2016 Central and Eastern European Conference on Health and the Environment

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Central and Eastern Europe Conference on Health and the Environment (CEECHE) is a critically important international venue designed to focus representative global research and stakeholder expertise in environmental health and science on major challenges related to environmental exposures in CEE countries. In particular, this conference series is a vital platform for continuing coordination of U.S. and CEE stakeholder expertise directed at multiple facets of environmentally induced diseases. This region not only has a pre-1989 legacy of serious environmental contamination and neglect with associated devastating human health impacts, but also faces the challenges of more recent environmental catastrophesdisasters. The proposed 2016 meeting builds on 25 years of international interactions dedicated to the transfer of knowledge and expertise and concerted efforts to build a network of scientists, health experts and federal and private stakeholders to address collaboratively these persistent problems. Key areas of focus will include environmental risk assessment and remediation technologies, population health impacts including insights into the exposome and epigenetic impacts, environmental disease prevention strategies including lifestyle factors, public policy implications and next-generation scientific leadership. The University of Kentucky Superfund Research Center, Lexington, Kentucky, proposes to partner with the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic, to organize and implement the 2016 CEECHE in Prague, Czech Republic, April 10-14, 2016. Conference objectives are centered on the central conference theme of Prevention of Environmental Exposures and Disease Risks and are to: 1) to provide an intellectual exchange between scientists and trainees in the field of health and the environment by exploring innovative and sustainable strategies for environmental detection and remediation of hazardous pollutants; 2) to review multiple environmental stressors and health status as a variant of disease by including studies related to persistent organic pollutants, metals, mixtures and new and emerging pollutants; 3) to compare, understand and assess population health impacts associated with exposure science and prevention of environmental disease through multi-level interventions and new risk assessment paradigms; and 4) to provide a platform to strengthen the relation and collaboration between US and CEE trainees and young environmental scientists relative to environmental challenges in the 21st century and beyond. The conference will allow diverse early career and established investigators to communicate timely research results on pertinent scientific topics and promote future interactions. The conference site in Prague will facilitate maximum participation of European Union and other CEE scientists and stakeholders with their US counterparts to promote productive interactions focused on emerging global priorities and enduring challenges in the area of environmentally induced disease.