Oscar Wilde said "Smoking is the perfect type of perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and leaves one unsatisfied. What more could one want?" I believe that Oscar Wilde's comment is a perfect description of the way smoking is presented promotionally.
However, once we leave artists and turn to scientific facts, we see that the pleasure Oscar Wilde is referring to constitutes a very serious contemporary epidemic. To prove this, we need only to quote recent WHO data, which predict 150 million deaths caused by tobacco within the period 2000-2025 and that approximately 500 million people alive today will be killed by tobacco. This amounts to 8 times the highest estimate for World War II mortalities.
It is appropriate to conceptualize the epidemic of diseases caused by tobacco as similar to other epidemics [1], e.g. malaria. There is a disease agent (tobacco/bacteria), a factor that ensures that this agent reaches humans (tobacco industry/mosquitoes) and an environment which allows the agent to operate (socioeconomic and personal context/swamps). From the standpoint of disease control, there are essentially no differences between understanding the working of swamps in order to best control the mosquitoes and understanding the nature of the regulatory economic and political environment in order to control the tobacco industry.
The role of the physician in an epidemic is well established. He has to discover the cause of the epidemic and the environmental circumstances which allow the causative agent to affect the population and devise appropriate treatment and prevention of the epidemic. In the case of smoking, we are dealing with a business-based disease agent, which acts within a financial and political context. These particularities require physicians to enlarge the scope of their interventions and get involved in political and economic issues, while, at the same time, maintaining their objectivity as scientists.
As in any epidemic, the first thing that a physician combating this particular epidemic has to do is establish the harm caused by smoking. At the beginning of the 1950s, research had already been published showing a statistical link between smoking and lung cancer. At the same time, the tobacco industry's own research began to find carcinogens in smoke and started confirming the relationship between smoking and cancer. Since then, a huge number of papers has resulted in a vast accumulated knowledge on the hazardous effects of tobacco consumption.
In this area, physicians and other scientists have done a marvellous job, which curiously has not translated into action matching the magnitude of their findings. The scientific community worldwide responds to these datain a paradoxical way, which is incompatible with its centuries-long tradition. Instead of staging a war, it appears more or less immobilized. What is the reason for this incomprehensible attitude? I believe that it is the natural outcome of the distortion of the truth, which propagates the myths enveloping cigarette smoking and leads to political mistakes. This distortion, emanating mainly from the tobacco industry, infects governments and politicians, spreading to the media, the scientific community, physicians, parents, teachers, and the general public.
This distortion is best portrayed in the unprecedented manner in which this disease agent actively and forcefully resists attempts to cause it curtailment. It denies causing any damage and presents attempts at prevention or treatment as damaging to smokers. In the face of mounting damning evidence against its product, the tobacco industry has responded by creating doubt and controversy regarding the health risks involved. Publicly, the overriding policy of the companies has been to argue that they are not qualified to comment on the health consequences of smoking, while, at the same time, doing so by creating confusion and "keeping the controversy open". This has been done by, on the one hand, denying existing evidence, whilst, on the other, demanding absolute proof of causation and calling for more research, including research designed to look at other causes of cancer. Their statements often include phrases such as "no substantial clinical evidence", "nothing has been scientifically proven" or "there is no scientific causality and conclusive proof".
Unfortunately, since the issue of the damage caused by cigarette smoking has political and economic ramifications, some physicians have entered the service of the tobacco industry, "infecting" the international literature with their articles, and thus cultivating doubt regarding the health risks of smoking. During a trial of the tobacco industry in the state of Massachusetts, it was revealed that 13 scientists had received more than US$156,000 in return for questioning the validity of official reports which proved that 20% of lung cancer cases among nonsmokers were due to passive smoking. In addition to these dubious practices, insurance companies belonging to the tobacco industry are charging double premiums to smokers.
Now, the physicians who have made tremendous scientific progress in establishing the damaging effects of cigarette smoking have to move on and develop environmental interventions and measures for the control of this epidemic. This is the logical action of responsible people. A tobacco control programme, apart from being comprehensive and monitored by physicians, should aim to achieve the following.
A very efficient way of reducing the demand for tobacco products is to denormalize the product. Until now, strategies for combating the tobacco epidemic have been heavily reliant on educating people regarding the health risks of cigarette smoking. This is still crucial, but not sufficient. In Greece, we studied the attitudes towards smoking and smoking behaviour of 6,000 children and adolescents who were 8-18 years of age. It was found that even though the primary school children were well informed about the health hazards of cigarette smoking, they considered this information rather irrelevant to them, thus rendering its impact on their attitudes toward smoking and their smoking behaviour minimal. A striking finding was the degree of normalization of the smoking habit. This is very important, since normalization is considered to be the best predictor of smoking initiation in youth. Normalization can only be counteracted if information is coupled with action. People have to become actively involved in the campaign against tobacco, following the example of those who know best, the respiratory physicians. Chest physicians have to proclaim the tobacco epidemic the number one health problem of our society and urge the state to take all necessary measures against it. Otherwise, the public, and especially children, could interpret their behaviour as condoning smoking, as a normative behaviour not yet adequately proven dangerous.
Another significant measure for controlling the demand for tobacco products is the banning of all types of tobacco advertising, direct and indirect, sponsorship advertising and brand advertising through packaging. Advertisement has proven to be one of the major factors enticing children and adolescents to commence smoking. This age group is sought after by the tobacco industry, since youngsters will replace, for many years, although fewer than had they not started smoking, the customers who lose their lives because of this deadly habit. Cigarette advertising acts as a shaping force for the adolescent ideal self-image, projecting powerful and glamorous images of smokers, such as the famous Marlboro cowboy, who the youngsters try to imitate. In addition, continued exposure to cigarette advertising affects perceptions of smoking prevalence among adults and peers, and thus normalizes smoking. An advertisement ban, when enforced, has been proven to be an effective environmental intervention for the restriction of the epidemic [2] in many countries, such as New Zealand, Canada, Finland, France and Iceland. In Norway, tobacco total consumption dropped by 12% after an advertisement ban in 1975, and the percentage of regular smokers among the 16-24 years of age dropped from 43% to 29% in 1996. On 13 May 1998, the European Parliament took the historic step of banning direct and indirect tobacco advertisement in all its member countries. This step was a major goal of the European Respiratory Society and other antismoking campaigns across Europe. The success of the ERS regarding the banning of tobacco advertising underlines the ability of the physician to critically influence the development of life-saving policies.
This could be achieved by promoting regulations for the sale of tobacco products such as: raising prices, raising the minimum age for purchasing tobacco, decreasing the number of sales outlets, banning vending machine sales and small packets (kiddie packs), etc. These measures would limit the accessibility of tobacco, especially for young people, and would act as evidence of the determination of the community to tackle this hazardous and non-normative behaviour. Physicians need to be active lobbyists, persuading politicians that human life is a more valuable national asset by far than the financial benefits incurred through the sale of a killer substance.
The tobacco industry often assumes the role of protector of human rights and liberty. It presents antismoking laws as extreme, with no scientific support and dangerous to human rights. It claims that it is an inalienable right of everybody to do whatever they want with their body and health. However, in a free and democratic society, the exercise of a right also includes a responsibility, the undertaking of which presupposes informed consent. That is, the person should be aware of the consequences of their habit/action in order to be able to take responsibility for its continuation. The latter is an objective rather than an actuality. Moreover, while we could presume consent for the danger in adults, this becomes rather dubious and is indisputably legally unsubstantiated in children and adolescents, the favourite target of the smoking advertisements.
Physicians should counter the tobacco industry's attitude and work with dedication towards the establishment of appropriate informed consent by: a) providing better information to the buyer, i.e. improving package warnings, requiring package insert warnings, forcing disclosure of toxin and additive content and, finally, creating effective media campaigns and improving the existing media warnings; and b) removing industry disinformation via advertising and false labelling (e.g. "light", "mild", and "super light").
These measures protect nonusers from environmental tobacco smoke (second-hand smoke) in workplaces and public places, as well as children at home. They obviously have a direct positive effect on the health of nonsmokers. It is interesting, too, to assess the indirect effect of a Clean Indoor Air Policy on smokers' behaviour. A number of reports show that smoke-free policies, especially in workplaces, are associated with a significant reduction in the prevalence of smoking and/or the level of cigarette consumption [3] and increased attempts at cessation among smokers [4]. In addition, such measures help young children to see smoking as an almost illegal and unacceptable behaviour, thus preventing the initiation of the habit.
The new campaign marshalled by the tobacco industry concerning the rights of the smokers has to do with the fact that the proliferation of smoking restrictions reduces total cigarette consumption, thus endangering the profits of the industry. Workplace smoking restrictions in California alone cost the industry US$203 million per year in lost sales [5]. This is the result of painstaking research carried out by dedicated physicians who established the harmful effect of passive smoking. We should pursue this initiative.
Doctors should use their knowledge and authority to make the state deal with tobacco as a potentially dangerous pharmaceutical product with side-effects. It israther odd that the strict regulations concerning the use of nicotine in nontobacco products for replacement therapy are forgotten when we come to cigarettes. Products which are meant to provide an alternative source of nicotine for those otherwise forced by their dependency to smoke are very difficult to bring to market. On the other hand, it is a provocation to see that laws designed to protect consumers, such as the Hazardous Products Act in Canada, often have a specific exemption for tobacco products. All this because tobacco has historically acquired legal status. It is high time that governments undertook to create comprehensive national tobacco programmes. Various legislative several measures and the development of educational programmes are effective means of doing this. Politicians need our help.
Physicians must support the users of tobacco, mainly to break their addiction but also to obtain compensation from manufacturers on the basis of industry criminality and civil misbehaviour. Governments should rank treatment as an important public health priority. Healthcare systems should offer practical interventions to all tobacco users, regardless of economic level, age and sex. This process is facilitated by the incorporation of tobacco dependence treatment into drug abuse treatment, reproductive and mother-child services and other programmes. Clearly, governments and healthcare organizers should develop treatment based on methods that have been demonstrated to be effective and make it widely available. There is no question that the role of the chest physician is crucial to this goal. Finally, it is essential to develop new treatments. Hence, governments should invest in the science and technology of new therapeutic interventions. Let us not forget that giving up smoking is not easy. We know that nicotine is powerfully addictive and that many people have tried to give up smoking but found themselves drawn back to it a few months later. This is a research challenge to us and we have to rise to it.
In conclusion, I would like to repeat that medicine is a science with heavy moral obligations towards individuals and nations. We cannot shy away in the face of this epidemic, using as a cover pseudoscientific statements such as ""nothing has been proven beyond doubt", "my duty as a physician is to conduct research and publish the data". Such a position is as dangerous and deceitful as the conscious falsification of research data. Disapproval of the scientists who knowingly work against the truth does not suffice. It is the responsibility of physicians to inform, educate and protect the public and this cannot be relegated in the name of attitudes such as "science for science's sake". Smoking concerns us all, smokers and nonsmokers alike. Tobacco is everybody's problem. It is a major health issue that cannot be ignored, particularly by the members of the ERS. In fact, it demands urgent action. Physicians, and especially chest physicians, cannot refuse the leadership role in matters pertaining to life and death, which their very profession entrusts to them. Hence, the exercise of our professional, political and ethical responsibility is of paramount importance.
1. Sweanor DT. - Regulation of tobacco and nicotine. In: The Tobacco Epidemic Progress in Respiratory Research. Vol. 28. 1997.
2. Melihan-Cheinin P, Hirsch A. - Effect of smoke-free environments, advertising bans and price increase. In: The Tobacco Epidemic Progress in Respiratory Research. Vol. 28. 1997.
3. Stave GM, Jackson GW. - Effect of a total work-site smoking ban on employee smoking and attitudes. J Occup Med 1991; 33: 884-890.
4. Sorensen G, Rigotti N, Rosen A, et al. - Effects of a work-site non-smoking policy: evidence for increased cessation. Am J Public Health 1991; 81: 202-204.
5. Glantz S, Woodruff TJ, Rosbrook B. - Workplace smoking ban reduces number of regular smokers. UCSF News. American Heart Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, CA, Nov 18, 1992.
CHARIS ROUSSOS
Past ERS President
Dear Colleagues and friends,
Welcome to Spain and to Madrid. We are delighted that Madrid has been chosen for the 1999 ERS congress. Madrid is ready, and will no doubt satisfy all your expectations and interest, as, for a few days, we will be in an incomparable learning environment, be with friends, meet new people and enjoy life to the full.
We are very satisfied with the scientific programme, as described by Marc Decramer in detail elsewhere in this issue, and the congress site. The Palacio de Congresos (the congress site), built recently by Ricardo Bofill, a well-known Spanish architect, is outstanding for its beauty, spaciousness and facilities. It will allow relaxed and friendly meetings, both in the meeting rooms and in the well-appointed hospitality areas, where scientific and personal encounters will be easy and natural. Situated between downtown Madrid and the airport, the Metro (underground railway system) will rapidly take you from your hotel to the door of the Palacio de Congresos. The same Metro, one stop away, will take you to the airport. Especially built for us! (or so it seems)
Be prepared for the excitement that Spain and Madrid offer. Spain is standing by to embrace the new millennium without losing any of its charm and personality, for which Spain and the Spaniards are well-known. Madrid is the perfect showcase for this. Full of history and according to legend it was founded by Ocnor Bianor, of Trojan descent. It is possible, we do not know for sure, that by the 9th Century a fortress was built by Emir Muhamed I, called the Magerit fortress and which in time became Madrid. Alfonse VI conquered Madrid from the Muslims in 1083 and, with time, it became an obligatory stopping off point for the Castilian kings in their medieval wars. Madrid finally became the capital of Spain in 1561, under Felipe II. A capital is built.
Be ready for its old magnificence, but also for its new elegance. Visit the museums, the Prado, the Reina Sofia and the Thyssen; they are among the best you will ever see. Be ready for the wonderful food and wine. Spaniards are always ready - that's why we prolong our days, having lunch at 14.30, dinner at 22.00 and something else in between.
Following the Opening Ceremony, there will be a cocktail party where you will be able to sample many foods from different regions of Spain, along with wine and music. After that, it will be up to you. There will be time to work as well as time for relaxation and enjoyment. But remember to come to the meeting the next day!
NICOLÁS GONZALEZ MANGADO
Congress Chairman
MANUEL COSIO
Co-chairman
This year's congress will be hosted by the Palacio Municipal de Congresos and the IFEMA at the Campo de las Naciones in Madrid (Spain) between 9 and 13 October 1999.
From the airport:
Madrid's international airport Barajas is located next to the congress venues and approximately 8 km from the city centre.
By bus:
Bus No. 89, which runs every 15 minutes on weekdays, takes you directly to the city centre. Palacio Municipal de Congresos venues can easily be reached from the City centre using bus No. 122. It takes approximately 10-15 minutes, depending upon traffic conditions.
By subway:
A new subway line (No. 8) goes directly to the Palacio Municipal de Congresos and the IFEMA. This is the first stop when coming from the airport and is called Campo de las Naciones.
By taxi:
Taxis in Madrid can be ordered by phone (Tel. 91 447 51 80) or found on official taxi ranks. Fares between the airport and the Palacio Municipal de Congresos are in the range of ESP 1,500, and to the city ESP 2,500, tip and VAT included.
Airlines
Our official carrier is Iberia. Apart from Iberia, the ERS has signed tariff agreements with several other airlines (Swissair, British Airways, etc.). The Geneva Branch of American Express has been asked to handle the reservations. Before you make your travel arrangements to Madrid, just send an e-mail to ers.madrid@amex.travel-agency.ch to receive a free of charge offer. If you want to make use of this offer, you can then confirm the arrangement and book your ticket through American Express.
Come and visit us at the ERS stand.
Please bring your membership card with you. This will facilitate the ERS in identifying you and help you, if necessary, clarify any matters related to your membership.
If you are not yet a member of the ERS, you can obtain information on the many benefits of ERS membership there. At the ERS stand, you will be able to talk directly to ERS staff and receive information about all our projects, publications and meetings. If you have any queries concerning ERS membership, or would like to become a member, please contact Tom Burke at the ERS headquarters in Lausanne (E-mail: tom.burke@ersnet.org).
You are invited to contact the European Respiratory Journal and European Respiratory Review to submit scientific papers throughout the year. These two publications and the European Respiratory Monograph are official publications of the European Respiratory Society and will be on display at the ERS stand. Sample copies will be available.
Learning Resource Centre material from the ERS Learning Resource Centre, including medical education programmes, can also be found on the ERS stand.
The scientific programme will be updated continuously on our Website (www.ersnet.org). There will be:
As usual, various business meetings have been scheduled during the congress. You will find the preliminary list included in this newsletter. Remember that the business meetings of the scientific groups, assemblies and sections, as well as the General Assembly, provide you with an opportunity to involve yourself in the scientific life of the ERS and participate in decision-making!
The "Early bird deadline" is 5 July 1999 and the pre-registration deadline is 6 September, 1999. Completed forms (including home address and date of birth) must be received, along with payment, at the ERS Headquarters in Lausanne by these dates.
New for Madrid 1999! You can now register for the congress on-line. To do so, please visit our Website (www.ersnet.org).
All pre-registered participants whose forms are processed before 23 August 1999 will receive their own personal copy of the final programme which will be sent to their home address (from registration form) before the congress and which includes full details of the scientific programme.
At the Congress Secretariat at the congress venue, there will be special desks for invited speakers, chairmen's assistance, refunds, the press, sponsored delegates from central and Eastern European countries and postgraduate courses and meet-the-professor seminars registration. Members of the ERS staff will also be present to handle any queries that you may have.
For any registration queries, please feel free to contact the ERS Headquarters or send us an e-mail (registr@ ersnet.org).
Press
The press centre will be located in the Palacio Municipal de Congresos. Our Press partner Cedos International will handle all journalists' requests. For press accreditation please send an e-mail to eric.fassbind@ersnet.org
Hotel booking
To book a room please contact our PCO, Tilesa, by fax (349) 1 355 92 08, phone (349) 1 361 2600 or by email ers99@tilesa.es
Congress transportation
The Congress venue is easily reachable from all major hotels by underground, which is the most convenient and fastest means of transport. Delegates will be issued free tickets on site. For hotels outside Madrid, shuttle buses will be organized.
Visas
Delegates requiring a visa for entry into Spain are strongly advised to make their application in their home country at least 3 months before their intended departure date. If in doubt, information can be obtained from your nearest Spanish Embassy or Consulate. Official letters of invitation can be furnished by the ERS, if necessary.
The Opening Ceremony will take place on 9 October in Auditorium A (Europa) of the Palacio Municipal de Congresos, and be broadcast by closed-circuit television to Auditorium B (America). Many prominent Spanish government officials, from the Autonomous Community of Madrid and the City Council, will be present. A selection of choral and Spanish music will be played. A "Verbena", a typical and traditional public celebration from Madrid, will follow later in the all-purpose hall. An assortment of Spanish food will be served as well as Spanish wines. Spanish and Latin American music will be played during the cocktail.
Admission is free to all registered participants (badge required). Please use the congress registration form to register.
The National Concert Hall is a modern building, built 12 years ago, with excellent acoustics and a seating capacity of almost 2,300. The concert, which will be performed by the Atrium Musicae de Madrid, will be very symbolic as 12 October is a bank holiday and commemorates the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.
Atrium Musicae was founded in Madrid, in 1964, to perform and research early music. The conductor is the well-known Spanish composer Gregorio Paniagua. In 1971, the group had its very successful debut at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Since then, they have played regularly in many concert halls in the USA and Europe. The group will play Pneuma Cantatae, composed by Gregorio Paniagua. Pneuma in Greek, means "breath" and, in Latin, "blow, air, spirit", and neumas are also the melodic notes in medieval music. This musical composition by Gregorio Paniagua is based on the Motetus Neuma from the 13th century codex of Las Huelgas monastery, Burgos and the Hoquetus Neuma from the Bamberg Manuscript, and will be performed with voices and early and contemporary instruments. A special event for the 1999 congress.
First category tickets: CHF40
Second category tickets: CHF25
Attendance at this concert is only possible for people registered for the congress, either as an active participant or an accompanying person. The number of tickets available is limited. Please use the congress registration form to register. You will receive a concert voucher, onsite in your registration kit. The confirmation voucher must be exchanged for the real ticket at the social events desk, no later than 14.00 on Tuesday 12 October. There may be a limited number of tickets still for sale on site.
ERS does not accept any responsibility with respect to the conformity of advertisements with "deontology" and common practice in this area. Moreover, each advertiser has personally and expressly engaged themselves to respect these rules and have accepted sole responsibility in case of infringement.
Do not forget to book your excursions and post-congress tours.
Avila-Segovia
Monday 11 October
Full day tour
Toledo
Tuesday 12 October
Full day tour
El Escorial
Wednesday 13 October
Half day tour to visit the monastery
Post-congress tours
Three-day excursion
Three-day excursion
More Information?
Check our Website: www.ersnet.org
We are looking forward to welcoming you to Madrid in October.
"Hasta Pronto"
Florence in August-September 2000 is not far off. For this world meeting, we are preparing an outstanding event. Imagine, the year 2000, the 10th meeting of the ERS and a World Meeting with co-organizing societies from all over the world (the IUATLD, the ATS, the APSR and the ERS). For this unique gathering, in addition to a very special scientific programme, we chose to meet in one of Europe's most wonderful cities. Don't miss out on obtaining information about this in Madrid. Future conference venues, i.e. Berlin the new German capital, in 2001, Göteborg in 2002 and Vienna in 2003 are well worth visiting.
ERIC FASSBIND
Logistics and Communication Manager
It has now become a habit to finalize the scientific programme of the annual meeting during a meeting with all ERS scientific group and assembly officers, which we now call the "Spring pre-congress meeting". The first two meetings of this kind were held in Manchester and the third in Geneva during the weekend of 14-16 May 1999. A report on this year's meeting is included in this issue of the ERS Newsletter. We believe that this meeting contributes enormously to our scientific programme and are looking forward to welcoming you all in Madrid. The Palacio Municipal de Congressos is an excellent convention centre, with up-to-date technology and equipment.
The Madrid scientific programme has now been finalized. First, as always, there are the major symposia. These are symposia dealing with major clinical topics and relevant to a broad audience. There will be 26 major symposia in Madrid. The topics include: Ventilator-induced lung injury and its prevention, Weaning in COPD, Health promotion for respiratory disease, Occupational asthma, Tuberculosis in the 21st century, Antibiotics and the lung, Clinical grand round, Radiology grand round, Advances in recurrent lung cancer, The clinical year in perspective, COPD: from elastin degradation to lymphocyte inflammation, Cardiovascular interactions in sleep-disordered breathing, Emerging models in pulmonary practice, Medical and surgical approaches to pulmonary hypertension, Lung transplantation: who and when, Update on the treatment of cystic fibrosis, Infection: friend or foe in the development of asthma, Monitoring airways inflammation in children, New antiasthma therapies based on IgE and T-helper-derived cytokines, Modern pharmacological management of asthma, Continuing education for the healthcare professional, Cell biology of lung cancer, Inflammatory cell trafficking into the lung: from science to the clinic, Assessment of the bronchodilator response, Airways inflammation: the initiating early events. As in previous meetings, these symposia will be organized in five tracks: clinical, paediatric, scientific, intensive care and surgical.
In addition, 20 assembly symposia have been organized. These are more specialized symposia, relevant to a more expert audience. Topics include: Pulmonary rehabilitation in practice: which patient for which programme, Pharmacological and ventilatory aids to exercise breathlessness, How to get drugs where you want them, Advances in ventilator-associated pneumonia, Noninvasive ventilation in conditions other than COPD, the lung matrix, Breathing on and beyond the earth: lung function at extremes, What determines exercise limitation in chronic respiratory disease, Airway immunology of common viral infections: impact on allergy and asthma, Neural mechanisms of airway disease, Chronic obstructive pulomonary disease: mechanisms and intervention studies, Impairment, disability and fitness for work in occupational lung disease, Modification of allergen responses by environmental agents, Tuberculous and nontuberculous mycobacterial infections in children, Interstitial lung disease in children, Criteria for resectability and operability of lung cancer, Sleeping with the enemy: a practical approach to allergy avoidance, Exercise testing into the millennium: standardization and new perspectives, Pulmonary infection in solid organ transplant recipients, HIV and the lung: the impact of new treatment strategies.
There will also be seven hot-topic symposia, designed to update delegates on developments occurring in the year leading up to the meeting. The topics for these symposia include: Infections in COPD patients, The scientific year in perspective, Prevalence and clinical outcomes in obstructive sleep apnoea, Interventional pulmonology, Evidence-based noninvasive positive pressure ventilation in acute and chronic respiratory failure, New concepts in the aetiology and treatment of respiratory muscle dysfunction, Genetics in asthma inflammation: science, fiction and realistic options. The number of these symposia has been increased as they were greatly appreciated by delegates at previous meetings.
The bulk of the meeting will, as always, consist of free communication sessions in the form of, oral presentations, poster discussion sessions and thematic poster sessions. A total of 3,739 abstracts were received, of which 3,035 were accepted. We thus remain selective in our acceptance of presentations, with an acceptance rate of 81%. The number of abstracts accepted represents a 23% increase compared with the last three annual meetings. They will be presented in 79 oral sessions, 40 poster discussion sessions and 97 thematic poster sessions. The marked increase in the number of the latter sessions helps us fill major European convention centres and opens up new opportunities for workshops, educational meetings and other small meetings. We will continue to invite discussants to provide introductory and concluding lectures.
We look forward to welcoming you in Madrid to what promises to be an exciting and innovative meeting.
MARC DECRAMER
Chairman
ERS Scientific Programme Committee
During the weekend of 14-16 May 1999, all ERS scientific group and assembly officers met to discuss and finalize the Madrid scientific programme. This meeting, which is now called the "Spring pre-congress meeting", took place near Geneva Airport, to ensure that work would be the first priority for all participants. The two previous meetings had been held near Manchester Airport, but the hotel in Manchester was not available this year. The meeting had two main goals. First, it was designed to increase the contribution of the scientific groups to the development of the scientific programme, and, secondly, it was intended to make the procedures of the Scientific Programme Committee more transparent. As improving the quality of the free communication sessions and science at future annual meetings are the first priorities of the Scientific Programme Committee, it was logical to try to achieve these aims with the help of our scientific group officers, who are experts in their field.
The vast majority of group chairpersons and assembly heads and secretaries were present. First, the present structure of the scientific programme was presented. Secondly, the timing of the finalization of the different elements of this programme was discussed. This was felt to be important since a significant proportion of the misunderstandings in the past were due to the fact that ERS officers did not always have a clear idea of the functioning of the Scientific Programme Committee. In addition, feedback from the groups is extremely important to the development of a mature scientific programme. With a programme that is as elaborate as ours, proper timing of such feedback is vital. Indeed, once final decisions on sessions and symposia have been made, they are usually irreversible as they evoke decisions regarding meeting logistics, invitations to speakers, etc. The first positive effect of this meeting was that interaction between the Programme Committee and the scientific groups became considerably more intense than in the past. Finally, the Scientific Programme Committee strategy was presented in order to inform group officers about the specifics of and reasons behind our strategic decisions.
This presentation was followed by lively discussion in the Assembly Programme Committees. The free communication sessions for Madrid were put together and abstracts were exchanged between groups and assemblies, resulting in a more coherent Scientific Programme with less overlap. We believe that these Assembly Programme Committee meetings have become significant instruments in the further development of our scientific programme.
This was followed by interactions between different assemblies, which were also highly fruitful. Indeed, some groups belonging to different assemblies have a natural affinity for one another, which was difficult to manifest in the scheme used in the past. Paediatric epidemiology, for example, is naturally linked to adult epidemiology, as is paediatric asthma to adult asthma. Such interactions have become much more intense and permit a considerably better integrated programme than in the past. Abstracts that were more appropriately scheduled in another assembly were readily exchanged. The presentation format of free communication sessions was altered if necessary.
Finally, the ERS Scientific Programme Committee met in the presence of all group officers present. First, all major changes to the free communication sessions for Madrid were finalized. The organization of these sessions was amazingly effective. For the first time, the various assemblies took advantage of the opportunities offered and numerous changes were made. Afterwards, the main themes of the Florence programme were presented. This was particularly important as, owing to it being a world meeting, the involvement of the groups and assemblies in the selection of topics had been different to that in previous meetings. Finally, we had a brainstorming session on how to view our annual meeting in the future. This was an important session because it will help us to develop a long-term strategy for the annual meeting, which is, in view of the major developments in that area, of utmost importance. Some of the questions that were raised were as follows. How can we attract other groups that currently do not attend to the meeting? How can we attract sponsorship from companies involved in developing research tools? How can we alter the format of the meeting? This meeting, on the one hand, gave the group officers greater insight into how the Scientific Programme Committee operates. On the other hand, it provided the members of the Programme Committee with excellent feedback regarding what the scientific groups expect from the scientific programme. We are confident that this renewed understanding will contribute to an even better adapted programme for future congresses.
On Sunday morning, the functioning of the European School of Respiratory Medicine was examined. The School has rapidly been growing into an important body of the ERS. The postgraduate courses were discussed, as well as the Meet-the-Professor seminars. A teaching session, How to write an abstract, was proposed and the development of teaching CD-ROMS was discussed.
All in all, the exercise of the Spring pre-congress meeting has once again proven clearly useful for the society. We thank Eric Fassbind, Jean-Luc Eiselé and Nick Lorenz for their excellent organization of this meeting. There is no doubt in the mind of the members of the Executive Committee that these meetings should continue in the future and will continue to contribute greatly to the optimal organization of our annual meeting.
MARC DECRAMER
Chairman
ERS Scientific Programme Committee
As most of you know, the 10th annual ERS Congress will be held in Florence between 30 August and 3 September 2000. This world meeting is being organized by the European Respiratory Society together with the American Thoracic Society, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease and the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology.
Florence is one of Europe's most magnificent cities in terms of history and culture.
However, after our experience with the 1993 ERS congress, important steps had to be taken by the Organizing Committee in order to solve potential problems.
We now have 7,000 hotel rooms guaranteed in Florence and an additional 5,000 rooms have been booked in Montecatini. Shuttle trains with a journey time of less than thirty minutes will be organized between Montecatini and Florence. (The railway station is directly adjacent to the congress centre.)
Montecatini is well worth a visit. It is one of Italy's most outstanding spa resorts. It offers the freshness of the mountains and is the meeting place of the Italian upper class during the summer. When planning your trip to our congress, have a careful look at Montecatini's hotels. You will definitely experience another Italy. Our train service will be timetabled in such a way as to allow a late return to Montecatini each night from Florence. Delegates staying in Montecatini will also be able to get the best out of Florence.
Now, with almost 12,000 rooms of various categories throughout the region, the Congress is amply catered for in terms of lodgings.
The congress centre - Fortezza da Basso - has been restructured since 1993, with an increase in capacity, which will easily accommodate the World Congress on Lung Health.
Ci vediamo a Firenze for a great meeting.
ERIC FASSBIND
Logistics and Communication Manager
The World Congress on Lung Health to be held in Florence from 30 August to 3 September 2000 is also the Tenth Annual Congress of the ERS. Its content has been broadened to celebrate the millenium and it represents a joint venture between the ERS as host and the American Thoracic Society, the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology and the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. It will be the largest ERS meeting to date in terms of both content and number of delegates.
The Programme Committee has been working with increasing momentum for the last two years. According to our usual practice, the Programme Committees includes the heads of each of our 10 assemblies together with myself as chairman and Marc Decramer as co-chairman along with Dario Olivieri and Dirkje Postma as chairman and co-chairman of the Congress Committee (which works in parallel on organizational matters). In addition, for this unusual meeting, the Programme Committee includes four members from each of the other three organizing societies.
The organization of symposia for the meeting is already at an advanced stage. We plan to celebrate the opportunities of the millenium and of a world meeting by two special series of symposia, concentrating on "Global respiratory problems" and "reviews of the decade". Topics for the former have been chosen for their global importance, with the aim of reviewing the impact of common respiratory diseases on a worldwide scale. Most of these topics have chosen themselves, e.g. infections (tuberculosis, HIV and pneumonia), asthma, COPD, lung cancer and air pollution. In the second series, we have chosen major clinical topics as well as areas of basic science (cell biology, respiratory mechanics, etc.) and investigational techniques. The aim of these symposia is to review significant advances in the last 10 years, the impact of these on current respiratory practice and/or their likely effects on practice early in the new millenium. In addition to these main "tracks" there will be several other major and assembly symposia, hot topics and grand round sessions. In all, we expect an increase in the number of symposia of in the order of fifty per cent compared to the usual ERS meetings.
Other highlights of the meeting will include the Cournand Lecture, to be given by an individual under the age of 45 years who has made an outstanding contribution to respiratory science and medicine and a special "Millennial Lecture" to celebrate the occasion. We are very pleased that Dr John Murray has agreed to give the latter.
As usual, the bulk of the programme will comprise free communications, to be submitted and reviewed following the normal ERS method according to topic, with reviewers drawn from the other three societies as well as the ERS. Following a special request from the IUATLD, there will be an "early bird" abstract deadline of 26 October 1999 as well as the normal deadline of 2 February 2000. This unusual arrangement is to allow those coming from resource-poor countries to submit an abstract and (hopefully) obtain an acceptance early as this is often a necessary prerequisite for them obtaining support to attend a meeting. Any abstracts received by the first date will be included in the initial reviewing process, but we anticipate that the vast majority will be reviewed after the final deadline.
Those who attended the previous ERS meeting in Florence, in 1993, will doubtless remember some of the practical difficulties involved in moving between venues, as the meeting at that time occupied three separate building complexes separated by a major road, across which a bridge acted as a "bottleneck". Hopefully, these problems will be avoided in 2000, as facilities at the main site (Fortezza de Basso) have been considerably improved and expanded and should now be adequate to accomodate the full 24 parallel sessions which are planned. The other two venues, which were used in 1993, are still available to us and it is likely that many of the postgraduate educational events and some sponsored evening symposia will make use of them.
We are anticipating that this special congress will be very rewarding, scientifically, educationally and socially, and we look forward to seeing you there.
JOHN GIBSON
Chairman
Florence 2000 Programme Committee
Giovanni Viegi is a 45 year-old Tuscan pneumologist. He was born in Pisa (Italy) and is married to an occupational doctor, Cinzia Di Pede. He graduated in medicine with honours cum laude in 1978 from the University of Pisa, where he also received the Diploma of Specialist in Pneumology with honours cum laude in 1980 and of Specialist in Occupational Medicine with honours in 1982. He served as a medical lieutenant in the Italian Army in 1982. Then, he obtained a fellowship at the National Research Council (CNR) Institute of Clinical Physiology in Pisa until 1990, when he became a CNR career researcher. Since October 1994, he has been Head of the Pulmonary Environmental Epidemiology Group, which comprises 17 persons.
In 1990, he spent a year as Visiting Research Scientist at the Division of Respiratory Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA.
In 1997, he was appointed evaluator of research proposals for the EU 4th framework Environment and Climate Programme and was included in the book Who's who in the world, 14th edition, New Providence, USA Marquis.
At Geneva 1998, Giovanni Viegi was elected Head of the Occupation and Epidemiology Assembly. As a previous ERS officer, he had been Secretary of the epidemiology scientific group since 1995.
His main areas of scientific interest since 1978 have been: lung function assessment; pulmonary involvement in connective tissue disease; the epidemiology of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; respiratory pathophysiology applied to occupational medicine; allergometric techniques; and clinically-controlled smoking cessation.
Between 1991 and 1995, he was a member of the European Union Concerted Action on Air Pollution Epidemiology group, which published several reports and was where the ideas for the APHEA and PEACE projects originated.
Giovanni Viegi was also a member of: the ATS committee which published the update documents on standardization of spirometry and diffusing capacity in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine in 1995; the ERS task force which published the document on optimal assessment and management of COPD in the European Respiratory Journal in 1995; and the ATS-ERS task force which published the document on longitudinal data analysis in the Blue Journal in 1996.
His group has realized the two largest respiratory epidemiological longitudinal studies on general population samples in Italy (in the Po Delta area and Pisa-Cascina).
Overall, Giovanni Viegi has published 110 original articles, 16 book chapters, 101 proceedings and 235 abstracts of scientific congresses, in Italian, English and French.
He is Section Editor of the European Respiratory Topic and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, in which he has recently published a document on "Health effects of air pollution from mobile sources in Europe", which represents the main area of his current scientific interest.
He also serves as a reviewer for major respiratory journals.
He is preparing, as co-editor (with Isabella Annesi and Amund Gulsvik), an ERS monograph on Respiratory Epidemiology.
He is contract Professor at the School of Specialization in Respiratory Medicine of the University of Pisa.
As a clinician, Dr Viegi is interested in promoting the correct use of spirometry and diffusing capacity for monitoring pulmonary patients.
Jean François Cordier
The Madrid meeting will be an excellent vintage in respect of the scientific work presented by the Clinical Assembly. We received a large number of abstracts (964), of which 749 were accepted for presentation (537 abstracts were accepted for the 1998 Geneva meeting), representing an increase in the proportion of total abstracts accepted. Clinical practice and clinical research, thus, remain a major interest of members of the ERS.
The Madrid programme will comprise many clinical postgraduate courses and symposia for pulmonologists from all over the world. We shall also have our traditional Grand rounds. The topics have been chosen in order to complement the clinical programme. Starting with case presentation and interactive diagnosis, the Grand rounds are a unique opportunity to review the differential diagnosis of a given clinical problem, or the possible therapeutic approaches in an individual patient.
We shall have three types of Grand rounds: Clinical, Oncology and Imaging. We are sure that they will, as usual, attract many clinicians who will actively participate in these interactive sessions.
JEAN FRANÇOIS CORDIER
Assembly Head
Fax: (33) 4 72 35 76 35
Antonio Torres
Madrid Congress
The final programme for Madrid 1999 is complete. Our assembly will have two major symposia, two assembly symposia, one "hot-topic Symposium" and one postgraduate course. The titles of the two major symposia are "Ventilator-induced lung injury and its prevention" and "Current perspectives on weaning". The latter has been prepared jointly with Prof. Manuel Cosio, vice-chairman of the Congress. As regards the Assembly symposia, they will cover "Advances in ventilator-associated pneumonia (task force results)" and "Noninvasive ventilation in conditions other than COPD". The hot-topic symposium will deal with recent clinical trials in noninvasive mechanical ventilation. We have received 157 abstracts, 38 more than in 1998. Of these 139 have been accepted.
Congratulations and thank you for your support of the Assembly. For Madrid, the Assembly will have nine oral sessions (two acute respiratory failure, two respiratory monitoring, four noninvasive ventilatory support, and one pulmonary infections and sepsis in the ICU) and four thematic poster sessions.
Vacant positions
The position of secretary of the Assembly will be vacant in the year 2000. We thank Anita Simonds for her excellent work and continuous support to the Assembly. The positions of chairman of the acute respiratory failure group and of the respiratory monitoring and measurements group will be vacant next year. The current chairmen can renew their positions for another 2 years. Finally, the same situation exists for the secretaries of the noninvasive ventilatory support and pulmonary infections in the ICU groups
Task forces
The task force application on noninvasive mechanical ventilation (submitted by Mark Elliot and Stefano Nava) has been approved. Another task force application on the epidemiology of respiratory intensive care in Europe has been approved. This is also an important task force for our assembly since it will set-out the basis, necessities and realities of respiratory intensive care in Europe.
I believe that the Assembly is doing very well and that our efforts will help to establish respiratory intensive care in Europe. I hope to see you in Madrid.
ANTONIO TORRES
Assembly Head
Marc Zelter
The first research seminar organized by members of our assembly (Edith Puchelle and Dominique Gaillard) on "Epithelial stem cells in airway development and regeneration" was held in Reims on 8 April. The extended summary of the presentations will be published soon. The ERS Scientific Review Committee approved, with slight modification, the proposal of A. Clément and J. De Blic for a task force on "Pulmonary fibrosis in children". The second workshop of the task force on "Lung immunity and inflammation", organized by M. Spiteri and L. Nicod will take place in Madrid on the morning of Saturday 9 October 1999. One must register in order to attend. Further details will be sent to members of the Assembly. Registration will also be open to non-assembly members. The Florence world lung meeting programme was finalized. Major symposia on genetics, cell communication, pulmonary oedema, and clinical applications of cell biology were proposed and approved. Because of a significant increase in the number of abstracts submitted to our assembly for the Madrid meeting, we shall have two assembly symposia in Florence. This means that all topics approved during the last assembly poll have now been included in the programme. A new poll will, therefore, take place. All details will be included in our informal assembly newsletter, which should reach you soon.
MARC ZELTER
Assembly Head
Vito Brusasco
Madrid 1999
The programme for this meeting has been now finalized. The contribution of our assembly will be strong, with four major symposia (Medical and surgical approaches to pulmonary hypertension; Cardiovascular interactions in sleep-disordered breathing; Assessment of the bronchodilator response; Current perspectives in weaning), three assembly symposia (Breathing on and beyond the earth: lung function at extremes; What determines exercise limitation in chronic respiratory diseases; Pharmacological and ventilatory aids to exercise breathlessness), two hot topic symposia (Prevalence and clinical outcomes in obstructive sleep apnoea; New concepts in the aetiology and treatment of respiratory muscle dysfunction), and three postgraduate courses related to exercise physiology, rehabilitation, and sleep breathing disorders. We have also been allocated nine oral sessions, three poster discussion sessions and 10 thematic poster sessions. All group officers felt that the quality of the abstracts submitted to our assembly had improved this year, with an increased contribution from more basic science. We will have two outstanding invited speakers (John B. West and Steven Shea). Two workshops (on pulmonary hypertension and on exercise testing) have been proposed by members of our assembly.
Florence 2000
Four of our proposals for major symposia have been approved, two for the "Review of the decade" track (A decade of progress in the clinical assessment of respiratory mechanics; A decade of sleep medicine: how sleep breathing disorders became a major public health problem) and two as regular major symposia (Current insights into the physiology of airway narrowing; The emerging role of skeletal muscle dysfunction in chronic respiratory diseases). The Assembly Programme Committee made three proposals for assembly symposia (Interactions between gas exchange and pulmonary circulation; Advances in understanding pulmonary complications in hepatic diseases; Relationships between imaging and lung function in obstructive pulmonary diseases). Decisions regarding these symposium will be taken at the next Programme Committee meeting in Madrid next October. Three postgraduate courses have been approved: Clinical exercise testing; The role of sleep studies outside the sleep laboratory; and Respiratory and skeletal muscle biology in chronic respiratory disease. Two further courses, one in Italian and another in conjunction with the respiratory technology group are likely.
Other issues
The mandates of both Assembly Head and Secretary and all but one of our group officers are renewable and we hope that they will all seek re-election in order to help keep the amalgamation process within our assembly running smoothly and to have all historical components represented.
VITO BRUSASCO
Assembly Head
WALTER T. McNICHOLAS
Assembly Secretary
Fan Chung
Over the past few weeks, preparations have been going ahead for the Madrid Congress, particularly during the meeting of the officers at a Programme Committee held on 14-16 May 1999. Our assembly has been involved in organizing several symposia including: New antiasthma therapies based on IgE and T-helper-derived cytokines, Modern pharmacological management of asthma, Airway inflammation: the initiating early events, Airway immunology of common viral infections: impact on allergy and asthma, and Neural mechanisms of airways disease, and COPD: mechanisms and intervention studies. In collaboration with the Paediatric Assembly, there will be a hot-topic symposium: Genetics in asthma inflammation: science, fiction and realistic options. In addition, we will be organizing two postgraduate courses: Asthma - pathogenesis and Asthma - treatment, which will be held on Saturday 9 October 1999. This year, our assembly received 541 abstracts of which 460 were accepted, which is an increase of 19% over last year. We will be holding seven oral sessions with invited introductory and concluding talks, nine poster and 13 thematic poster sessions. We would like to know from our assembly members whether they find this distribution of presentations useful and interesting. The Long Range Planning Committee will be selecting the best three abstracts submitted for the GlaxoWellcome Prizes, to be awarded at our business meeting in Madrid. Our assembly will also be involved in a joint project with GINA and EAACI to evaluate the application of asthma management guidelines in Europe, particularly in Eastern and central Europe, and a workshop is planned at the Madrid meeting. Finally, I am pleased to announce that Peter J Barnes from our assembly was proposed by the Assembly and elected by the Executive Committee as Sadoul Lecturer. I would like to thank all of you, including our officers, who proposed and contributed to the planning of the Symposia for Madrid. I will discuss with you the proposals for the Florence World Lung Congress 2000 in Madrid in the future.
Other activities of note for our assembly include the approval of a research seminar (organizer: I. Horváth, Hungary): Haemoxygenase-1 induction and exhaled markers of oxidative stress in lung diseases, to be held in Budapest in July 1999. If you are interested in participating, please contact Ildikó Horváth. The Task Force on Indirect challenges (Guy Joos and Brian O'Connor) has their first meeting in San Diego last month, and Task Forces on Induced sputum and Murine models of asthma are to be submitted. The final report of the Task Force on Difficult, therapy-resistant asthma will be published soon in the European Respiratory Journal.
There is still plenty of scope for members to get involved in the activities of the Assembly. This can be done by attending the Assembly's business meeting and your scientific group meeting at the Madrid Congress, and by participating in discussion regarding all the important issues facing the Assembly. I strongly encourage you to do so. I enclose the addresses and other contact details of the heads of the three scientific groups, should you wish to get in touch with them. The success of the Assembly is very much dependent upon you. I look forward to seeing you at the Madrid Congress, which promises to be an exciting meeting.
Heads of the Scientific Groups
Klaus Rabe
Academisch Ziekenhuis Leiden
Department of Pulmonology, C3-P
Leiden University Medical Centre
Albinusdreef 2
Postbus 9600
2300 RC Leiden
The Netherlands
Tel: (31) 71 526 9250
Fax: (31) 71 526 6927
Email: krabe@pulmonology.azl.nl
5.2: Airway regulation and provocation:
Guy Joos
Department of Respiratory Diseases
University Hospital
De Pintelaan 185
Ghent B9000
Belgium
Tel: (32) 92 402359
Fax: (32) 92 402341
Email: Guy.Joos@rug.ac.be
5.3: Allergy and Immunology:
Sabina Rak
Allergy Centre
Sahlgrenska University Hospital
413 45 Gothenburg
Sweden
Tel: (46) 31 3421886
Fax:(46) 31 417824
Email: rak@mailer.mednet.gu.se
KIAN FAN CHUNG
Assembly Head
Giovanni Viegi
The Secretary of our Assembly, Ben Nemery, as Chair elect of the EOH ATS Programme Committee, contributed to the setting up of a very interesting programme at the last ATS meeting in San Diego. At the business meeting of the EOH Assembly, Susan Kennedy strongly recommended her fellow Americans to participate in the next ERS meetings because of the quality of research performed in Europe on epidemiology and occupational medicine. For the 1999 Madrid conference, our assembly received 354 abstracts (293 accepted). We will be organizing the following numbers of oral, poster discussion and thematic poster sessions, respectively: three, one and five for WG 6.01; two, one and three for WG 6.02; and one, one and two for WG 6.03. The increased number of abstracts received by WG 6.01 is noteworthy. It is important to encourage more colleagues to send their abstracts to the Annual Meeting because the number of abstracts is related to the number of organizable symposia and sessions.
The programme for Madrid was proposed by our previous Head (S. Burge): three major symposia (Health promotion for respiratory disease; Occupational asthma; Emerging models in pulmonary practice) and two assembly symposia on occupational and environmental issues. There will also be two postgraduate courses on occupational and epidemiological issues. The ERS has appointed Jean-Luc Malo (Canada) and Duane Sherrill (USA) as invited discussants for our assembly.
For Florence 2000, our assembly, to date, will be organizing three major symposia (on air pollution, occupational diseases, and gender-related differences in lung diseases), is trying to arrange a Grand round session on outbreak of occupational diseases, and has to select two assembly symposia. The tobacco issue will mainly be covered in collaboration with the IUATLD. There will also be between two and four postgraduate courses, possibly in collaboration with other assemblies.
The Respiratory Epidemiology monograph is still being written, and the Occupational Lung Disorders one is in press.
We will be having elections to replace Amund Gulsvik (Chairman of WG 6.01) and Pierre Bartsch and Etienne André (Chairman and Secretary of WG 6.03).
For the new EU projects, it has been decided to submit, by October, a proposal for "other measures" (i.e. organization of conferences) on air pollution effects. On the latter subject, Curtis Moore, ALA representative, has asked for our help in identifying health professionals who might be willing to act as resources for Parliamentarians, reporters and others, within the Global Alliance for Clean Air.
GIOVANNI VIEGI
Assembly Head
Kai-Häkon Carlsen
The Annual ERS meeting in Madrid is fast approaching, with a promising programme from the point of view of the paediatric pulmonologist. The paediatric track consists of many interesting major and assembly symposia: Monitoring airways inflammation in children, Update on the treatment of cystic fibrosis, Infection, friend or foe in the development of asthma?, Health promotion for respiratory disease, Modern pharmacological management of asthma; a critical review, Assessment of the bronchodilator response, Tuberculous and nontuberculous mycobacterial infections in children, and Interstitial lung disease in children. In addition, postgraduate courses of interest will be organized: Lung function from infancy to adulthood; Bronchoalveolar lavage in children; and Bronchiectasis: new insights in aetiology, prognosis, diagnosis and treatment. Also of interest to the paediatric pulmonologist are: Asthma pathogenesis, Asthma treatment, and Design and implementation of clinical studies.
The free presentations represent new developments within research. This year more than 400 abstracts were submitted to the Paediatric Assembly, and 332 accepted, more than for any previous congress. This is important for paediatric respiratory medicine in Europe, and should stimulate further scientific activity, both in quantity and quality.
This year, invited discussants will also participate in the programme in order to stimulate scientific discussion. The following invited discussants are particularly relevant to paediatric respiratory medicine: Simon Godfrey, Jerusalem; Nils Høiby, Copenhagen; and Ed W. Gelfand, USA. We look forward to their contributions.
The submissions for the Annual Award for Paediatric Respiratory Research in Europe, sponsored by Astra, were also of high quality this year, and the two awardees, as assessed by the Long-Range Planning Committee, will be announced in Madrid.
The annual congress in the year 2000 in Florence will be a joint meeting between the ERS and the American Thoracic Society. The planning of the programme is well under way, covering global respiratory problems and a review of the last decade.
The joint meeting of the Paediatric Assembly of the ERS and the European Society of Paediatric Allergy and Clinical Immunology (ESPACI) took place in Berlin at the end of May. This meeting was supposed to take place in Istanbul. However, because of fears among the members of the Long-Range Planning Committee of the Paediatric Assembly and the board members of the ESPACI of possible violent activities in Istanbul, the meeting was moved to Berlin. Owing to the efforts of the congress president, Elif Dagli, it proved to be a great success, both scientifically and socially, bringing together paediatric pulmonologists and paediatric allergologists.
KAI-HÄKON CARSLSEN
Assembly Head
Pierre-Arthur Rocmans
During the long weekend of 14-16 May 1999, the Programme Committee of the ERS met near the airport in Geneva. The atmosphere was very cordial in contrast to the initially grey weather outside. The thoracic surgery assembly received 103 abstracts, 67 on a thoracic surgical topic, of which 43 were accepted, and 36 concerning lung transplantation, of which 26 were accepted. These abstracts were organized into two oral, and two thematic poster sessions and a poster discussion. We had various interactions with other assemblies and some interesting topics emerged: Operability of the lung cancer patient, Role of limited resections for lung cancer, and Current diagnosis and treatment of bronchiectasis. Further suggestions for the 2000 Florence meeting were made. A proposal for a major symposium was developed with the Intensive Care Assembly, on Postoperative problems in the thoracotomy patient. Marc Estenne made many specific contacts for the transplantation group.
Afterwards, general and open discussion on the ERS meetings took place. We will try to make the Annual Congress more attractive to surgeons by, for example grouping surgery-related problems and stimulating discussion on surgical topics. The possibility of cooperation with the ESTS (European Society of Thoracic Surgeons) and the EACTS (European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery) was considered. Other assemblies made similar proposals. In this way, we hope to further improve the overall quality of the meetings. Further suggestions are always welcome.
On Sunday morning a meeting of the Programme Committee with the European School of Respiratory Medicine was organized. The postgraduate programme for Florence was finalized. For our assembly two postgraduate courses were accepted: How to preserve lung function despite surgery, and Surgery for pulmonary metastases. In this way, we hope to create an attractive programme for 2000.
PIERRE-ARTHUR ROCMANS
Assembly Head
PAUL VAN SCHIL
Secretary
Respiratory Technology and Health Care Assembly
Cees van der Schans
The programme for the annual ERS meeting in Madrid is now finalized, including the sessions involving our assembly. This year, there will again be interesting postgraduate courses, major symposia and assembly symposia. The number of abstracts submitted to our assembly is increasing every year. For the Madrid meeting, 120 abstracts were accepted, whereas in 1998 101 were accepted and in 1997 79. I hope that we can continue this trend and receive even more abstracts next year for the congress in Florence. In addition to the scientific programme, we have organized two workshops this year: On Sunday 10 October 1999 (9:00-11:00), in the Bucharest room, there will be a workshop entitled "Clinical trials: an introduction in research for health care professionals", and on Wednesday 13 October 1999 (9:00-11:00), in the Athens room, a workshop entitled "Standardization and quality control in lung volume measurements". Attendance at these workshops is limited. We would therefore, like those who are interested in attending these workshops to apply before the congress. For further information, please see the announcement in this newsletter. During the congress, we will have our group and assembly business meetings. Whether you are a member or not, please come to the business meeting so that we can obtain your opinions and take your needs into account in the organization of future congresses. On Tuesday 12 October 1999, we will be holding our annual assembly reception, which will give you the opportunity to meet colleagues from different countries and professions. This reception will be sponsored by Allen & Hanburys and will be held at the end of the afternoon congress programme. The location of the reception will be announced at the assembly business meeting at Tuesday lunchtime (see the congress programme for location). As I announced in the last newsletter, this year we have three congress travel grants of CHF1,000, sponsored by Allen & Hanburys, Jaeger, and Pari Medical are available. The grants will be officially presented during the Assembly 9 business meeting during the congress. Application forms for the Assembly 9 congress travel grants are available from the Assembly 9 group officers.
Assembly 9 Workshops
Clinical trials: an introduction in research for health care professionals.
Sunday 10 October 1999
9:00-11:00
Bucharest room
Objectives: The purpose of this workshop is to provide an introduction in research for nurses, physiotherapists and respiratory technicians and to discuss practical problems.
Owing to limited space, this workshop is limited to approximately 25 participants. If you would like to attend this workshop, please contact:
Cees P. van der Schans, University Hospital, Dept of rehabilitation, PO box 30.001, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands
Tel: (31) 50 3614612
Fax: (31) 50 3619243
E-mail: c.p.van.der.schans@REV. AZG.NL
Standardization and quality control in lung volume measurements
Wednesday 13 October
9:00-11:00
Athens room
Objectives: This workshop will focus on practical aspects of quality control. Special attention will be given to the methods of quality control. Identification of characteristics of local quality control and strategies involving technicians and current recommendations and standardization (ERS and ATS) will be highlighted.
Owing to limited space, this workshop is limited to approximately 50 participants. If you would like to attend this workshop, please contact:
Felip Burgos, Pneumologia Hospital Clinic, Villaroel 170, E-08036, Barcelona, Spain
Tel: (349) 3 2275540
Fax: (349) 3 2275455
E-mail: fburgos@medicina.ub.es
CEES VAN DER SCHANS
Assembly Head
Mark Woodhead
I have just returned from our annual meeting set aside for planning the free communication sessions for the forthcoming congress. This was a very successful meeting. I was very pleased to discover that more than 400 abstracts had been submitted on the subject of respiratory infection (approximately 60% about tuberculosis and 40% about other respiratory infections). Of these, some three-quarters have been accepted. This represents a significant increase over last year and continues the steady upward trend in infection abstract submissions over the last 4 years. These free communications have been organized into five oral, five poster discussion and 10 thematic poster sessions, which will complement the postgraduate courses and symposia on infection, which I detailed in the last newsletter.
The growth in abstract submissions in our area of interest is, I am sure, at least in part, owing to the creation of the Respiratory Infection Section, which has given respiratory infections a clear identity and rightfully emphasized their importance to the ERS. The next step forward for the Section is for its conversion to the status of a formal Assembly within the ERS to be proposed to the Council meeting at the end of the Madrid Congress.
All six offices within the Respiratory Infection Section come up for election this autumn. These are Section Head (currently me!), Section Secretary (Tom Schaberg), Respiratory Infection Group Head (Francesco Blasi) and Secretary (Peter Davies), and Tuberculosis Group Head (Luke Clancy) and secretary (Lucio Casali). I hope that all voting members of the section will contribute their votes when ballot papers are circulated in the autumn.
Planning for the Florence World Lung Health meeting continued with a successful Programme Committee meeting at the ATS. Respiratory infection will have a high profile, with symposia already planned on tuberculosis, HIV and the lung, parasitic lung infections and pneumonia. I'll give you more details about these in the next newsletter.
Finally, we are just starting to think about the Congress in Berlin in 2001. Planning for the meeting always starts 2 years before the congress, with the first items being the major symposia. At the business meetings in Madrid, we will be formally asking you for your suggestions for topics for such symposia, so you might like to start thinking now and bring any ideas that you have to these meetings, or send them to myself or to one of the other section officers. I look forward to seeing you in Madrid.
MARK WOODHEAD
Section Head
The Treasurer gave a preliminary presentation of the financial situation of the ERS. The loss will probably be less than expected. The final account for the financial year ending 1998 should be ready in time for the next Executive Committee meeting in May 1999.
The European Respiratory Foundation is taking shape. In the presence of Maître Aeschimann, a specialized lawyer, and Mr. Hannot, long-time legal adviser to the ERS, the underlying concept was again discussed. The basic idea is to provide a platform for facilitating the collection of funds outside the usual scope of the ERS (membership and congress income). Both the status of such a foundation and the opportunity of attracting high calibre figures from outside the ERS - in science, politics, sport and art - would also contribute to this process. Executive Committee members unanimously agreed to start the procedures necessary for the setting up of the foundation, and if all goes well the European Respiratory Foundation will be born in summer 1999.
After secret ballots, J. Roca and W. MacNee were elected and will be proposed to the ERS Council, in Madrid, for the positions of President and Programme Committee Chairman for the period 1999-2001, respectively.
The overall outcome of the WAM was positive, particularly as far as collaboration and exchange with other societies with delegates from low-income countries and the public image of the ERS are concerned. The fact that patient organizations were present might have helped to obtain interesting media coverage, including of World Asthma Day.
The next WAM will be in the USA in 2001 and again in Europe in 2004; however, the organizational set-up will need to be discussed.
Preparation is going well. It is envisaged that one or more CD-ROMs based on the scientific programme be developed.
Preparations are underway for this congress. A sponsors meeting has taken place in Florence.
Preparations are well on track and a PCO, the same one as engaged in 1997, was selected by the Executive Committee. Apart from their attractive tender, past good experience, during the previous Berlin congress, in 1997, was decisive in this selection.
Preparations for these meetings in Gothenburg and Vienna have begun. In 1999, the venues for 2004, and possibly for 2005, should be identified. A list of criteria for future venues was presented and discussed. It was generally agreed that the ERS congress is not only a scientific but also an important social and cultural event. In order to ensure scientific success minimum logistical conditions (conference rooms, poster area, and exhibition, catering, hotel and transport situation) have to be fulfilled. Only if these basic criteria are fulfilled can other, secondary, criteria, such as the cultural attractiveness of a site, be considered.
As in the past, the ATS will ensure CME accreditation for the scientific programme. The Executive Committee approved their support for the following four task forces and one research seminar:
1) Task force proposed by J. Boe, entitled "Guidelines for nebulizer treatment", with a budget of up to CHF20,000.
2) Task force proposed by M.W. Elliot and N. Ambrosino entitled "Noninvasive mechanical ventilation (NIVM) in acute and chronic respiratory failure", with a budget of up to CHF10,500.
3) Task force proposed by J.F. Cordier, entitled "Classification of interstitial lung disease (ILD)", with a budget of up to CHF15,000.
4) Task force proposed by B. Oberwaldner, entitled "Global evaluation of physiotherapy management of infants with cystic fibrosis as a basis for the development of international guidelines", with a budget of up to CHF12,500.
5) Research seminar proposed by E. Puchelle, entitled "Epithelial stem cells in airway and lung development and regeneration", with a budget of up to CHF30,000.
For the Madrid and future ERS congresses, ACCP will ensure CME accreditation of ESRM postgraduate courses.
EU Funding Committee
Currently six applications are being prepared and will be submitted to the EU in 1999. The short titles are: 1) Air pollution; 2) COPD; 3) European network for occupational asthma; 4) Basic mechanisms in asthma; 5) Home ventilators; and 6) A European network for the treatment of asthma.
The smoking prevention committee has defined four lines of action:
1) Concrete activities should be pursued.
2) The possibilities of engaging in legal action against the tobacco industry could be explored. Care has to be taken, however, that the financial interests of the ERS are not endangered by possible legal action against the tobacco industry.
3) The forthcoming World Tobacco Day should receive special attention.
4) The collaboration and involvement of the national delegates and societies should be strengthened.
Contacts with the ACCP have been established and joint projects are being explored.
A number of activities are proposed by the Press Relations Committee. High-profile media events should be organized around the congresses in order to increase the media visibility of the ERS:
1) Efforts should be undertaken to exploit ERJ articles (for example, the forthcoming CEASE article) to achieve media visibility.
2) The forthcoming Anti-Smoking Day should receive particular attention.
3) Strengthening the collaboration/ information of the national delegates will be particularly important.
The white book project on Respiratory Health in Europe should go ahead in the near future.
The European Society for General Practice has expressed an interest in closer collaboration with the ERS. After discussion, it was decided that the Clinical Assembly would be the most appropriate assembly to which to affilate a new group of general practitioners.
There have been requests to support regional meetings of the Eastern and central European countries. These certainly have particular educational needs, which require regional attention. Nevertheless, care should be taken that not too many ERS subcommittees are created, in order not to dissipate scarce resources.
CLAUDIO DONNER
Secretary General
A draft of the audit report was presented and accepted. The final result of the financial year ending 1998 showed an overall deficit. This was caused mainly by the organization of the WAM in 1998, but was also, in part, a consequence of the restructuring of the ERS office.
For the 1999 budget, it was decided to increase from 200 to 300 the number of travel grants available for the Madrid Congress to participants from Eastern and central European countries.
Considering the problems with updating addresses on the ERS database, it was decided to postpone the production of the next ERS Roster until the year 2000. It should then be accessible to members via the Internet - for members only, of course. It will also contain e-mail addresses and, thus, contribute to interaction between members.
The issue of training centres was briefly discussed and it was thought to be a good idea to establish a list of such centres based on self-assessment procedures.
The statutes of the Foundation are about to be finalized. The Executive Committee voted to allocate up to CHF150,000 to the initial capital of the Foundation. Furthermore, it was decided that the Foundation would be registered in the Lausanne Trade Registry. All members support the principle that the Reserve Fund of the ERS be kept distinct from the capital of the Foundation.
Preparations for the Madrid Congress are well underway. Particular care will be taken in constructing soundproof conference halls, and a budget was allocated for this purpose. The hotel and transport logistics are on course.
Preparations for Florence 2000: World Congress on Lung Health, which is at the same time the tenth annual congress of the ERS, are well underway. The hotel situation has been settled now and looks very promising, since 7,000 hotel rooms will be available in Florence and an additional 5,000 in nearby Montecatini. Shuttle trains between Montecatini and Florence will be organized. The travelling time will be less than thirty minutes.
Preparations for Berlin 2001, Gothenburg 2002 and Vienna 2003 are also on course. A shortlist of possible venues for the years 2004 and 2005 was discussed.
The ERS continues to maintain excellent collaboration with other important medical societies. K.F. Chung was appointed ERS Liaison Officer with the EAACI.
The scientific programme of the forthcoming Madrid Congress is bound for success. Out of 3,739 submitted abstracts, 3,035 have been accepted.
To date, the six applications for EU funding have been prepared, one of which has been submitted.
A request for ERS sponsorship of the 7th International Conference on Bronchoalveolar Lavage, Cracow (Poland), 27 June-1 July, 2000 was also approved.
Varia
The ERS Paediatric Assembly and the ESPACI are jointly organizing a meeting which has had at the last minute to be transferred from Istanbul to Berlin.
The ALA and Friends of the Earth, USA have started to set up a global network to link organizations throughout the world to share information and co-ordinate strategies for eliminating air pollution. The ERS supports this important initiative.
CLAUDIO DONNER
Secretary General
The ERS is offering a new opportunity promoting information exchange in the field of respiratory medicine through research seminars. With an annual budget of CHF 250,000. The first of these research seminars was held in February 1999, in Rome.
The European Respiratory Society is always looking for opportunities to promote scientific activity in the field of respiratory medicine. For several years the Executive Committee of the ERS has been concerned by the difficulty in attracting basic scientists and young clinical researchers from within its membership who do not generally attend the annual meeting, often for financial reasons. This is particularly important considering that the ERS will only survive if the best and most active scientists and clinicians are involved.
Therefore, the Executive Committee of the ERS approved, in 1998, a proposal to allocate a yearly budget of CHF 250,000 to ERS research seminars. These seminars should not overlap with task forces nor with ESRM activities and are aimed at bringing more basic scientists and young clinical researchers to ERS activities.
The seminars aim to gather a limited number (20- 150) of well-established and preferably, young investigators with a view to addressing scientific topics in depth, and breaking new ground over a two-day period. The organizing committee should be composed of at least two members: the scientific co-ordinator and the logistical co-ordinator. They are supported by the ERS office scientific and logistics departments. These workshops are essentially funded by the ERS; however, faculty travel expenses and printing of the proceedings in the European Respiratory Review could be sponsored. Sponsorship via exhibitions and satellite symposia and of social events as well as advertising are not allowed.
The seminars are intended to include newly published work, work published in abstracts and research in progress. The seminars are not intended to be at postgraduate level; they should feature a few plenary sessions and a majority of break-out sessions. All sessions are to be held in English. The faculty should include a limited number (10) of well-established speakers, to introduce subjects and chair the workshop. A report on the meeting is compulsory, and must be submitted to the relevant ERS assembly head within 6 months of the workshop.
Attendance must be representative of at least four countries, and include between 20 and 150 (maximum) participants. Half the attendance should be selected and invited by the co-ordinator, and the other half by an ad hoc committee (the head of the assembly and two experts) upon application. ERS members should make up half the attendance. Participation is free.
After requesting an application form, the initiator should send a project application to the relevant assembly head (via the ERS Lausanne office) for submission to the approval of the Scientific Review Committee and the Executive Committee. Further information and an application form can be obtained from the Lausanne office or the ERS Website, www.ersnet.org.
JEAN-LUC EISELÉ
Scientific and Educational Activities Manager
The first research seminar sponsored by the ERS was organized by the "Pulmonary circulation gas exchange and exercise group". Experts in the fields of oxygen transport, muscle physiology, biochemistry, nutrition and rehabilitation met with the purpose of discussing current knowledge and future lines of research regarding the role of skeletal muscle dysfunction in chronic respiratory disorders.
During the seminar several issues were addressed, among them: mechanisms of reduced muscle mass (including inflammation), the evidence for a specific myopathy in chronic respiratory diseases, the role of inactivity per se, the role of drugs such as beta2-agonists, steroids and immunosuppressives, and how correctable the impairment is.
The seminar was organized with short introductory lectures from the faculty and allowed plenty of room for discussion. The mix of short formal presentation followed by open discussion with discussion leaders permitted wide participation and stimulating interaction. A summary of the meeting will be published soon in the European Respiratory Journal. At the end of the seminar, participants agreed to keep discussion alive by using a chat page on the ERS Website. The newborn group "Foro Romano" will have the opportunity to share new ideas and projects for future research on skeletal muscle dysfunction in chronic lung diseases.
PAOLO PALANGE
The list below contains only recently sponsored or endorsed meetings and ESRM seminars. Please check at http://www.ersnet.org for further information on all future meetings.
Members of the ERS are entitled to reduced fees upon presentation of their memberships card when participating in ERS-sponsored meetings.
Objectives: To enhance the involvement of chest physicians in the active management of lung cancer. To discuss existing "grey areas" in the management of lung cancer with a view to defining a state-of-the-art approach.
Further information: Prof. Kostas Zarogoulidis, Head of the Lung Tumor Research Section, G. Papanicolaou Hospital, 570 10 Thessaloniki, Greece.
Tel: (30) 31 950 263
Organised by the Portuguese Society of Pneumology (SPP)
Main topic of postgraduate courses: Update on pleural diseases.
Further information: Prof. Maria Joso Marques Gomes, SPP, Rua Rodrigues Sampaio 112, 200 Dto. B, 1150 Lisboa, Portugal
Tel./Fax: (351) 352 37 35
E-mail: sppneumologia@mail.telepac.pt
Buenos Aires, Sheraton Hotel & Convention Center
Organized by the International Association of Asthmology (Interasma)
To request a preliminary programme, registration information and abstract submission forms, please contact the General Secretariat or visit our Website.
Fax: (54) 11 4382 6703
Website: www.asthma.org.ar
European Seminar on: Advances in Paediatric Asthma
Objectives: The Seminar will focus on respiratory wheezing illnesses during the first years of life.
Further information: Prof. Roberto Ronchetti, or CpA, Divisione Congressi, Via della Balduina 260, 00136 Rome, Italy.
Fax: (390) 635402151
E-mail: cpamail@tin.it
XVI National Congress of Pneumophtisiology
Main topics: Major symposia will include Tuberculosis in Romania, Obstructive lung diseases, Treatment of community-acquired and nosocomial pneumonia, and Smoking as a risk factor for respiratory diseases
Further information: Prof. I.P. Stoicescu or Sos. Viilor 90, 75239 Bucuresti sector 5, Romania. Tel/Fax: (40) 1 337 3801
Robert Loddenkemper
Lungenklinik Heckeshorn
Zum Heckeshorn 33
D-14109 Berlin (Germany)
Tel: (49) 30 8002 2435/2220
Fax: (49) 30 8002 2286
Email: loddheck@zedat.fu-berlin.de
Charis Roussos
Critical Care Department, Evangelismos General Hospital
45-47 Ipsilandou Str.
GR-10676 Athens (Greece)
Tel: (30) 1 7243320
Fax: (30) 1 7216503
Email: croussos@atlas.cc.uoa.gr
Jacob Boe
Dept. of Thoracic Medicine
Rikshospitalet
University of Oslo
N-0027 Oslo 1 (Norway)
Tel: (47) 22 868727
Fax: (47) 22 868726
Email: jacob.boe@klinmed.uio.no
Claudio Donner
Fondazione S. Maugeri, IRCCS
Divisione di Pneumologia
Centro Medico di Riabilitazione
Via Revislate 13
I-28010 Veruno (Italy)
Tel: (390) 322 884 711
Fax: (390) 322 884 776
Email: dirscient.veruno@fsm.it
Jean-Claude Chevrolet
Hôpital Cantonal
Soins Intensifs
32 rue Micheli du Crest
CH-1211 Geneva 4 (Switzerland)
Tel: (41) 22 3823311
Fax: (41) 22 3729105
Email: martine.riedweg@hcuge.ch
Josep Roca
Servei de Pneumologia
Hospital Clinic
Villarroel 170
E-08036 Barcelona (Spain)
Tel: (34) 93 227 5540
Fax: (34) 93 227 5455
Email: roca@medicina.ub.es
Marc Decramer
U.Z. Gasthuisberg
Herestraat 49
B-3000 Leuven (Belgium)
Tel: (32) 1 63 46 807
Fax: (32) 1 63 46 803
Email: marc.decramer@ uz.kuleuven.ac.be
Elif Dagli
Marmara University Hospital
Dept. of Paediatric Pulmonology
Altunizade
81190 Istanbul (Turkey)
Tel: (90) 216 411 9044
Fax: (90) 216 411 9046
Email: edagli@superonline.com
Executive Manager: Nick Lorenz (ERS Lausanne, 1 Bd de Grancy, CH-1006 Lausanne). Email: nick.lorenz@ersnet.org
Jean-François Cordier
Hôpital Louis Pradel
Service de pneumologie
59 boulevard Pinel
F-69394 Lyon (France)
Tel: (33) 4 72 35 72 69
Fax: (33) 4 72 35 76 53
Email: germop@univ-lyonl.fr
Antonio Torres
UVIR, Servei de Pneumologia
Hospital Clinic, Villarroel 170
E-08036 Barcelona (Spain)
Tel: (34) 3 227 5549
Fax: (34) 3 227 5454
Email: atorres@medicina.ub.es
Marc Zelter
Fac. Pitié Salpétrière
Laboratoire de Physiologie
91 boulevard de l'Hôpital
F-75634 Paris Cedex 13 (France)
Tel: (33) 1 42 17 66 91
Fax: (33) 1 42 17 66 92
Email: marc.zelter@pol.ap_hop_paris.fr
Vito Brusasco
Dipartim Scienze Motorie
Ops. Le S Martino PAD 9/F
Largo R. Benzi 10
I-16132 Genova, GE (Italy)
Tel: (390) 10 3537690
Fax: (390) 10 3537690
Email: brusasco@dism.unige.it
Kian Fan Chung
Dept. of Thoracic Medicine
National Heart & Lung Institute
Imperial College School of Medicine
Dovehouse Street
London SW3 6LY (UK)
Tel: (44) 1 71 352 8121
Fax: (44) 1 71 3518126
Email: f.chung@ic.ac.uk
Giovanni Viegi
CNR Institute of Clinical Physiology
CNR Via P. Savi, 8
56126- Pisa (Italy)
Tel: (390) 50 502031
Fax: (390) 50 503596
Email: viegi@ifc.pi.cnr.it
Kai-Hakon Carlsen
Voksentoppen Children's Asthma and Allergy Centre
Ullveien 14
N-0394 Oslo (Norway)
Tel: (47) 22 14 19 90
Fax: (47) 22 14 86 20
Email: kaic@ulrik.uio.no
Pierre-Arthur Rocmans
Dept. de Chirurgie Thoracique
Hôpital Erasme
808 route de Lennick
B-1070 Brussels (Belgium)
Tel: (32) 2 5553985
Fax: (32) 2 5556490
Email: procmans@ulb.ac.be
Cees Van der Schans
University Hospital Groningen
Dept. Rehab, Fonteinstraat 4
P.O. Box 30.001
9700 RB Groningen (The Netherlands)
Tel: (31) 50 3614612
Fax: (31) 50 3611708
Email: c.p.van.der.schans@rev.azg.nl
Mark Woodhead
Dept. of Resp. Medicine
Manchester Royal Infirmary
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9WL (UK)
Tel: (44) 161 276 4322
Fax: (44) 161 276 4989
Email: woodhead@central.cmht.nwest.nhs.uk
Chairman, European School of Respiratory Medicine
Philippe Godard
Hôpital Arnaud de Villeneuve
371 avenue Doyen Gaston Giraud
F-34295 Montpellier Cedex 5 (France)
Tel: (33) 4 67 33 61 18
Fax: (33) 4 67 52 18 48
Email: PhGodard.Asmanet@Paris.Net
Chief Editor,
European Respiratory Journal
Ulrich Costabel
Ruhrlandklinik
Abt Pneumologie/Allergologie
Tueschener Weg 40
D-45239 Essen (Germany)
Tel: (49) 201 4334020
Fax: (49) 201 4334029
Email: erj.costabel@t-online.de
The ERS Newsletter is published three times a year (March, July and November) by the European Respiratory Society. Approximately 6,000 copies (44,000 copies for the November issue) are distributed to pneumologists all over Europe and overseas.
Editor
Josep Roca
Servei de Pneumologia
Hospital Clinic
Villarroel 170
E-08036 Barcelona (Spain)
Tel: (34) 93 227 5540
Fax: (34) 93 227 5455
Email: roca@medicina.ub.es
Advertisements and membership
ERS Lausanne office
1 Bd de Grancy
CH-1006 Lausanne
Tel: (41) 21 613 02 02
Fax: (41) 21 617 28 65
"The advertiser shall be liable for the content of any of its advertisements published according to its instructions. The advertisers shall indemnify and hold harmless the European Respiratory Society against and from any and all claims, damages, liabilities, costs and expenses whatsoever, including reasonable counsel fees, arising from the content of any of its advertisements".