1. WASOGBAL 2011 June 15-18 th, Maastricht the Netherlands 10 th WASOG meeting; 12 th BAL conference 2 nd joint Meeting of WASOG and the International Conference on BAL Multidisciplinary teamwork in sarcoidosis and other interstitial lung diseases

2. WASOGBAL 2011 June 15-18, 2011 Maastricht, NL 2 nd joint Meeting of WASOG and the International Conference on BAL 10 th WASOG meeting, 12 th BAL conference Fine dust and most other airborne pollution is invisible and therefore doesn’t attract much attention of the general public. However, with almost 20,000 subjects dying yearly in the Netherlands 10 years earlier than expected due to this exposure, it is a silent killer. It is what smoking was 50 years ago.

3. WASOGBAL 2011 June 15-18, 2011 Maastricht, NL 2 nd joint Meeting of WASOG and the International Conference on BAL 10 th WASOG meeting, 12 th BAL conference The present EU legislation (as well as the Dutch legislation) concerning Particulate Matter (PM) and Nitric Oxide (NOx) is not based (anymore) on our present scientific knowledge on the harm for children, elderly and patients with cardiovascular of pulmonary diseases.

4. WASOGBAL 2011 June 15-18, 2011 Maastricht, NL 2 nd joint Meeting of WASOG and the International Conference on BAL 10 th WASOG meeting, 12 th BAL conference More research is urgently needed to define which parts of PM are associated with (the risk of) cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases.

5. WASOGBAL 2011 June 15-18, 2011 Maastricht, NL 2 nd joint Meeting of WASOG and the International Conference on BAL 10 th WASOG meeting, 12 th BAL conference A clean environment and the long-term health consequences are paying off on the long run and can never be an excuse for local or national administrators to endanger the life of school children because of economic benefit: Schools should never be placed within 300 ms of a highway and existing schools should be replaced.

6. WASOGBAL 2011 June 15-18, 2011 Maastricht, NL 2 nd joint Meeting of WASOG and the International Conference on BAL 10 th WASOG meeting, 12 th BAL conference Invest in prevention! To prevent is not only better, but also cheaper than to treat.

7. WASOGBAL 2011 June 15-18, 2011 Maastricht, NL 2 nd joint Meeting of WASOG and the International Conference on BAL 10 th WASOG meeting, 12 th BAL conference The poor performance of national registry programs for occupational respiratory disorders reflects the physicians’ perception that looking for the causal agent is not relevant.