Lovexair participates in the WHO World Congress
The Foundation presented the "Clean Air, Healthy Lives" campaign and the Check@ir tool to world leaders gathered in Cartagena de Indias. We've taken away inspiration, solutions, and new avenues for collaboration.
La Health starts within, but is also protected from the outside. It is one of the key messages that we wanted to bring from the Lovexair Foundation to the center of the debate generated in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), within the framework of the Second Conference on Air Quality and Health, organized by the World Health Organization.
And we did it with the best awareness-raising tools we have:
- The screening of the documentary “breathe mom”, a first-person story that tells the story of Meri and her daughter Nina, who is affected by Alpha-1, a rare condition that makes her especially vulnerable to air pollution.
- The high-level debate of a Expert Panel composed of Meri Collazos (director of the documentary), Astrid Puentes (United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to a Healthy Environment), Isabel González Whitaker (Moms Clean Air Force), Brian Warn (European Respiratory Society) and Shane Fitch, representing the Foundation: You can watch the Expert Panel debate here..
In addition, we participated together with the Colombian foundations Fiquires, Inspirat, Funcolehf, Ayúdanos a Respirar and Latin Health Leaders in an activity organized by European Lung Foundation, European Respiratory Society y World Heart Federation to promote lung and heart health and raise awareness about the impact of air pollution through lung function tests and oximetry.
Conclusions and new collaborations
From Cartagena, we brought back more than 60 contacts between civic organizations, ministries of health and the environment, and representatives of sustainable cities, with whom we will soon open new avenues of collaboration that will contribute to protecting our respiratory health. We also received a wealth of inspiration, ideas, data, and innovative solutions that recharge us to continue working along the same lines in the coming months.
While we get our engines running, here are the key takeaways from the meeting:
1) Breathing clean air as a “human right”
We're talking about human rights, not privileges. Breathing clean air shouldn't be only available to those who can afford it. If we defend health equity, we must also defend a healthy, clean, and sustainable environment as a human right inherent to all people. By recognizing this right, laws and enforcement measures will be much more effective.
Our gratitude for the tireless work of Astrid Puentes Riaño, UN Special Rapporteur, whom we also had the opportunity to count on as a panelist during the debate we organized within the framework of the Conference.
2) We need data!
Without data there are no effective measures. We say it and the WHO itself defends it in its “Updated Roadmap for an Enhanced Global Response to the Adverse Health Effects of Air Pollution” (January 2025).
However, there is still no cross-referencing of data between air quality measurements and specific measurements of how these factors impact the development of respiratory diseases. Therefore, it is urgent to gather as much scientific and statistical evidence as possible to demonstrate this.
3) Go local to become global
We need local action to drive a global movement. Every minute counts and every action contributes. What we do in our communities will generate a "butterfly effect" in nearby communities and, from there, on a global scale. That's why we support the ongoing work of initiatives like C40 Cities.
The powerful speeches of Dr. Arvind Kumar, the mothers of Our Kids' Climate y Moms Clean Air Force; from the scientific point of view of brian ward (European Respiratory Society) and Poornima Prabhakaran (World Heart Federation) and the inspiring ones Maria Neira y Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah CBE.
From our campaign “Global Campaign"We will continue to support your work for respiratory health. The campaign invites people around the world to use the online questionnaire."Check@ir” to self-assess the health of their lungs and, at the same time, contribute to the creation of the first Global Lung Health Map.
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