More than 1,200 researchers from around the world gather in Barcelona to evaluate how the environment affects the health of population

PRESS RELEASE

-Minister of Health, Boi Ruiz, highlights at the opening of the Congress that the current economic situation requires "major changes" entailing a bet to "promote research and innovation."
-World's leading researchers in Environmental Epidemiology meet in Barcelona to pool the research being done worldwide on issues related to health and environment.
-Most important issues to be addressed are: cancer, respiratory diseases, reproductive problems, air pollution, global climate change, endocrine disruptors, water pollution, impact of alternative transport to the car or radiation.

The Minister of Health of Generalitat of Catalonia, Boi Ruiz, opened the 23rd Congress of the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE), which will bring together more than 1,200 epidemiologists around the world at the Congress Palace in Barcelona from today until September 16th. During the event, Ruiz said that the current economic situation requires "major changes" in the production and business models. Therefore, the Minister of Health added that "Catalonia is betting on the promotion of research and innovation." In this regard, he recalled how the region has about 10,000 innovative companies, 26,000 researchers, 23 scientific and technological parks and 12 major research infrastructures.

The Minister of Health highlighted "Catalonia has a long tradition of research in Public Health and for this reason, among some new research centers we find CREAL as one of the most important ones”.

The aim of this Congress, organized by the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) in Barcelona, is to share the research being conducted currently worldwide and put it together with previous research that has already been done on issues related to health and environmental respiratory diseases, cancer and reproductive problems as risk factors and air pollution, climate change or radiation, as highlighted in the speech of ISEE coordinators and CREAL researchers, Professor Manolis Kogevinas and Prof. Mark Nieuwenhuijsen.
A sample of the high scientific level of the meeting falls on the internationally renowned researchers who will attend the congress, and the 1,500 scientific papers that will be presented.

Professor Christopher Wild, director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, Lyon), also participated in this event, and he stressed the relationship between environmental exposures and cancer and recent advances in biomedical technology that can be incorporated in the research of this disease.
CREAL and epidemiology

CREAL is an institution created in late 2005 with the mission to promote and develop advanced epidemiological research on environmental factors affecting health, in order to facilitate the prevention and control of its harmful effects.

This centre is an initiative of the Generalitat of Catalonia with the collaboration of the Mar Park in Barcelona and Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). It is necessary to add CREAL is one of the 22 Spanish research centres that choose to the scientific excellence award called Severo Ochoa, promoted by the Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Here we highlight some of the conferences and/or sessions of Congress:

Wednesday September 14th
-8:30. Auditorium. Title: Transport and health.
Speaker: Bert Brunekreef, Utrecht University.
Theme: Dr. Brunekreef will explain what knowledge of the effects of transport policies on health, emphasizing the beneficial effects of alternative transport to the car.
-10:00 Room 11. Title: A review of experiences with economic proposals to promote walking and cycling: (Health Economic Assessment Tool-HEAT) .
Speakers: Sonja Kahlmeier, University of Zurich.
Theme: Walking and cycling are move effective measures to promote physical activity, an important priority for public health. Dr. Kahlmeier will submit an estimate of the economic value of reducing mortality due to physical activity of cycling or walking.
-12:30. Room: Auditorium. Title: Exposure to fine particles of the environment alters cerebral blood flow in the elderly: A study of Boston (USA).
Speaker: Gregory Wellenius, Brown University.
Theme: Dr. Wellenius present new results showing that exposure to PM2.5 (fine particulate air pollution) are associated with alterations in cerebral blood flow in older people. This indicates that air pollution may increase the risk of acute stroke.
-12:00. Room 4. Title: Green Cities and Healthy: A question of stairs?
Speaker: Elizabeth Richardson, University of Geosciences, Edinburgh, UK.
Theme: The cities are expanding. Access to green spaces has been associated with health benefits, both individually and by the community in general. However, this study shows that, in general, greener cities do not translate into a reduction in mortality.
-16:30. Room 12. Title: Summary: Critical knowledge acquired in the experience of Chernobyl.
Speaker: Elisabeth Cardis, head of the Radiation program CREAL, Barcelona.
Topic: Dr. Cardis present a special symposium on 25 years of Chernobyl. She will present an evaluation of the effects of nuclear accidents over these years in European population.

Thursday September 15th
-10:00. Room 12. Title: Longitudinal studies of noise and mental health.
Speaker: Stephen Stansfeld, Psychiatry Institute, London
Theme: Dr. Stansfeld will display the search results indicate that the noise of cities affects the mental health of the inhabitants.
-11:30. Room 6. Title: The heat and cause-specific mortality in adults and children. Speaker: Xavier Basagaña, co-coordinator of the program CREAL Biostatistics, Barcelona.
Theme: The study includes all deaths in the region of Catalonia during the warm seasons of 1983-2006 (503,389 deaths). The results of this study show that heat contributes to increased mortality from various causes and in babies, the most vulnerable period is the first week of life.
-11:30 to 13:00. Room 8. Title: Effects of natural disasters.
Speaker: David Savitz, Brown University, USA.
Theme: Dr. Savitz will lead this special symposium on disasters and health, long-term effects of past environmental disasters such as Chernobyl, oil spills from the Prestige, the eruption of the volcano in Iceland and also the recent disaster in Japan and Gulf of Mexico.
-12:00. Room 3. Title: Exposure to acrylamide via food during pregnancy and relationship to low birth weight.
Speaker: Marie Pedersen, a researcher at CREAL, Barcelona.
Topic: Dr. Pedersen presented the results of a European study shows exposure to acrylamide, a potential carcinogen, than through diet adversely affects the baby's weight at birth. Exposure occurs mainly by consumption of French fries and other foods. Acrylamide was measured at about 1,000 children, specifically the blood from his umbilical cord.

Friday September 16th
-8:30. Auditorium. Title: Exhibitions in the first years of life and effects in adulthood. Speaker: Brenda Eskenazi, UC Berkeley, USA.
Topic: Dr. Eskenazi, a professor at the University of Berkeley, will explain the latest advances in research on the effects of exposure during early life to environmental contaminants. She will present the results on the effects of pesticide exposure in mothers and children.
-9:00. Room: Auditorium. Title: Recent advances in biomedical research in environmental health.
Speaker: Linda S. Birnhaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).
Topic: Dr. Birnhaum will expose the latest advances in biomedical research that promotes multidisciplinary approaches. Also discuss the studies promoted by the NIEHS to assess the effects of oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
-9:30. Room 11. Title: Short term effect of high temperatures on mortality in Mediterranean cities: The results of the CIRCE project.
Speakers:Michela Leone and Daniel Ippoliti, Columbia University, NYC, USA.
Topic: Dr. D'Ippoliti offer the most comprehensive estimates of the effects of temperature increases in the Mediterranean.
-16:30 Room 8. Title: The relationship between exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) during pregnancy and child’s behavior.
Speaker: Frederica Perera, Columbia University, NYC, USA.
Topic: Dr. Perera w ill explain the effects of exposure to PAHs in air pollution and diet on child behavior at 5 and 7 years. Show that exposure of mothers during pregnancy to these toxic chemicals can affect attention and anxiety in their children.

For further information or to arrange interviews, please contact with Department of Communication:
-Gisela Sanmartin- gsanmartin@creal.cat or 696 912 841
-Anna Sillero- asillero@creal.cator 686 49 61 99

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