May 3 - 5, 2006
L.I. Medved's Institute of Ecohygiene and Toxicology - Kiev, Ukraine
The following high priority areas represent the central foci of this conference: Exposure Assessment, Food Safety, Health Effects, and Remediation. The conference will have three primary objectives:
To bring together scientists, students, and regulators from the US and Europe to discuss the magnitude, similarities, and differences in the environmental and health issues associated with hazardous waste sites in their respective countries;
To provide an opportunity to present the best current science in order to break down geographic barriers in exchanging ideas, thus establishing a foundation for cross-fertilization and joint projects, collaborations and partnerships in solving global environmental health problems; and
To educate and motivate students and junior investigators to realize the breadth, depth, and importance of the environmental health science for the improvement of human health and preservation of the environment.
The rationale for selecting these four areas will emphasize team- and partnership-building and cross-fertilization, as well as education, information, and outreach to international partners. The basic research focus of the entire Superfund Program makes possible the integration of research on Exposure Assessment. The Superfund-funded researchers will demonstrate the latest advances in this critical area of environmental health sciences. The Eastern and Central European researchers have been traditionally strong in collecting health endpoints from populations exposed to environmental agents; thus, the Health Effects focus area is an area of strength of the potential research partners and an area of interest for basic biomedical researchers of the Superfund Program, many of whom are more familiar with health outcomes in animal models rather than humans.
Food Safety is an important issue for environmental health scientists in Europe and the advances in detection, elimination and health risks of chemical food contaminants and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) will be considered. A fourth proposed focus is on Remediation where both American and Eastern and Central European scientists and engineers have made considerable advances that may hold great potential when used together or consequentially. Due to limited resources, scientists in Central and Eastern Europe have developed a range of cost-efficient, yet effective, remediation strategies. In contrast, scientists in the United States have experience developing remediation strategies that use risk-based criteria. Engineers from both areas may benefit greatly from learning of each other's ideas and combining their respective expertise in physico-chemical, biological and phyto-remediation.
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