Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), the Texas Children 's Hospital (TCH) and the Southwest Center for Pediatric Environmental Health (SW-CPEH) are partnering to host a conference, the """"""""Gulf Coast Pediatric Environmental Health Symposium, """""""" to be held March 19, 2004, at the Crowne Plaza Houston Medical Center Hotel in the Texas Medical Center, Houston. The date chosen, Friday March 19th, allows us to integrate the Friday morning BCM-TCH pediatric grand rounds into the symposium, as well as to attract area school nurses and educators who are on spring break that week. The primary targeted audience is Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast health care professionals including primary care physicians and residents, nurses, and public health officials. The primary objectives of the symposium are (1) to educate health care professionals on the most up-to-date knowledge about the relationships between environmental exposures and children's, health, with special emphasis on the Houston and surrounding Gulf Coast region; (2) to provide practical resources to help regional health professionals address environmentally induced or exacerbated disease in children; and (3) to emphasize the role of health professionals in setting social policies that protect children's health. The one-day symposium features internationally renown experts including include Ralph Feigin, Bruce Lanphear, Sophie Balk, Peyton Eggleston, Herbert Needleman and Howard Frumkin, among others. All of the speakers have confirmed their willingness to participate. We expect approximately 400 attendees for the opening session, and 300 registrants for the entire day. The award-winning Baylor College of Medicine Office of Continuing Medical Education (OCME) is coordinating continuing medical education credits for physician and nurse attendees, overseeing many of the logistics of the symposium, and will solicit and oversee commercial support. The symposium is the first ever pediatric environmental health symposium to be held in the Texas Medical Center (TMC), and the effort has engendered broad support.
