Healthy Lungs for Life is a global campaign that raises awareness about the importance of lung health. Over the past 10 years, it has grown from public lung testing events at the ERS Congress to city-wide campaigns, advocacy work and a growing school programme, Healthy Lungs for Life for Schools (HLfL4S). This school programme has already been successfully piloted in cities including Barcelona, Milan and Vienna.
This year, Healthy Lungs for Life has partnered with Longfonds (Lung Foundation Netherlands) to bring the school programme to the Netherlands. From 23 to 26 June, the Healthy Lungs for Life team, together with healthcare professionals from Amsterdam UMC, Emmakinderziekenhuis, Erasmus MC, and Sophia Kinderziekenhuis, visited Biënkorf School in Amsterdam. Over 3 days, they worked with 104 children aged 9 to 12 years.
The programme began with a lively session where a physician explained how lungs work and why it is important to take care of them. The children then made their own lung models and took part in lung function (spirometry) tests to check their lung function.
The HLFL4S progamme was delivered alongside a local Snifferbikes project, organised by Longfonds and Globe. This saw children riding special bikes equipped with sensors to measure air pollution.
Throughout the visit, the children showed curiosity, asking many thoughtful questions, including:
Healthcare professionals emphasised the importance of lung health education and expressed enthusiasm about taking part in more projects like this in the future. Parents were also very positive about the programme and enjoyed hearing how their children spoke about the project.
“The government should subsidize electric cars, so it is more affordable for the people.”
“We should have health messages displayed at big concerts such as the one of Billie Eilish”
“Energy drinks are also bad for you since it makes your blood stream faster and so it is harder for the lungs to transfer oxygen into the blood.”
“We never had a physician come into the class before; the children are super interested!” – teacher
This schools programme is part of the wider Healthy Lungs for Life campaign, which has been raising awareness about lung health for over 10 years. The campaign offers a range of educational packages, from self-led lessons and healthcare professional visits to lung function testing.
Launched earlier this year at the NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam, the programme continues to grow. The team is preparing to reach even more schools, building momentum ahead of the ERS Congress in Amsterdam this September.
With thanks to NDD for supporting our activities in Amsterdam in providing the spirometry equipment.
Find out more about Healthy Lungs for Life Amsterdam 2025 and how your school or community can join.
This September, the Healthy Lungs for Life team will be in Amsterdam for the ERS Congress, ready to share ideas about bringing lung health programmes to schools, workplaces and communities across Europe.
Events will include:
If you would like the Healthy Lungs for Life schools project to come to your area, or if you want to support this important work through donations, please get in touch with Katherine Wylie at Katherine.wylie@europeanlung.org
An EU-funded project, LungHealth4Life, is also testing the concept of lung health checks and education on health risks to promote disease prevention. Find out more about this project.
Together, we can help young people protect their lungs and breathe easier for life.
