BOHS Announces Eleventh Inhaled Particles Symposium
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The British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS) has announced its latest Inhaled Particles symposium, the eleventh in a long line of highly successful and prestigious conferences, to be held in the city of Nottingham from 23 to 25 September 2013.
The first Inhaled Particles symposium was held at Oxford University in 1960, making the meetings the oldest ongoing international symposium series on the health effects of particles.
Over the intervening fifty years, the ten Inhaled Particles meetings have witnessed all of the key developments in occupational and public health associated with airborne particles.
In particular, the Inhaled Particles symposia have been distinguished by an integrative approach to the science of particle-mediated lung disease, involving exposure scientists, epidemiologists, toxicologists and others concerned about the harm caused by inhaling particles.
The early symposia were important in helping establish standards for dust control in coalmines in the UK and other countries, reducing the incidence of pneumoconiosis among miners.
By the 1980s and 1990s, the main emphasis had shifted to fibres, including asbestos.
Inhaled Particles XI (IPXI), to be held at Nottingham Conference Centre, at Nottingham Trent University, will take a multi-disciplinary approach, addressing topics within:
• exposure, for example controls, instrumentation and measurement
• hazards, including deposition, clearance, particokinetics, toxicology, and mechanisms of disease
• risk assessment, for example epidemiology, health impacts and links with policy.
BOHS is inviting all researchers who work on exposure, metrology, epidemiology, toxicology and risk assessment in particle-associated diseases to attend the latest meeting.
In addition, BOHS continues to invite authors to submit abstracts for oral or poster presentations. All abstracts must be submitted no later than 8 April 2013. Authors will be notified by 10 May 2013.
Key speakers will include the following.
• Dr Michael Attfield is a senior epidemiologist and expert on coal miner health. He acted as co-director in a major project to examine the relationship between lung cancer and exposure to diesel exhaust. The findings of this project led to the determination by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) that there was sufficient evidence that diesel exhaust particulate was a human carcinogen.
• Dr Derk Brouwer is a senior scientist in exposure assessment with the Dutch Organization for Applied Scientific Research TNO in the Netherlands. He is active in a wide range of international projects on assessment of worker exposure to nanoparticles. In particular his research focuses on measurement strategies and exposure modeling issues.
• Dr Vince Castranova is the Chief of the Pathology and Physiology Research Branch at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Morgantown, West Virginia. His research interests have been concentrated in pulmonary toxicology and occupational lung disease. He has been coordinator of the Nanotoxicology Program in NIOSH since its inception in 2005.
• Dave Litton, a Senior Research Physicist at NIOSH in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is an expert in fire detection, flame spectroscopy and optical diagnostics as well as in the measurement of combustion-generated particulate matter. For the past 12 to 15 years his research has been divided between managing combustion projects related to fire and explosion safety, and new approaches to atmospheric dusts and aerosols.
Commenting on the plans for September 2013, Professor Ken Donaldson, Chair of the IPXI Scientific Committee, said “IPXI will seek to continue its fine tradition of over fifty years, bringing together leading researchers on the adverse effects of particles on the lungs and extra-pulmonary target tissues to showcase cutting edge research and debate solutions to the challenges faced within particle research and risk assessment”.
Further information about the event, including booking forms, can be accessed at www.inhaledparticles.org/. Delegates who book before 1 July 2013 will receive an “early bird” discounted rate of £540.00.
