Environmental Factor, September 2009, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

NIEHS Joins Supporters of African Toxicology Meeting

By Eddy Ball
September 2009

Areola was photographed in his office at the Nashville, Tenn. Department of Health. (Photo courtesy of Sanmi Areola)

NIEHS is helping to advance the understanding of toxicology in Africa with a $15,000 donation to support an environmental risk assessment training workshop at the 7^th Congress of Toxicology in Developing Countries (CTDC). The event will be held September 6-10 in Sun City, South Africa. The workshop was organized by the African Society for Toxicological Sciences (ASTS) (http://africansocietyfortoxicologicalsciences.org/) and co-sponsored by ASTS and Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA) (http://www.tera.org/) .

ASTS President Sanmi Areola, Ph.D., said of the donation, "Continuing support for ASTS activities by NIEHS is creating invaluable opportunities for African scientists in facilitating exposures to modern concepts of toxicology and environmental health sciences." NIEHS funds will help offset the costs of stipends for attendees.

The Congress (http://www.7ctdc.co.za/m/invitation) features a program of continuing education courses, symposia and workshops designed to introduce scientists in developing countries to the principles of toxicology and pathology. NIEHS support will help maximize resources through partnerships with other organizations in an effort to develop indigenous infrastructure for advancing environmental health sciences in the region.

Held every three years, the congresses are sponsored by the International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX) (http://www.iutox.org/index.asp) . The meetings provide a forum for discussing toxicological problems facing developing countries in the future and exchanging views with toxicologists from all over the world, especially from developing countries and regions. The two most recent CTDCs were held in Guilin, China in 2003 and Cavtat/Dubrovnik, Croatia in 2005.

Support for the CTDCs also comes from American groups, such as the American College of Medical Toxicology (http://www.acmt.net/) and Society of Toxicology (http://www.toxicology.org/) . Foreign and international supporters include the International Council for Science (ICSU) Regional Office for Africa (http://www.icsu-africa.org/) , the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) (http://www.cansa.org.za/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?c=1056) , the Gesellschaft für Toxikologie (GT) (http://www.tox-online.de/) , the Federation of European Toxicologists & European Societies of Toxicology (EUROTOX) (http://www.eurotox.com/) , and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) (http://twas.ictp.it/) .

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