ISEE - Central and Easter European Chapter

Chapter Activities

Report on ISEE CEE Chapter president election, October 2009

• As agreed in the Chapter meeting in Dublin the system of president election was changed to e-mail voting in order to enable to all Chapter members the same opportunity to nominate a candidate and to elect a president.
• The nomination process was opened on 10th September with a deadline of Sept 30. Two nominations were sent to the Chapter secretariat - Emilia Maria Niciu, MD, MSc and Assoc. Prof. Eugen Stelian Gurzau, MD, PhD, both from Romania. On 6 Oct the election process was started. The final deadline was postponed after two remainders to midnight, October 26. The results were displayed in the website on 27 October.
• Out of 63 Chapter members in total 25 actively participated in election process. Chapter members from the Czech Republic (3), Germany (4), Hungary (3), Lithuania (2), Poland (1), Romania (1), Russia (3), and Slovak Republic (8) took a part. No votes were received from Bulgaria, Estonia and Turkey.
• The results between the two candidates were very tight - 13 votes for Prof. Gurzau and 12 votes for Dr. Niciu. I would like to congratulate them both to a very nice success. I also would like to wish much good achievements to Prof. Gurzau, the new Chapter president, in his tenure and much success in the future Chapter activities.

Minutes for Aug 26, CEE Chapter meeting in Dublin

• The main objective of the Chapter meeting was election of a future Chapter president. The proposal of Hana Slachtova “to extend the geographical covering of presidents” was agreed by the present members. Till now the presidents have recruited from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. The candidate from Romania, Dr. Emilia Niciu, was introduced to the members. As the majority of Chapter members was not present, the election was not realized. It was agreed to change the system of president election in order that all Chapter members (not only those being present in the Chapter meeting) have the same opportunity to nominate a candidate and to elect a president. All members will be asked by an e-mail whether they are willing to nominate a candidate from their country. After collection of all nominations (about 20 Sept deadline) the election will be arranged by electronic voting ballots (till mid October).
• In Thursday afternoon (Aug 27) the ISEE General Members' Meeting was held. Hana Slachtova presented to the ISEE members very briefly achievements of the CEE Chapter during the last 3 years – overview of the Central and Eastern European Conferences and Chapter meetings, and invited ISEE members to visit Chapter web-site for a more detail information on Chapter activities.

Report on the CEEC activities February 2008 – November 2008

During the period from February 2008 – November 2008 below major activities were carried out:

• the Central and Eastern European Chapter activities during the year between the two ISEE annual meetings and conferences were reported in the Twentieth Conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (Joint with ISEA) in Pasadena, California, USA - October 12-16, 2008
• as a result of discussions and negotiations with the organizing committee of the Central and Eastern European Conference on Health and the Environment (CEECHE) the 2008 CEE Chapter meeting was organized within CEECHE and the ISEE councillors had approved that ISEE became one of the official sponsors of CEECHE that took place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania – 19-22 October 2008.
• the participants of the 2008 annual CEE Chapter meeting were provided with the information about the Chapter activities during the year between the two annual Chapter meetings. They were informed about the last year Conference in Celadna, the financial report of the CEEC and about the next year Chapter meeting within the Twenty-First Conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology that will take place in Dublin, Ireland - August 25-28, 2009. In the 2009 Chapter meeting the election of the next CEEC president should be arranged. The participants were asked to nominate candidates from their countries. They were also provided with information on ISEE membership and membership renewals and were asked to disseminate this information among their colleagues. During the discussion on the plans for the future chapter activities very interesting suggestions appeared – especially young participants would appreciate free access to full version of scientific papers, and help with finding forum for looking partners of a future collaboration or fellowship programmes.

Report on activities of the CEE Chapter – November 2007 - February 2008

During the period from Nov 2007 - February 2008 below major activities were carried out:

• as a result of discussions and negotiations with the CEECHE organizing committee there was agreed there the 2008 Central and Eastern European Chapter of the ISEE will be organized within the framework of the Central and Eastern European on Health and the Environment (CEECHE), that will take place in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 19-22 Oct 2008
• the ISEE councillors approved ISEE to become one of the official sponsors of CEECHE Conference
• the CEEC ISEE website has been continuously updated with the information about the previous, current and future chapter activities.

Report on activities of the CEE Chapter – November 2007

During the period from May - November 2007 below major activities were carried out:

• The Central and Eastern European Chapter Meeting of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology and the International Conference „Young vision and expert know-how in environmental epidemiology“ was held in Celadna, Czech Republic, November 26-29, 2007. The conference was co-organized by the Institute of Public Health in Ostrava and sponsored by the Czech Ministry of Health, Czech Ministry of Environment, WHO Office in the Czech Republic, Moravian-Silesian Region and Ostrava City Information Centre. In total 42 participants and keynote speakers from 9 European countries attended the conference. During the conference 6 keynote presentations, 18 oral and 23 posters were presented. Participants presented their high quality presentations on different topics in the field of environmental epidemiology, e.g. air pollution, bio-monitoring, dietary exposure, health outcomes, risk assessment, noise exposure, social determinants of health, soil contamination, statistical methods (these presentations will be available within days in the updated CEEC ISEE website: http://isee.zuova.cz/past.php). In the final session of the conference the panel discussion on young vision and expert know-how was organized. The CEEC website will include also photo-gallery from the conference.
• The conference proceedings were published as a supplement of the Central European Journal of Public Health, Vol. 51, November 2007. It is a collection of abstracts of the CEEC ISEE meeting and the International Conference „Young vision and expert know-how in environmental epidemiology”. The supplement will be available in the CEJPH website within few days (http://www.szu.cz/svi/cejph/show_en.php?kat=supplements).

Report on the CEE Chapter activities January - April 2007

• CEE Chapter web-site was updated (and completely rebuilt) and is available through the main ISEE web-site or directly in: http://isee.zuova.cz/
• the CEEC 2007 meeting in Darkov Spa in November 26-29 is announced in the CEEC website and open for abstract registration. The Czech Ministry of Health took sponzorship over the conference and also preliminary agreement with sponzorship was expressed by the Czech Ministry of Environment and the regional office of WHO in Prague. The announcement was sent to all current and past CEEC members and potential participants of the conference.
• The abstracts from the Darkov Spa conference will be published in the supplement of the Central European Journal of Public Health. In the next issue of the CEJPH also a short announcement of the Conference will be published together with an information about the ISEE, its history, mission, current activities etc. (some kind of advertisement). The announcement of the Conference has already been presented in the CEJPH web-site http://www.szu.cz/svi/cejph/show_en.php?kat=upcoming

Report on the CEE Chapter activities September 2006 – January 2007

• CEE Chapter brought to pass the ISEE became one of the co-sponzors of the international Central and Eastern European Conference on Health and the Environment (CEECHE) that took place in Bratislava 22-25 Oct 2006. There met 162 participants from institutions from 12 countries (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovak Republic, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Ukraine, USA), including current or past members of the ISEE. A short introduction of the ISEE was presented there (its mission, publication opportunities, membership benefits etc).
• During the CEECHE the possibilities of Azerbaijan PhD student's short term study visits in the Czech and Slovak Medical Faculties were discussed with Samaya Izmaiylova (prezident of the Caucasus Chapter). At present we are looking for fundraising opportunities of such study visits in the framework of EU, WHO and other sources.
• Also the possibility of the Central European Journal of Public Health to be another official journal of the CEE Chapter was discussed with Prof. Cerna (chief editor of the CEJPH) from the Medical Faculty of Charles University in Prague.
• The CEEC 2007 meeting is planned to be organized as an international conference “Young vision and expert know-how in environmental epidemiology” that will take place 26-29 Nov 2007 in the Czech Republic. At present the sponzorhip from the governmental and regional institutions in the Czech Republic are checked.
• Some problems appeared with the web-site of the CEE Chapter. It will be mooved and will be host it in the Institute of Public Health Ostrava website. As soon as the technical problems are solved, the web site will be updated and the first announcement about the above mentioned conference will be placed there.

Report of the activity of the CEE Chapter of ISEE 2003-2006

In the yar 2003, at the Conference of the Central-Eastern European Chapter of International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE-CEE), organized on 4th-6th September, 2003 in Balatonfoldvar, Hungary Anna Paldy was elected as prsident of the Chapter, Esther Erdei as the treasurer of the chapter.

The main activities of the chapter during the presidentship of A. Paldy:

1. Organisation of two CEE meetings:
   1. 2003 - Balatonfured, Hunagry: 58 participnts from 16 countries
   2. 2005 - Budapest: 42 participanst from 9 countries
2. Updating the web page of the chapter
3. Fascilitation of scientific publication of the researchers from CEEE countries (3 papers out of the presentations of 2003 meeting)

Report of the
Conference of the Central-Eastern European Chapter of International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE-CEE), organized on 4th-6th September, 2003 in Balatonfoldvar, Hungary. 58 participants representing 16 countries participated at the Balatonfoldvar Conference, 38 presentations were grouped in 6 sessions and 23 posters were displayed in two poster sessions.

The overarching theme of the conference was the "The future for our children" in order to get an overview of the related research findings in light of the preparation for the 4th Conference of the Ministers of Environment and Health to be held in Budapest, in 2004 with the same topic.

The keynote presentations gave a light on the main topics of the 4th Ministerial Conference. Its major document will be the "Children, Environment and Health Action Plan for Europe (CEHAPE)" - the scope and framework of the CEHAPE under WHO guidance was discussed. The need for a harmonised environmental health indicator system was already recommended by the Declaration of the 3rd Ministerial Conference at London, 1999. The system has been elaborated within the frames of a WHO project, its scope, purpose and the preliminary results were summarized. The scientific activity of Hungary in the preparation for the 4th Ministerial Conference was also presented.

The topic of the first session was "Environmental health impact in children". Several Hungarian study groups analysed the impact of transport on respiratory diseases. A significant association was found between the prevalence of asthmatic symptoms of children and living near to busy roads in towns. On the contrary, this impact was not significant in rural areas. In the session of "Outdoor air quality" the results of the APHEIS (Air Pollution and Health: a European Information System) were discussed. It was pointed out that a reduction of the annual mean of the PM10 levels by 5 ug/m3 in 19 cities of Europe would lead to a reduction in total mortality (number of premature deaths of 5547 (95% CI: 3368-7744). In the session "Water and Health" a report was given on the present state of the development of the surveillance of water related diseases as a part of the fulfilment of the Protocol of Water and Health, a legally binding treaty, adopted by the 3rd Ministerial Conference. Another main environmental pollution problem in several CCE countries is long term PCB exposure. Blood level of PCB of breast-fed children was higher in those children, whose mothers lived in PCB polluted areas than in control areas in the Czech Republic. The fifth topic - Global climate change and health - covered the human-induced changes in global climate change. Six presentations illustrated the impact, especially heat on human health in different conditions of some countries and also the associations between changing meteorological factors and the allergenic pollen production.

23 posters were discussed on the last day of the Conference. The studies called the attention of the major environmental as well as social-economic factors affecting the health state of children.

Anna Paldy, President of the CEE Chapter of ISEE

Report of the
Meeting of the CEE Chapter of ISEE: it was held in 9-11 June, 2005 in Budapest, Hungary dealing with  the priorities  identified by  the  4th  European  Ministerial  Conference  on Environment and Health and the European Environment (2004, Budapest) and Enviranmental Health Strategy of the EU. The title of the conference was "New challenges of Environmental Health".

42 professionals were participated from nine countries namely Estonia, Slovak Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany United Kingdom and Hungary. The following topics were discussed: keynote lectures,

• air pollution
• socio-economic status
• housing and health
• biological monitoring and
• global climate change.

Several excellent researchers and epidemiologists took part in the annual chapter meeting, the presence of Mr Tony Fletcher the president of the ISEE was highly appreciated . He gave a short review about the ASHRAM (Arsenic Health Risk Assessment and Molecular Epidemiology) project and the preliminary results. Besides, interesting lectures could be heard about ENHIS (Environmental Health Indicator System) which is - on one hand - a successful benefit of the European Environment and Health Ministerial Conferences and - on the other hand - a comprehensive WHO/EUROPE initiative.

Moreover, valuable presentations gave a cross-sectional picture about the different socio-economic status of children living in the Slovak Republic and Hungary and Bulgaria that the prevalence of chronic diseases, asthma, vision and mental disorders, orthopaedic diseases has come up more and more frequently. Prevention of accidents in childhood was also tackled.

The health impact - especially morbidity and mortality related to heatwaves - of global climate change is one of the most current topic in the field of public health. Results of data analysis and that of implementation of preventive measures undertaken since 2000 in Hungary were presented. Furthermore the results of communication of the harmful effects of UV radiation and extreme weather conditions were presented and widely discussed.

The abstracts of the presentations can be read at http://www.pzh.gov.pl/isee/.

The meeting was very useful, because of the fruitful discussions of the results and further development of research. Although the mandate of the president of the CEE Chapter, Anna Paldy, should end in 2005, because of the unequal country prsentation, the members of the chapter took a decision to prolong the mandate of the presidency till the ISEE meeting in Paris 2005.

Report on the CEE Chapter activities August 1993 - June 1995

• Document in PDF.