Today, 25 September, The Union along with respiratory organisations from around the world marks World Lung Day, a day of advocacy for all those affected by, and working to end, respiratory disease.

This is the second World Lung Day, founded last year by the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) of which The Union is a member, to encourage organisations to have a unified voice on lung health.

This year, World Lung Day falls on the eve of two pivotal moments in the fight against respiratory disease: 26 September, the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis (TB) and 27 September, the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). We hope that this coming together of our political leaders will encourage an integrated approach to global health and bring about fundamental commitments from countries across the world to both TB and NCDs.

This is an important time for us all in the lung health community to unite and push for real action from our world leaders on the causes and impact of poor respiratory health.

We urge everybody to support World Lung Day and join the campaign by signing the Charter for Lung Health and using the World Lung Day digital toolkit.

Find out more and access FIRS’ World Lung Day resources.