A Message from the President of IUTOX

Dear IUTOX Member,

I hope you have had a good start in 2003 and that you will experience a number of interesting toxicological challenges ahead. With respect to challenges, I was recently asked to address the main challenges facing toxicology at the Winter Meeting of the Norwegian Society of Pharmacology and Toxicology. Very subjectively, I listed the following: 1) Improving the understanding of toxicological mechanisms of action, 2) integrating "omics" technology into toxicology, 3) increasing collaboration with epidemiologists, 4) improving understanding of exposure situations, 5) strengthening competence in risk assessment, and 6) concentrating on topics giving the greatest preventive effects.

Our colleagues of the Chinese Society of Toxicology have now sent you the Final Announcement of the Fifth Congress of Toxicology in Developing Countries (5CTDC) in Guilin, 10-13 November. I believe we have developed an exciting programme so that you will wish to attend the congress. Plenary lecture topics cover risk assessment of chemicals in food, tobacco-induced burden of disease, pesticide poisoning, massive toxicological emergencies and children's environmental health. Symposia will be arranged on arsenic contamination of drinking water, occupational health challenges, pesticides and health risks, and life style factors and acquired susceptibility in environmental disease. The workshop themes are on safety issues of herbal medicines and foods, waterborne diseases vs. chlorination by-products, poison control services, outdoor and indoor air pollution, and evaluation of genetic risks with human cells. In addition, there will be a session on toxicology information resources and a toxicology roundtable discussion. Please mark your calendar for 5CTDC and register!

We are now some 17 months away from the International Congress of Toxicology (ICT X) in Tampere, Finland, 11-16 July 2004. Our Finnish friends have worked very hard in collecting programme proposals from the toxicological community. The International Scientific Program Committee (ISPC) and the International Scientific Advisory Committee (ISAC) have just ranked the various proposals. A final decision on the scientific programme will be reached at the meeting of ISPC and ISAC during the Annual Meeting of the Society of Toxicology in Salt Lake City in March. I also hope that you will find this programme attractive so that you will plan to come to Tampere next year.

In my last message to you, I informed about our newly initiated collaboration with the firm AIM in order to provide professional management service to IUTOX. We have now also established an agreement with AIM to perform the web management services for our society. These services will include web redesign, web page enhancements and daily web maintenance. The goal of the redesign is to provide IUTOX with the highest quality web site design that will project the professional image of the Union and serve as an effective member communication tool. When this is in place, we hope that you will feel that we have improved our communication with you and that you will have a better means for communicating with us.

Oslo, 28 January 2003

Erik Dybing