BackgroundOver 1 billion people suffer from chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma, COPD, rhinitis and rhinosinusitis. They cause an enormous burden and are considered as major non-communicable diseases. Many patients are still uncontrolled and the cost of inaction is unacceptable. A meeting was held in Vilnius, Lithuania (March 23, 2018) under the patronage of the Ministry of Health and several scientific societies to propose multisectoral care pathways embedding guided self-management, mHealth and air pollution in selected chronic respiratory diseases (rhinitis, chronic rhinosinusitis, asthma and COPD). The meeting resulted in the Vilnius Declaration that was developed by the participants of the EU Summit on chronic respiratory diseases under the leadership of Euforea.ConclusionThe Vilnius Declaration represents an important step for the fight against air pollution in chronic respiratory diseases globally and has a clear strategic relevance with regard to the EU Health Strategy as it will bring added value to the existing public health knowledge.

Given the global nature of the alcohol industry, there is a need for international regulation to limit the influence of vested interests on national lawmaking.

Adresas susirašinėti: V. Grabauskas, KMU Profilaktinės medicinos katedra, A. Mickevičiaus 9,

Smoking causes a considerable mortality burden in Lithuania, killing nine times more males than females. Therefore reduction of smoking prevalence is an urgent public health need, which calls for implementation of effective and comprehensive tobacco control measures consistent with the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Articles and Protocols and The Tobacco Products Directive.

A significant number of alcohol-attributable deaths in Lithuania were misclassified as coronary deaths, accounting for almost one-tenth of officially registered deaths from IHD in ages 25-64. A high prevalence of positive post-mortem blood or urine alcohol tests suggests that the proportion of alcohol-related deaths among out-of-hospital IHD deaths may be actually even higher. A similar situation may be present in some other countries where high levels of alcohol consumption and binge drinking patterns are observed.

Results support an idea of complexity of the relationships among smoking, alcohol use, and emotional well-being. Lack of positive emotional acceptance of pregnancy by mother and history of elective abortions can be considered as possible associates of smoking during pregnancy and suggest that strengthening of positive attitudes toward motherhood could add to lower smoking rates among pregnant women.

No abstract

European smokefree class competition: a measure to decrease smoking in youth This letter corrects misleading and incorrect statements about the smokefree class competition (SFC) in a recent paper.