The connection between asbestos and disease, an issue recently highlighted in CMAJ (2001;164:489;491;495), is about to receive an airing south of the border. On May 24-5 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will host the 2001 Asbestos Health Effects Conference, designed to “improve the scientific foundation for health-risk assessments of asbestos, focusing principally on nonoccupational exposures.”
The conference in Oakland, Calif., will include a session on exposure assessment and will feature a risk-assessment panel. Two of the featured speakers, Bruce Case and Patrick Sébastien, are from McGill University. “The meeting is a first step in updating the toxicity summary that is used to support agency decisions on asbestos,” EPA spokesperson Peter Grevatt told CMAJ. “We hope there is a strong presence from Canada, because we will be discussing some of the most important issues relating to asbestos exposure and toxicity.”
Registration information is available at www.epa.gov/swerrims/ahec/index.htm.
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