Commissions and Reports

• Commission on Continuing Education and Career Development

Commission on Continuing Education and Career Development

March 2004

The mission and objectives of the commission are the following:

• Promote educational and career development opportunities for toxicologists worldwide.
• Provide continuing education programs to those in developing countries.
• Develop specific vehicles and tools to enhance education programs.
• Participate in fund raising for educational and career development programs.

Current Members: Judith MacGregor (chair) USA; Kevin Chipman UK; Paul Wright Australia.

Summary of the Program:

The Education Commission has a full and busy program of activities. Currently, several different projects are underway in addition to the core program of sponsoring educational programs. Each of these projects is listed below with a brief summary of the current activities.

1. Core Program: Provide educational programs at annual meetings of societies of toxicology in areas where they are most needed. (Judith MacGregor lead)

2002–2004
Following our invitation letter to societies, we received 16 requests for educational programs. We continue to receive additional requests for programs.

In 2002 we originally planned for 3 programs but because of demand and our successful fund raising, we put on 4 programs in 2002. Programs were held in South Africa (invited lecture), Slovenia (course) and Chile (workshop), and Argentina (2 lectures in Spanish). Attached are the details regarding the sites and speakers for the 2002 program.

Programs selected for 2003 included Estonia (a course), Georgia (lectures in Russian), and Mexico (lectures in Spanish). The Mexico program was deferred at their request to March 2004. For the 2003 program, we obtained the valuable assistance from EUROTOX (Ernie Harpur) in planning the successful program in Estonia held April 25th (see details attached). We have also sought input from the American College of Toxicology for multilingual lecturers and they will be included in the program to be held in Mexico. We sponsored two lectures at the Georgian Association of Toxicologists meeting, October 17, 2003 in Tbilisi, Georgia. This was the first opportunity to partner with the Fogarty International Center and they sponsored one of the speakers, Dr. Natalie Tomitch, who spoke about funding opportunities.

The 2004 program is also going to be very active. In the first part of the year, two CE programs were scheduled. The program at ASIATOX, February 1 in Bangkok Thailand provided the opportunity to present lectures for a regional group. Three lectures were provided, one of which was sponsored by Fogarty International Center. Details of the three are attached.
The program scheduled for Mexico will now take place March 30, 2004. Details regarding speakers are now being finalized. Additional programs for the remainder of the year are under consideration and will be decided following the upcoming meeting of the Executive Committee in Baltimore, March 21 and 22.

Contributions to the program have continued with funds received from NIEHS, ChevronTexeco and SOT. Our educational programs are funded totally from contributions without any need for general IUTOX funds. Following the ICT X in Tampere, Finland, a new solicitation letter will be sent to member societies asking for interest in a continuing education program. This will provide the basis for scheduling the program for 2005. Societies having interest should insure their response is submitted.

2. Donation of books and educational materials. (Kevin Chipman lead)

A letter was sent to a list of publishers and societies that could be potential sources of educational material. A list of recipient societies has been compiled. Some material has been received this year and sent to societies where the educational material is most needed. This project has now developed into an ongoing activity for IUTOX. The following are recent activities:

A. A selection of 12 books (3 copies each of a major text) from
Taylor and Francis. Sent to member societies 2002.
B. Distribution of information to IUTOX members regarding the availability free of charge of Elsevier electronic publications for developing countries. Additionally, Elsevier made a major commitment of 24 hard copies of a major text series (Comprehensive Toxicology vols. 1-13) in a joint press release which is posted at the IUTOX web site. These books were distributed to 24 locations around the world at regional libraries. Some difficulties were encountered with customs and this issue will need to be considered for future distributions.
C. SOT educational materials. 80 copies of courses 3-15, which were 4 hour courses, and about 40 copies of the sunrise one hour course. Distributed by SOT and IUTOX.

3. Long range project: Delivery of an online toxicology program to developing countries. (Paul Wright, lead)

The project is based on a Graduate Diploma/Master in Toxicology by coursework on-line program (at RMIT-University, Melbourne, Australia).

Much progress has been made in 2003, with the enrolment of 5 local students into the online program, co-mentored by local academics (in Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Latvia. Unfortunately the Latvian student had to drop out of the program to take maternity leave, but the 4 remaining students were very enthusiastic and conscientious, contributing confidently to some lively online discussions and tutorials, as well as benefiting from interactions with their online classmates from a range of countries around the world. This early stage of the project has clearly been a great success, with the students from developing countries excelling in their studies (i.e. obtaining grades of 3 High Distinctions and 1 Distinction in the "Introduction to Risk Assessment" course; and 1 High Distinction, 1 Distinction and 2 Credits for the "Applied Toxicology" course). These students are now completing the remaining 5 courses in the online Grad. Dip. Tox. program during 2004, funded by IUTOX and the International Education Program of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).
The present international situation necessitates this mode of education, as it maintains the local presence of scholars in the developing country, while simultaneously building their capacity and impact to effect useful changes locally in a much shorter timeframe, than if they traveled abroad for extended periods to undertake research and study programs. Our sincerest thanks again to the NIEHS for actively supporting this timely international initiative in toxicology education.

It is hoped that further funds can be obtained for the next stage of the project, to enable these students to complete the 4 Master of Toxicology courses (which includes the research project that will deal with their developing country's main toxicological problem). The establishment of these Masters projects (performed by local people and co-mentored by local academics with online co-supervision) aims to promote postgraduate research in developing countries by allowing these people to receive research training and co-supervision from overseas toxicologists in developed countries.

4. Special project: Administration of the AstraZeneca Fellowships. Judith MacGregor and Meryl Karol leads.

AstraZeneca has for the past three years continued to fund travel awards to the SOT for representatives from developing countries. It was decided to support 4 fellowships for 2004, each for $2500. AstraZeneca will pay the fellowship costs directly to those selected. By the December 15 deadline, we had received 14 applications, and selected the following awardees: Xianping Ying (China), P.K. Gupta (India), Salmaan Inayat-Hussain (Malaysia), and Cristina Bolaton (Philippines).

This effort has been a success and we should encourage other societies and sponsors to support such programs.

5. ICT X Educational workshop: ICT X Workshop 11 "Educational Challenges for IUTOX in Developing Countries" (Paul Wright, lead)

An additional workshop at the 10th International Congress of Toxicology has been organized by the members of this Commission to address the present and future educational challenges faced by IUTOX in developing countries. The session will be co-chaired by Erik Dybing and Paul Wright and will feature the following speakers: Erik Dybing (representing IUTOX) on "Past challenges faced: an overview of current educational activities of IUTOX"; Irma Makalinao (Philippines) on "Poison control centres in developing countries and Asia's needs in toxicology education"; Maritza Rojas Martini (Venezuela) on "Latin America's present and future needs in toxicology education"; and Mary Gulumian (South Africa) on "Africa's present and future needs in toxicology education". The following session description outlines the topics that will be addressed at this ICT X workshop in Tampere, Finland in July, 2004:

"The rapid industrialization and urbanization being experienced in many developing countries is having a major impact on human and environmental health. Also, chemical-related problems of developed countries continue to be relocated to developing countries for economic reasons. In these less-regulated settings, the ability to identify, monitor and manage the adverse effects of industrial activities is hampered by a paucity of toxicological expertise and training. Over the past decade, IUTOX has responded to this problem by establishing programs to help build regional capacity in toxicology expertise, but recognizes that a concerted effort from toxicologists world-wide is required to more-effectively address this issue. This workshop will identify present and future needs for toxicology education in major regions with developing countries, and highlight current initiatives to stimulate further activities in this important area."

IUTOX 2002- 2004 Continuing Education Program

1. TOXICOLOGY SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA (TOXSA), 1st National Conference on Toxicology, May 6-8, 2002 University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Elaine Faustman “Challenges and Successes in Using Gene Expression Data for Determining Mechanisms of Toxicant Action”.
Elaine Faustman “WHO/IPCS Activities on International Harmonization of Mode of Action Data for Risk Assessment”.

2. ARGENTINE TOXICOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (ATA) September 18, 2002 Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA 2 lectures in Spanish.

Dr. Kenneth Ramos of Texas A & M University
"Molecular Biology of the Toxic Response: Implications in Human Risk Assessment". Biologia Molecular de la Respuesta Toxica: Implicaciones para la Evaluacion de Riesgo en Humanos.

Dr. Julio Cesar Davila of Pharmacia Corporation
“Use and Application of Cultured Hepatocytes in Toxicology (El Use y Application de Hepatocytos Cultivados en Toxicologia)

3. Workshop in Santiago CHILE. Workshop held September 30 to October 1, 2002 entitled “Toxicogenomics” covering issues related to air pollution, heavy metal poisoning, and risk assessment. Approximately 200 attendees attended this workshop with representation from Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina.

4. SLOVENIAN SOCIETY OF TOXICOLOGY, Ljubljana SLOVENIA October 25-26, 2002

CE Course One half day course in the morning on October 25
Environmental Bioindicators: Useful Tools for Assessing at-Risk Populations
Dr. Judith Zelikoff, New York University School of Medicine
“ Immunological and Molecular Markers for Assessing Pollutant Exposure and Effects”

Dr. Marshall Adams, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, USA.
“Evaluation of Exposure and Effects Endpoints for use in Bioassessment and Ecological Risk Assessment”
October 26 Panel Discussion Linkages between human health and wildlife health Drs. Zelikoff and Adams

5. ESTONIAN SOCIETY OF TOXICOLOGY, Tallinn, Estonia, April 25, 2003

One half day course “Introduction to Good Laboratory Practice” at the National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics, Tallinn, Estonia.

Dr. Andrew Waddell, Managing Director of Tower Mains Limited, Edinburgh, Scotland. Nearly 100 people attended from 44 different institutions.

6. GEORGIAN ASSOCIATION OF TOXICOLOGISTS (GATOX), October 17, 2003, Tbilisi, Georgia, 2 lectures in Russian

Dr. Olga I. Lavrik, Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry of Enzymes Novosibirsk Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry Prospekt Lavrentiev, Novositbirsk Russia.
“ Role of DNA Repair in Protection of Humans from Environmental Mutagens”.

Dr. Natalie Tomitch, Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
“ Collaborative Research Opportunities and How to Obtain Grants.”

7. ASIATOX, February 1 2004 Bangkok Thailand, 3 lectures were sponsored

Dr. Meryl Karol, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA.
" Challenges for Immunology in the 21st Century."

Dr. Bruce Fowler, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Control (ATSDR), Center for Disease Control, Atlanta Georgia
“Developing and using biomarkers for environmental health studies”

Dr. Chris Schonwalder, Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. “Grant Opportunities for Research and Training from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fogarty Center and NIEHS with a focus on Collaborations in Developing Countries.

8. MEXICAN SOCIETY OF TOXICOLOGY, March 29-April 1, Guadalajara, MEXICO, lecture in Spanish

Dr. Jose Manautou, University of Connecticut, School of Pharmacy, Storrs, Connecticut
“Basic Concepts in Chemical Liver Injury and the Effects of Peroxisome Proliferators on Acetaminophin Toxicity” in Spanish “Conceptos Basicos de Daqo Hepatico Producido por Quimicos y el Effecto de Proliferadores Peroxisomas en Toxicidad por Acetaminofen”