FIRS addresses tobacco industry on World No Tobacco Day

    On World No Tobacco Day (31 May 2022) the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) is voicing concerns over the tobacco industry’s impact on environmental health and ultimately lung health.

    The impact of tobacco production has been emphasized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as part of this year’s World No Tobacco Day theme: #Tobacco Exposed. The WHO notes that 600,000,000 trees are chopped down to make cigarettes, 84,000,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions are released into the air, which raises global temperatures, and 22,000,000,000 litres of water are used each year to make cigarettes. These are significant examples of the burden tobacco production places on environmental resources.

    Manufacturing processes of tobacco are only one part of the issue, with distribution, consumption and post-consumption waste increasing the threat to the environment.

    According to Prof. Jonathan Grigg, Chair of the European Respiratory Society’s Tobacco Control Committee:

    “Tobacco kills more than 8 million people per year. It harms the environment in countless ways, but we see time and time again the tobacco industry trying to mislead or distort the significant threat their industry presents to our environment. It is very important that they are held accountable and that the realities of their business are not disguised by tactics developed to show them in a better light.”

    This strategy of repositioning is not new in the tobacco industry. In January 2022, FIRS issued a statement in response to the authorised takeover of the Vectura Group, a pharmaceutical company producing inhaled medicines, by Phillip Morris International, a tobacco company.

    “The takeover of Vectura by Phillip Morris was a huge disappointment and another example of blurring lines and repositioning. Here we see a company which produces tobacco – synonymous with negative effects on health, diversifying into healthcare. The potential implications are of great concern.'' stated Grigg.

    Alongside a call for the tobacco industry to be held accountable for its role in harming the environment, FIRS urges everyone to stay well informed about tobacco industry practices. FIRS supports the message that we should all strive to be greener and to stop smoking - and help others to stop smoking - to improve our health and the health of our planet.

     

    The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) is an organisation comprised of the world's leading international respiratory societies working together to improve lung health globally. The goal of FIRS is to unify and enhance efforts to improve lung health through the combined work of its more than 70,000 members globally. 

    FIRS comprises the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), American Thoracic Society (ATS), the 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), Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS), the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), and the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD).

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    Closing Gaps in Asthma Care: World Asthma Day 2022

    On this World Asthma Day, May 3, 2022, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) calls on international respiratory communities to work together with colleagues, patients, communities and health care providers to close the gaps in asthma care.

    Although asthma cannot be cured, it is possible to control symptoms and reduce or prevent asthma attacks or exacerbations.

    There are key gaps in care which require intervention to reduce preventable suffering, as well as the costs incurred from uncontrolled asthma.

    In addition to unequal access to diagnosis and treatment, current gaps in asthma care include: 

    • unequal care between different socio-economic groups, populations, and ages
    • in access and affordability of recommended inhaled medication globally
    • in communication and care across the primary/secondary/tertiary care
    • in education for people with asthma and quality of asthma care plans
    • in asthma knowledge and awareness between health care providers
    • between scientific evidence and actual delivery of care for people with asthma.

    Global Initiative for Asthma’s (GINA) regularly updated and evidence-based strategy documents can help to address these disparities. However, implementing recommendations based on scientific evidence is challenging - not all local solutions are applicable globally and global recommendations may not be applicable locally. So, this year, the challenge is for international respiratory communities to work together to identify and close the gaps in asthma care, and to help implement and share innovative solutions locally and globally.

     

    Find out more about World Asthma Day awareness-raising activities at www.ginasthma.org.

    The American Thoracic Society provides patient fact sheets on asthma treatment as well as other respiratory disorders.

    The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) is an organisation comprised of the world's leading international respiratory societies working together to improve lung health globally through its 70,000+ members.

     FIRS comprises the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), American Thoracic Society (ATS), the 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), Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS), the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), and the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD).

     

     

     

     

    Statement of support for Ukraine

    The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine as the unfolding humanitarian disaster created by Russia’s invasion continues. We are deeply concerned about the impact on the health and wellbeing of communities in Ukraine and pledge our strong support to frontline workers, affected members, partner organisations and the 1,7 million people who have had to flee their homes.

    The displacement of thousands of people and the barrage of shelling that damages sanitation and health infrastructures create a humanitarian crisis with devastating health consequences, including exacerbating respiratory diseases that have already escalated due to COVID-19. 

    Ukrainian doctors and nurses have to postpone other care to focus on treating the wounded, despite the desperate shortages of essential hospital supplies, medicines and healthcare staff. WHO has warned that dangerously low oxygen reserves make it difficult to treat severe respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia and growing numbers of patients with COVID-19.

    Compounding the risk to patients, critical hospital services are also jeopardized by power shortages, and ambulances transporting patients are in danger of getting caught in the crossfire. Thousands of lives are at risk. 

    As we witness the escalation of atrocities, we call on our members and the wider respiratory community to support humanitarian aid initiatives for the Ukrainian people wherever possible.

    Our FIRS partner, the European Respiratory Society, has collated a list of initiatives giving support to refugees, providing medical aid packages, supporting paramedics and doctors on the front line, and offering emergency responses to children.

    Please consider supporting one or more of these active humanitarian aid initiatives:

    Links to external sources of medical advice can be found in the ERS disaster medicine resource.

    Alongside this call for support, the European Respiratory Society is currently taking steps to suspend collaborations with Russian and Belarusian societies.

    The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) is an organisation comprised of the world's leading international respiratory societies working together to improve lung health globally. The goal of FIRS is to unify and enhance efforts to improve lung health through the combined work of its more than 70,000 members globally. 

    FIRS comprises the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), American Thoracic Society (ATS), the 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), Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS), the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), and the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD).

     

     

     

     

    World TB Day: Breathing in science to eliminate TB

    On World TB Day 2022, we call on the TB community to challenge ourselves to think differently, champion science and embrace evidence-based innovation, if we are to end TB. 

    We have made great strides towards eliminating tuberculosis (TB) over the last 100 years. 

    The progress made to date has only been possible because of our commitment to research and innovation. While it is important to reflect on our achievements, we must continue to advance our knowledge through research and implement it into policy and practice. For the elimination of TB, this means: 

    • Prioritising active identification and treatment of everyone with TB to prevent transmission of the infectious disease. 
    • Using of the latest technological advances at our disposal – digital communications, imaging and diagnostic tools. 
    • Undertaking clinical, public health and operational research to create knowledge for action. 
    • Involving communities and motivating them to embrace the concept of eliminating TB. 
    • Challenging TB inequity globally – we can no longer accept that people in low- and middle-income countries are, every day, infected, becoming sick and dying with TB, while people in high-income countries are unaware that TB still exists. 

    With deaths increasing for the first time in over a decade – 1.5 million deaths in 2020 – TB must be treated as an emergency. Which is why we call on world leaders to keep the promises they made at the UN High-Level Meeting 2018 and #InvestToEndTB. 

    Despite the limited funding (in particular when compared with COVID-19), there have been significant TB research triumphs in the past decade, such as: 

    • Molecular tests make diagnosis possible in less than two hours, rather than 2–4 weeks 
    • Treatment of multidrug-resistant TB has been shortened from two years of toxic, injectable agents to six months of an all-oral regimen 
    • Treatment of TB infection has been cut from nine months to as short as 1–3 months with safer and better tolerated regimens 

    These breakthroughs are testament to our commitment to science. In order to make the next great breakthrough in TB elimination we must nurture an environment where evidence-based innovation can flourish. It will be challenging to sustain such an environment given the current hardships we are facing globally, including the millions of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine. 

    These times of unrest provide good conditions for TB and other lung diseases to run rampant. We must, however, remain positive and challenge ourselves to think differently, champion science and embrace evidence-based innovation to end TB.  

    The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) is an organisation comprised of the world's leading international respiratory societies working together to improve lung health globally. The goal of FIRS is to unify and enhance efforts to improve lung health through the combined work of its more than 70,000 members globally. 

    FIRS comprises the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), American Thoracic Society (ATS), the 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), Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS), the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), and the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD).

     

     

    Joint statement on the implications of Philip Morris International’s acquisition of Vectura

    Issued by: The European Respiratory Society, The American Thoracic Society, International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, Asian Pacific Society of Respirology, Asociación Latino Americana De Tórax, the Global Initiative for Asthma.

    As health care organizations focused on respiratory health, our missions demand that we actively address those actions which could contribute to an increase in lung disease and risk to individual and community health. We collectively objected to and campaigned against the highly unethical and inappropriate takeover of an inhaled medicines company by a tobacco company. Despite our best efforts, we are terribly disappointed that shareholders, regulators, and the UK government allowed this acquisition to be approved. This is just the latest example of tobacco companies diversifying into health care and we are very concerned about the implications for patients, scientists, and doctors.

    We are especially alarmed that technology currently used to deliver drugs to treat respiratory diseases could now be used to more efficiently deliver tobacco companies' harmful and addictive products that cause such diseases. This takeover is a dark episode for lung health and health in general and should not be repeated in the future. Tobacco products remain the leading cause of preventable death and disease worldwide. The profits, practices and power of the tobacco industry remain the biggest barriers to change. Past scientific misconduct by the industry has sown justifiable mistrust on the part of respiratory researchers and clinicians. Unified as a community, our organisations will continue to strenuously oppose future acquisitions of health care companies by the tobacco industry.

    Thus, we give official notice that our organizations and members cannot condone new interactions and links with any company wholly owned by a tobacco company such as Phillip Morris International.   This is in accordance with our rules, ethical codes, and the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (the UN Tobacco Control Treaty) guidance.

    Specifically:

    • Employees of tobacco-owned companies will not be permitted to publish papers in our journals or present at future meetings.

    • No products of tobacco-owned companies will be promoted at future events, including educational and scientific meetings, and or at any conferences we cosponsor or endorse.

    • We oppose the use of lung health care technology for addictive and harmful tobacco and nicotine products.

    • We reiterate our refusal to engage in partnerships or accept financial support from tobacco companies.

     • We urge governments to enact legislation in accordance with Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, to protect public interest, and prevent this tobacco tactic from happening again.

    • Furthermore, we reaffirm the fundamental principle that physicians must act in the patients’ best interests, including prescribing the most effective medication for the patient’s health condition.

    • We recommend that, provided it is appropriate and safe, health care professionals and patients do not use products newly developed by companies owned by the tobacco industry.  

    • Patients requesting to move away from current products of tobacco-owned companies should be given alternatives if appropriate and safe to do so, by their health care professionals.

    For more information contact Fiona Salter This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

     

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