World Lung Day 2025
29/08/2025
Lungs don’t discriminate, society does
On this World Lung Day, the Global Allergy & Airways Patient Platform (GAAPP) calls attention to the urgent need for action on lung health.
We want to highlight the key educational and awareness messages from the latest WHO World Report on Social Determinants of Health Equity1, and we ask for your support in transforming these insights into advocacy and policy change.
Specifically, we urge governments to implement the immediate and urgent actions outlined in the recently approved Integrated Lung Health Resolution (“Promoting and prioritizing an integrated lung health approach”)2, which was adopted unanimously at the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, May 2025, and further confirmed and detailed country by country at the United Nations Global Health Assembly (UNGHA) in New York on 24 September, 2025.
Together, we can ensure that lung health is prioritized as a cornerstone of health equity worldwide.
The WHO World Report on Social Determinants of Health Equity stresses that:
- Health inequities are largely driven by social and structural factors, not just individual choices. Poverty, education, housing, employment, and environmental conditions remain the strongest predictors of health outcomes.
- People in low- and middle-income countries live, on average, 16 years less than those in high-income countries, with lung health inequalities being a major contributor.
- Climate change and air pollution are now among the leading global health threats, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations, including children, older adults, and people with chronic respiratory diseases.
- The report calls for urgent cross-sectoral action, urging governments to integrate health equity into all policies—transport, housing, energy, labor, and environment—because medical care alone cannot close the equity gap.
What do we plan to do about it for World Lung Day?
GAAPP is encouraging its member organizations to participate in this communication grant by sharing the social media assets we have prepared for you based on the WHO report. We also ask you to stay tuned for our advocacy toolkit, which we will release close to 24 September. This toolkit will highlight specific, actionable advocacy tools to ensure that governments are accountable for what they signed in the ‘Integrated Lung Health Resolution’.
Stay tuned here for the lung health resolution implementation advocacy toolkit. In the meantime, if you are a GAAPP member organization, please apply for our communication grant and share our social media assets in different languages.
Communication grant for GAAPP Member Organizations
GAAPP has launched its communication grant for World Lung Day 2025.
A 200€ grant is offered to help you post 2 social media posts. The toolkit, which includes step-by-step instructions, is available in several languages. If you need these assets in another language, please contact , and we will be happy to arrange that for you.
To apply for the grant and obtain the social media assets, please click on the button below:
We thank the overall support from our Corporate Council members:
