News and Reviews

The Fifth Congress of Toxicology in Developing Countries

The 5th Congress of Toxicology in Developing Countries (5CTDC) was held at the Ronghu Hotel, Guilin, P.R. China from November 10 to 13, 2003. The Congress was organized under the guidance of the Chinese Society of Toxicology and the International Union of Toxicology with assistance from the China International Conference Center for Science and Technology.

The 2001–2004 IUTOX Executive Council enjoys a breif moment of relaxation at the 5CTDC Meeting. L to R: Torbjorn Malmfors, Glenn Sipes, Ali Estat Karakaya, Meryl Karol, Eric Dybing, Kevin Chipman, Tetsuo Satoh, Paul Wright.

The scientific program of the Congress consisted of two continuing education courses (Advances in Clinical Toxicology: Poisons & Poisoning in Developing Countries and Chemical Carcinogenesis-Experimental Assessment), four symposia, five workshops, and five plenary lectures. Two other sessions, Toxicology Information Resources and Toxicology Education Roundtable sessions, dealt with how to find and use information resources for toxicologists via the Internet and more traditional sources such as journals, textbooks and distance learning programs. The program included 50 invited speakers from around the world and over five hundred posters divided into four sessions Chemical, Biological and Physical Toxicants, Systemic, Organ and Molecular Toxicology, Clinical Toxicology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and Analytical Methods, Toxicity Testing and Risk Assessment.

The Proceedings of the 5th Congress of Toxicology in Developing Countries comprise important areas of toxicology: safety issues in the use of herbals, flavors and fragrances, traditional eastern medicines, toxicology information resources, children’s health, arsenic contamination of drinking water, genomics in environmental health, pesticides and health, life style factors in environmental diseases, poison control services, air pollutants, genetic risks in environmental health and water borne diseases versus chlorination by-products. These topics focus on issues and needs related to developing countries.

The organizers, the publication subcommittee and the editor of the Proceedings thank all the authors presenting lectures at the congress who submitted their manuscripts. Although the focus of the Proceedings of the 5CTDC was on toxicological issues of particular interest to developing countries, the science is excellent and the information contained in the Proceedings will be beneficial to toxicologists, risk assessors and regulators world-wide.

A. Wallace Hayes, PhD, DABT, FATS, FIBiol, FACFE
Harvard School of Public Health
Boston, MA 02115 USA
awhayes@hsph.harvard.edu