Laboratory chemicals, microbes, radioactive materials, and the instruments and the lab buildings themselves pose a degree of risk to the environment. So research leaders are meeting next month at the National Institutes of Health to find ways to be sure that rising health research budgets won't harm the environment and, paradoxically, human health.
Scores of organizations and hundreds of participants will join in the Leadership Conference: Biomedical Research and the Environment, to be held Nov. 1 and 2, at Natcher Conference Center on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.
The conference keynote speaker will be The Honorable John E. Porter, chairman, U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education .
Among other distinguished speakers will be U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher; Lowell E. Weicker, Jr., chair of The Pew Environmental Health Commission; and William Raub, deputy assistant secretary for science policy, Department of Health and Human Services. The Honorable Paul G. Rogers, J.D., will chair the conference.
Agencies convening the conference are the National Association of Physicians for the Environment, the Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers and the Environmental Protection Agency, along with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, one of the National Institutes of Health.
Since much of any increased health research budgets will go into research grants to institutions throughout the country, a goal of the conference is to develop a national clearinghouse to disseminate the research practices that are environmentally sound, with an emphasis on pollution prevention and energy efficiency.
Participants will include government and private research administrators, campus facility officers, health and safety officers, environmental services managers, design and packaging engineers, architects and engineers, and manufacturers of research equipment and supplies, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
To register, fill out an online registration form or contact:
John T. Grupenhoff, Ph.D., or Betty Farley
National Association of Physicians for the Environment
6410 Rockledge Drive, Suite 412
Bethesda, MD 20817
Tel: 301/571-9790, Fax 301/530-8910
NOTE ON WEB AVAILABILITY:
To access the first day of the meeting on webcast from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., it is
necessary to have "RealPlayer G2" computer software. You can obtain it free by
using the videocast website link at the NIH to download it. To do this go to
http://videocast.nih.gov and scroll down the first page to the words "Download
Realplayer" and click on the link for Realplayer G2, fill out the form which
appears on the screen, click on the line at the bottom "Download Free
Realplayer" to select the kind you want. Sound adaptability on your computer is
required.