Louisiana State University proposes to provide continuation of the Management of the international Congress on Combustion By-products and Their Health Effects through management of the 13th Congress in New Orleans, Louisiana with the LSU Health Sciences Center as the local organizer. Emissions from the combustion and thermal processes have always been an important issue for the remediation of Superfund sites and NIEHS. The use of on site, controlled, high temperature incineration as a remediation technology has been reduced by EPA in recent years due to intense public scrutiny. However, it has frequently been replaced by low temperature thermal desorption/treatment and off-site incineration of the volatilized materials. All of these processes lead to emissions of toxic air pollutants, in some cases greater than for on-site incineration. In addition there is the risk of accidental fires and transportation fires that can significantly impact the local environment. Furthermore, many Superfund sites contain wastes that were partially burned before or during disposal. Consequently, the hazardous materials at the site are combustion-derived pollutants that deserve specialized study not normally afforded to the originally abandoned material. The goal of this Congress is to provide an international forum to discuss topics on the origins, fate, and health effects of combustion by-products. The Congress proposes a forum for advanced learning through emphasis on internationally-known invited speakers, advanced scientific and engineering research presentations and an extensive poster session. This focus provides an extensive learning experience and knowledge exchange for all participants, but primarily for students, and special emphasis is placed on attracting abstracts and encouraging participation from graduate students. Other forums related to air pollution and combustion processes do not provide the specialty venue of combustion-derived air toxic pollutants from which student researchers can present and share their research while learning from other students as well as leading researchers in their field.
The 13th Congress will have a special emphasis on participation by women, minorities, junior faculty and graduate students who will be the next generation of researchers, scientists and policy makers. In addition, the 13th Congress will place special emphasis on use of combustion in developing nations and rural communities. In consideration of the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a session will be devoted to in-situ burning and ship-board incineration of oil/water mixtures.
| Lomnicki, Slawo; Gullett, Brian; Stöger, Tobias et al. (2014) Combustion By-Products and their Health Effects--combustion engineering and global health in the 21st century: issues and challenges. Int J Toxicol 33:3-13 |
