LONDON - An International Public Health Pesticides Workshop is to be held in London, UK May 19-21 2009. Organized jointly by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH), the objective of the workshop is to bring countries, organizations and experts together to address challenges facing the development and use of public health pesticides. The aim is to develop new approaches, processes and implementation strategies which aim to lead to the development and approval of new public health pest control tools.
The workshop will be a mixture of formal plenary presentations accompanied by panel discussions and workgroups, so allowing lively debate and a free exchange of ideas. The event is aimed at government pesticide regulatory officials, public health experts, companies producing public health pesticide active ingredients, related trade organisations as well as NGOs interested in solving public health and vector control challenges.
Dr Stephen Battersby, President of CIEH and Chairman of their National Pest Advisory Panel welcomes the International Public Health Pesticides Workshop and said: “In their book Public Health Significance of Urban Pests published by the World Health Organization in July 2008, they came to the conclusion that the complexity and costs of pesticide approvals are rising continually, which either currently prevents many companies from putting products on the market that could be more efficient and cheaper than the existing ones. Or this results in acceptable products of minor use from being withdrawn from the market. This makes it likely that future choices of the best available pesticides for a particular application will be severely reduced by the economics of the approvals process.
“The CIEH therefore welcomes the workshop as a forum that will take steps towards remedying this situation. The concerns highlighted by the WHO and stakeholders can be fully discussed and possible solutions found which meet the needs of the public health authorities, the pest management industry, pesticide producers and the obligations of regulators under their respective national directives.”
Experts and other specialists wishing to participate in the workshop are invited to contact Kevin Sweeney, US Environmental Protection Agency whilst participants from disease endemic countries are invited to discuss with Graham Jukes whether special funding is available.
The meeting will be held at the headquarters of the CIEH located on London's South Bank at 15 Hatfields with easy access to Waterloo station and the river Thames. The delegate registration fee includes tax, participation at all the sessions, any workshop literature, together with morning and afternoon coffee/tea and lunch.
Full details about the workshop can be found on the regularly updated website at www.iphpw.org. Delegates can also register from this site.
The Workshop is organised by the US EPA and CIEH in the UK, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Interregional-4 Project (IR-4 Project), UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE), US Agency for International Development (USAID), US Armed Forces Pest Management Board (USAFPMB), US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS).