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines and will help promote them globally through advocacy and messaging, as well as by providing air quality expertise. FIRS will be involved at the Coimbra meeting (Sept 26-29) on improving the urban environment, the Montevideo UN High-Level (UNHL) meeting on chronic disease (Oct 18-20), and the UN Ministerial Meeting in Moscow on tuberculosis, and it is preparing for the 2018 UNHL meetings on antibiotic drug resistance, tuberculosis, and chronic diseases.
At the World Health Assembly, FIRS proclaimed September 25 as World Lung Day and hopes to use this as a rallying point for advocacy related to respiratory health or air quality. Lung Disease is the only major chronic disease that does not have a World Day. FIRS produced a Charter for Lung Health (www.firsnet.org/publications/charter) and hopes to have 100,000 persons sign on to it. FIRS also seeks to have lung-health organizations sign on and develop activities that can be carried out to celebrate lung health. Uruguay was the first country to sign the charter. The logos of the organizations who have signed the charter are on the FIRS website at firsnet.org. Activities being planned include editorials, newsletters, and letters-to-the-editor articles, legislative proclamations, social media exposure, and free spirometry, smoking cessation guidance, and carbon monoxide testing, but FIRS is looking for many more ways to celebrate healthy lungs on September 25 and many more partners!
Sixty-five million people suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 3 million die of it each year, making it the third leading cause of death worldwide; 10 million people develop tuberculosis and 1.4 million die of it each year, making it the most common deadly infectious disease; 1.6 million people die of lung cancer each year, making it the most deadly cancer; 334 million people suffer from asthma, making it the most common chronic disease of childhood; pneumonia kills millions of people each year, making it a leading cause of death in the very young and very old. At least 2 billion people are exposed to toxic indoor smoke; 1 billion inhale polluted outdoor air; and 1 billion are exposed to tobacco smoke, and the tragedy is that many conditions are getting worse. We cannot sit still and allow this to happen.
FIRS proposes a multipronged campaign to combat lung disease to bring together all people concerned with lung health. It starts with naming September 25 World Lung Day and calling on respiratory health organizations to pledge to improve lung health and help identify ways to celebrate this day.
Please sign up, and share this call for action with your professional, advocacy, and social networks, and those of your friends and families. Please do your part as global citizens to improve lung health. To do so, organizations should indicate they wish to sign on and send their logo to Betty Sax, FIRS Secretariat, betty.sax@ersnet.org. Organizations should also encourage individuals to sign on and show that they are committed to increasing awareness and action to promote global lung health.
Thank you.
Gerard Silvestri, MD, MS, FCCP
CHEST President
Darcy Marciniuk, MD, FCCP
CHEST FIRS Liaison