Skip to content ↓
Press Room

Combating Air Pollution and Lack of Lung Doctors Key to Reducing Global Burden of Asthma

Note: World Lung Foundation united with The Union North America. From January 2016, the combined organization is known as “Vital Strategies.”

May 5th, 2015, New York, United States – To mark World Asthma Day, World Lung Foundation (WLF) today called for more rapid and effective action to reduce air pollution and more investment in training lung health specialist doctors in low and middle income countries, in order to help asthma sufferers better manage their condition. WLF further called for economists, environmentalists and development professionals to join with health professionals in the fight against the rising burden of asthma, particularly in low and middle income countries.

Dr Neil Schluger, Chief Scientific Officer, World Lung Foundation, commented: “While asthma sufferers can be helped to manage their condition more effectively, they need to be diagnosed, treated and trained in the management of their condition by properly qualified medical professionals. Many low and middle income countries simply don’t have sufficient capacity in terms of the number of lung health specialists or general practitioners to serve their populations. That needs to change if we are to prevent an increasing toll of needless deaths from asthma. As we have shown with our East Africa Training Initiative, academic and government partnerships can help to increase sustainable capacity in a highly effective way and we would recommend this approach in any country with a lack of lung health specialists. 

“However, even asthma sufferers who do their best to manage their condition can still fall victim to environmental factors that are outside their control. For example, many studies have shown a correlation between air pollution and asthma exacerbations. India and China are home to a number of the world’s most heavily polluted cities, but this is masking the increasing burden in developing nations in Africa. Heavy industry is being outsourced to a number of African countries because of low costs and a lack of or unenforced environmental regulation to reduce the resultant pollutants. And while polluting industries are a major problem, we cannot ignore the polluting vehicles, cookstoves and cigarette smoke that also contribute to poor air quality. 

“The global demographic trend towards urbanization means that the majority of the world’s population lives in crowded cities, where the negative impact of these preventable pollutants is amplified – to the detriment of their residents, and particularly to the detriment of those suffering from asthma and other lung health problems. This year, nearly half of Africa’s population will live in urban areas compared with only 5% in 1900. Taken together, growing urban populations, a lack of accessible and affordable medical care and treatment, and increased levels of industrial and individually-generated air pollution is likely to make things much worse for people with lung disease generally and asthma in particular.  Yet the economic and civic benefits of good health are well known. We appeal to those in the development, economic and environmental communities to join the fight against asthma and encourage governments to address these preventable problems.”