A Message from the President of IUTOX (Sept 2004)

Dear IUTOX Member,

I would like to thank you once again for electing me as the president-elect in Brisbane in 2001. After working as an IUTOX-EC member for three years, I assumed the presidency of this prestigious union in Tampere on July 14, 2004. It is an honor for me to serve as the president of IUTOX.

With its distinguished Executive Committee under the leadership of Dr. Erik Dybing, IUTOX has had a most successful term in 2001–2004. I believe that you are all familiar with the work accomplished during this period; but, nevertheless, I would like to briefly enumerate some of these achievements: The number of IUTOX member societies rose to 47 during this term; and many successful activities were undertaken in areas that concern the developing countries, in particular, the 5th Congress of Toxicology in Developing Countries, in Guilin, China and the organization of Continuing Education courses in several locations. The period ended with the 10th International Congress of Toxicology. On behalf of the IUTOX Executive Committee, I would like to thank the host, the Finnish Society of Toxicology, for this successfully organized meeting.

As the IUTOX 2004–2007 Executive Committee, we must continue with this record of successful organizations and activities. In this difficult but equally meaningful and satisfying job, I have the good fortune to work with excellent Executive Committee members. These individuals are talented, dedicated toxicologists who volunteer their time to serve the world toxicology community. Other Executive Committee members are Dr. Robert Kroes (The Netherlands), President elect; Dr. Tohru Inoue (Japan), Vice President; Dr. Wallace Hayes (USA), Secretary-General; Dr. Alexander Buerkle (Germany), Treasurer; and Directors, Dr. Silvia Barros (Brazil), Dr. Corrado Galli (Italy), Dr. Kevin Chipman (UK), Dr. Konrad Rydznski (Poland), and Dr. Barbara Hales (Canada).

The new Executive Committee is now preparing a strategic plan for the new term, which you will soon find on the IUTOX website. The strategic plan is being prepared in line with and for the purpose of helping actualize the long range goals that have been posited in accordance with the IUTOX mission. Let me reiterate this mission and the goals. The mission of IUTOX is to foster international scientific cooperation among toxicologists, to promote global acquisition, dissemination and utilization of knowledge in the science of toxicology and to ensure continued training and development of toxicologists world-wide. The long range goals of IUTOX are:

• to serve as the scientific voice of toxicology in the world
• to provide leadership as a worldwide scientific organization that objectively addresses global issues involving the toxicological sciences
• to broaden the geographical base of toxicology as a discipline and a profession to all countries of the world
• to pursue capacity building in toxicology, particularly in developing countries to utilize its global perspective and network to contribute to the enhancement of toxicology education and the career development of young toxicologists.

Most of these goals imply a necessity for increasing activities in the developing countries. The theme of the Tampere Congress was "Living in a Safe Chemical World" and indeed, the rapid developments that have taken place in toxicology have provided us with just such a possibility. However, most of the developing countries do not have the opportunity to make use of the benefits thus acquired. Toxicology, as a scientific discipline and a profession, has not developed sufficiently in most developing countries. Indeed, many countries still have no toxicology programs at their universities and they have a dearth of human resources in this field. Consequently, they are unable to utilize the scientific approach provided by toxicology in dealing with and in responding to the harmful effects of chemicals on the environment and human health. Therefore, we need to increase our activities in the developing countries and we have already taken some action in that direction: Two important changes regarding the developing countries were made in the IUTOX constitution at the 2004 Tampere IUTOX General Assembly:

(i) "Congress of Toxicology in Developing Countries"(CTDCs) were integrated as an IUTOX activity. The first CTDC was held in Argentina in 1987 as an independent initiative and has been held once in every four years since then: India (1991), Egypt (1995), Turkey(1999) and China(2003). Henceforth they will be organized as an IUTOX activity, in accordance with the major aims of the CTDCs, which are,

• promoting toxicology in developing countries.
• providing a platform where the toxicological issues and problems that mainly concern the developing countries are addressed.
• promoting cooperation between scientists from developed and developing countries to work on the specific toxicological problems of the developing world.

(ii) Another constitutional change made at the IUTOX General Assembly in Tampere, was the establishment of the " Developing Countries Committee", which is charged with the function and responsibility of coordinating IUTOX activities regarding developing countries.

Meanwhile, two new task-forces have been formed by the new Executive Committee.

Registration and accreditation of toxicologists is available in many countries; however, there is yet much work to be done in terms of the international harmonization of registration/accreditation. To facilitate these efforts, the new IUTOX-EC has established a "Task Force for Harmonization of the Certification/ Registration of Toxicologists" chaired by Dr. Corrado Galli, which is cooperating with member societies. Another task-force, namely, " Task Force for the Enhancement of the Appreciation and Image of Toxicology" chaired by Dr. Kevin Chipman has been established. In cooperation with member societies, this task force will organize and coordinate work that would enhance the proper perception of toxicology by highlighting the fact that toxicology has significant protective functions in the context of health safety and environmental issues.

Two important congresses will be organized by IUTOX during the next three years: The first, namely, the 6CTDC will be held as a fully integrated meeting together with the EUROTOX-2006 in Cavtat/Dubrovnik, Croatia on Sept. 20–24, 2006 (www.eurotox2006-6ctdc.org); and the second, the 11th International Congress of Toxicology will be held in Montreal, Canada on 15–19 July, 2007 (www.ict2007.org). During the next few months, the scientific committees of these congresses will start soliciting the member societies for their contributions to the scientific programs of these two congresses. We expect the active participation of the member societies in this regard.

As the new IUTOX-EC we look forward to serving the world toxicological community. We need and would very much appreciate your feedback and your contributions in fulfilling our duties.

Ali Esat Karakaya
IUTOX President