This Conference is organized and sponsored by US Agencies (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and US Environmental Protection Agency) in cooperation with Polish Higher Education Institutions – Ministry of Science and Higher Education, University of Agriculture in Krakow, InnoTechKrak.
Clean environment is one of the critical components to achieve a healthy population. Unfortunately, locations, with no environmental impact due to human activities are hard to find. The exposure risk to various pollutants affects adults, children or even unborn. Due to their size, physiology, and behavior, children are more vulnerable than adults to environmental hazards. In the most recent report, World Health Organization estimates that more than 1 in 4 deaths of children under 5 years of age are attributable to unhealthy environment.
Every year, environmental risks take the lives of 1.7 million children under 5. Chronic exposure to pollutants will result in unpredictable health problems of future generations as the toxicity of many pollutants is not well understood and estimated, leaving a large uncertainty on the health risk assessment. Similarly, the pollutants fate and the products of their environmental transformation are often unknown. Environmental health issues are particularly magnified in countries with fast developing economies.
Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries grapple with two overlaying problems: legacy contamination from past communist era and increasing pollution associated with recent fast economic growth. Problems associated with aquatic contamination with metals, pesticides, elevated mineralization and many others have been reported. Unresolved radiation contamination, flame retardants and Baltic aquifer contamination are only few examples of regional environmental problems.
The selection of Poland as a host country was not coincidental – in recent years, air pollution has increased multifold and often exceeds unhealthy/hazardous levels. Concentration of PAHs (expressed as Benzo-a-Pyrene, BaP) exceeds permanently the maximum allowable levels set by EU Commission.
In fact, recent news reports describe multiple smog alerts in the Polish cities in winter of 2016/2017.
Conference Chairs: Prof. Stanislaw Gawronski (WULS) and Prof. Slawo Lomnicki (LSU)
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