The Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health opened on 10 March in Parma, Italy, to evaluate the impact of national and international environmental policies on health. Some 800 participants from the 53 member states of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and representatives of the European Commission are attending the three-day event, the final stage of an intergovernmental process initiated in 1989. This meeting is expected to conclude with a declaration setting the main objectives to be defended over the next ten years and reiterating members’ commitment to reduce global threats, such as climate change and environmental factors that represent major risks for man. On 10 March, the accent was placed on respiratory diseases as part of the ‘Year of the Lung’ 2010. According to the last two WHO reports, the health risks of environmental factors have declined but some countries are more exposed than others.