Allergiepreventie: een agronomische benadering: workshop 27 maart 2003, Wageningen

Allergies, both food and environmentally related, are a continually growing health problem, particularly in the Western World. Exact causes and the additional environmental and social factors which play a role in the onset of these illnesses are still poorly understood. What is already clear is that while allergy sufferers remain a minority in the community, the reduction of the Quality-of-Life of these individuals and the financial consequences to the community as a whole is of major significance. Allergy is an illness where the sufferer is confronted on a daily basis with his or her lifestsyle limitations. The direct and indirect costs, from medical care, sick leave, loss of earnings, reduced productivity etc, already reach well into billions of euros. A complicating factor is that there are many kinds of allergy, with many different causes and several approaches for treatment. There is therefore no single solution. Much social and scientific research is still needed to generate the additional knowledge which is required to determine a suitable multidisciplinary strategy for the long-term tackling of this problem. Input from a wide range of sources, from social scientists to medics and from agriculturalists to immunologists etc, is essential to assess the situation fully and to assist in determining longterm policy decisions at a national level. This multidisciplinarity calls for broad support from different parts of government, industry and societal bodies to achieve the desired goal of reversing the rise in the number of allergy sufferers, preferably through prevention rather than cure.