The objective of the proposed conference support grant is to conduct an international conference on environmental health and epidemiology in Buffalo in August 19-23, 2000. The theme of the conference is Environmental Epidemiology in Pan America and the World: Building Connections, and the sponsoring professional organization is the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE). The three-day conference will attract approximately 600 participants predominantly from North America and Europe. However, registrants and invited speakers have been encouraged from all over the world with a focus on Latin America, the Caribbean and Eastern and Central Europe. This grant will be used to ensure attendance from scientists from these areas of focus. The major goals of the conference are to: 1) showcase the ongoing interdisciplinary, international epidemiologic research; 2) provide a forum to discuss how to facilitate more international collaboration in research and training; 3) discuss the driving forces for Building Connections: Goals and Resources; 4) highlight emerging global environmental health issues; 5) exchange the latest scientific findings and methodological approaches for a wide spectrum of environmental exposures and related health outcomes; 6) discuss the organization and administrative support for stronger and effective ISEE Chapters in Latin America, the Caribbean, Central America, Africa and Central and Eastern Europe. The theme of the conference reflects the goal to address the needs articulated by areas of the world fraught with environmental problems and where organization of ISEE chapters must be improved. The conference will explore the challenges and opportunities to achieve a better international dialogue and collaboration among researchers. Special symposia will address ways to foster international collaboration in studying environmental causes of disease, the exposure to indoor and outdoor air pollution, use of GIS in epidemiology, and similar topics. Additional sessions will address global climate change, endocrine disrupting chemical exposures, children's environmental health issues, water quality and health, and epidemiologic and risk assessment methods.
