NEWS
November 6th 2023
August 21st 2023
Join us in Cartagena, Colombia, September 13 - September 15, 2023, for #GHCFIU23!
Mercury Contamination and Co-exposures in the Amazon Basin: At the Center of the Planetary Environmental Crisis
SCIENTIFIC WORKSHOP September 15, 2023 at the Convention Center Cartagena de Indias Colombia
June 28th 2023
In collaboration with the Academy of Sciences of Albania, Collegium Fellows Dr. Melissa Perry of George Mason University, Dr. Carol Rice and Denny Dobbin have organized an international meeting in Albania.
February 23rd 2023
The Collegium Ramazzini joins its scientific colleagues around the world in condemning Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The Russian invasion is a violation of Article 2 of the UN Charter, which states that “all States have the obligation to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State.”
November 2nd 2021
Artisanal Small-Scale Mining (ASM) is one of the world’s most dangerous occupations. The World Bank estimates that 100 million children, women and men work in ASM worldwide, mostly in remote rural areas of Low-income and Lower-middle-income countries. These miners often work under extreme conditions, the communities where they and their families live are heavily polluted, and ASM is responsible for high, but preventable rates of disease, injury, and premature death.
The Collegium Ramazzini Statement REDUCING DISEASE AND DEATH FROM ARTISANAL SMALL-SCALE MINING (ASM) describes the urgent need for responsible mining in the context of growing global demand for minerals and metals for climate change mitigation
READ MOREOctober 27th 2021
In 2006 and 2007, our colleagues Drs. Morando Soffritti and Fiorella Belpoggi and their team at the Ramazzini Institute published a series of ground-breaking papers reporting that aspartame, one of the world’s most widely used artificial sweeteners, caused cancers at multiple sites in rats and mice.
Cancer incidence was dose-related, and
increased cancer risk was seen even at very low levels of aspartame exposure that
approached the recommended Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI). Prenatal aspartame exposures
caused increased cancers in offspring at lower doses than in adults (Figure 1) - a finding of grave concern for
public health given the extensive consumption of aspartame-sweetened, low-calorie
beverages by children and pregnant women.
September 24th 2021
Following the Collegium Ramazzini co-signed letter by fourteen medical, public health and scientific organizations to the World Health Organization (WHO), calling on WHO to proceed with the rapid publication and dissemination of the 2021 update to the WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQGs), on, September 22, 2021, WHO has released the new AQG. While the new AQG are not legally binding they call all nations for urgent implementation of ambitious measures to reduce air pollution. Together with more than 100 partners the Collegium Ramazzini has endorsed a corresponding Joint Society Statement “Aiming for healthier air for all”.
Read the Joint Society Statement
September 15th 2021
The Collegium Ramazzini has co-signed a letter by fourteen medical and scientific organizations to the World Health Organization (WHO) to call on WHO to proceed with the rapid publication and dissemination of the 2021 update to the WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQGs). We expect that the new WHO AQG, while considering all the relevant scientific literature, will be ambitious and will influence air quality policy across the globe for many years to come.“The benefits are clear: lowering concentrations of air pollutants will lead to enormous improvements in public health while, at the same time, reducing emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide that cause climate change.”We offer our support to WHO in disseminating the WHO AQG conclusions and policy recommendations as widely as possible.
May 11th 2021
April 16th 2021
The Collegium Ramazzini has shared a letter with the Government of Ukraine about the hazards of asbestos. The letter includes the many CR calls for international action to ban asbestos to prevent hundreds of thousands of “entirely preventable” deaths every year and urges Ukraine to persist with its efforts to protect citizens from deadly exposures to all types of asbestos, including chrysotile. See link below for the full text of the letter.
April 7th 2021
COLLEGIUM RAMAZZINI STATEMENT N. 27
An Ill-Considered
Partnership between the American Journal
of Public Health and the Tobacco Industry Threatens the Scientific
Credibility of the Journal and the Integrity of the American Public Health
Association
Collegium Ramazzini Statement 27 - The tobacco industry and public health controls for e-cigarettes
READ MOREMarch 23rd 2021
Health and safety in the
workplace is a human right. The International Labour Organization (ILO) should
act now to implement its decision, agreed by its conference and included in its
Centenary Declaration, that occupational health and safety is recognized as a
Fundamental Right at Work (FRAW).
READ MORE
February 8th 2021
This is a workshop being organized by two CR Fellows – Jennifer
Sass and David Gee – with a number of other CR fellows making presentations and
participating.
Feb 8-11, 2021, daily from EST 10 AM to 1 PM
January 15th 2021
Fellow Ken Takahashi, informs the Fellows of the Collegium Ramazzini that the Asbestos Diseases Research Institute (ADRI) in Australia just received the official WHO Designation as the WHO Collaborating Center for Elimination of Asbestos-Related Diseases (AUS-152).
READ MOREOctober 12th 2020
A Virtual Memorial Remembrance, September 21, 2020 (2 hours).
May 13th 2020
Please see attached document provided by Dr. Carlos Santos-Burgoa, Member of the National Academy of Medicine, Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini and Professor of Global Health and Environmental and Occupational Health at The George Washington University. This document summarizes the results of the chemical world meeting held in Mexico in September, 2019.
Download document here.
May 5th 2020
The Collegium Ramazzini calls urgently for preventive measures internationally and in every country to reduce risk of COVID-19 infection in workers.
Read the full Statement here.
September 26th 2019
The Collegium Ramazzini expresses grave concern over the prosecution of Dr.
Bulent Şık, a distinguished food engineer, for announcing the findings of a cancer
research study in which he participated that was conducted by the Turkish Ministry
of Health.
September 11th 2019
Location: Hebrew University Campus Ein Kerem Rubin Auditorium & Faculty Club
The term "New Poverties" came out of a conversation after the Chernobyl disaster between Soffritti and Selikoff, the founding fathers of Collegium Ramazzini. New Poverties can result from genocide, war, terror, climate change, urbanization and air pollution, water and food insecurity, mass migrations, economic inequalities and social disruption. Although more people live better and longer than ever before, there are extreme inequalities that challenge our sense of justice.
July 23rd 2019
A new article was published in June 2019 in The New England Journal of Medicine by Collegium Ramazzini Fellows Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., and Richard A. Lemen, Ph.D. about the health hazards of asbestos.
READ MOREJuly 4th 2019
The Collegium Ramazzini is very pleased to announce that it once again is endorsing the International aircraft cabin air conference being held in London this September.
Following on from the success of the 2017 Aircraft Cabin Air Conference, the 2019 conference will be an essential two day event. Providing excellent networking opportunities for those seeking to understand the subject of contaminated air, the flight safety implications, the latest scientific and medical evidence investigating the contaminated air debate and the solutions available to airlines and aircraft operators. This international conference mapping the implications of exposure, the business, regulatory and technical solutions to aircraft cabin air contamination, will be the most in-depth conference ever held on this topic.
April 5th 2019
A new edition of the book "Legacies of Hope: Profiles of Persons Whose Deeds Saved Lives and Prevented Disabilities", by Barry L. Johnson, Emeritus Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini, has been recently published. The current edition illustrates the lives and accomplishments of 32 persons whose deeds have helped save lives and prevent disability in persons potentially exposed to hazardous conditions.
READ MOREMarch 29th 2019
Please mark your calendars now for the 2019 edition of Ramazzini Days, to be held in Carpi, Italy, 24-27 October 2019.
Ground transportation will be provided from the Bologna International Airport (BLQ) and from the historical center of Bologna on Thursday 24 October. Wednesday arrivals are invited to arrange accommodations in Bologna so as to use the conference transportation from the city center the following day. Return travel should be planned for the afternoon of Sunday 27 or Monday 28 October. Return ground transportation will be organized on both days from Carpi to BLQ and to the historical center of Bologna.Train travelers should plan on booking a connection all the way to Carpi (trains run from Modena centrale every 30 minutes). No transportation will be provided from the Bologna or Modena train stations.
Online registration for the event will open in July.
February 26th 2019
Emeritus Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini Stanislaw Tarkowski passed away on 21 January 2019.
February 18th 2019
The Mount Sinai Institute for Exposomic Research and the University of Brescia are proud to present the 2019 Exposome Symposium. This symposium will be of interest to: researchers, clinicians, government, and health care workers, both new to the field and those already practicing exposomics.
READ MORENovember 12th 2018
It is with deep sadness that we have to announce the death of Prof. Dr. Marja Simonsuuri-Sorsa. Marja Sorsa was born in 1939 and passed away on November 3, 2018.
October 16th 2018
Dear Colleagues,
We would like to inform you about our success achieving inclusion of highly vulnerable workers and commitment on the use of occupational preventive measures into the UN Declaration on Tuberculosis. Our story is at http://www.icohweb.org/site/news-detail.asp?id=154#. ICOH and IOHA participated in the September 26, 2018 United Nations General Assembly Meeting on Tuberculosis (TB) in New York City and in the previous preparatory meetings. There the World Leaders endorsed the UN Political Declaration on TB "United to End Tuberculosis: An Urgent Global Response to a Global Epidemic".
October 1st 2018
It is with deep sadness that I have to announce the death of Kathryn Knowles, Executive Secretary of the Collegium Ramazzini. Kathryn passed away in Bologna on September 18, 2018 at the age of 42 after a few weeks' terrible and aggressive disease. She leaves a three year-old boy and a loving husband to whom, on behalf of all Fellows and Emeritus Fellows of the Collegium, I express our deepest condolences.
READ MORESeptember 28th 2018
Expert in occupational medicine and public health. Born in Yokohama, Japan, on March 8, 1942. Died of ischemic heart disease in Tokyo, Japan, on August 1, 2018, at age 76.
Obituary by Fellow Kazuhito Yokoyama
June 20th 2018
Fellow Aleksandra Fucic has recently published the article Potential Health Risk of Endocrine Disruptors in Construction Sector and Plastics Industry: A New Paradigm in Occupational Health, Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(6), 1229.
Focusing on the construction and plastics industries, the article discusses: (a) why occupational exposure to EDs needs a more specific approach to occupational health risk assessments, (b) identifies the current knowledge gaps, and (c) identifies and gives a rationale for a future occupational health paradigm, which will include ED biomarkers as a relevant parameter in occupational health risk assessment, surveillance and exposure prevention.
June 11th 2018
The 2018 edition of Ramazzini Days, to be held in Carpi, Italy, 1-4 November 2018.
Ground transportation will be provided from the Bologna International Airport (BLQ) and from the historical center of Bologna on Thursday 1 November. Wednesday arrivals are invited to arrange accommodations in Bologna so as to use the conference transportation from the city center the following day. Return travel should be planned for the afternoon of Sunday 4 or Monday 5 November. Return ground transportation will be organized on both days from Carpi to BLQ and to the historical center of Bologna.Train travelers should plan on booking a connection all the way to Carpi (trains run from Modena centrale every 30 minutes). No transportation will be provided from the Bologna or Modena train stations.
Online registration for the event will open in July.
May 1st 2018
The University of Brescia School of Medicine is now accepting applications for the 8th edition of its summer school program on "Global occupational and environmental determinants of disease: a multidisciplinary approach for prevention".
The course will be held from 16-20 July in Brescia, Italy. It is sponsored by the University of Brescia in collaboration with the Collegium Ramazzini, the International Commission on Occupational Health Scientific Committee on Education and Training, the Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (New York), Rutgers School of Public Health (New Jersey), the NIOSH Education and Research Center and the Italian Society of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene. The program and application procedure may be found online at www.summerschoolunibs.org.
April 19th 2018
Emeritus Fellow William Au is organizing the First International Conference on Innovations in Population Health and Personalized Medicine, to be held at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Tirgu Mures, Romania 12-13 December 2018. He welcomes the contributions and participation of Ramazzini Fellows.
April 5th 2018
Fellows Carl Cranor and David Gee, together with Raymond Neutra, have published an article in Jurimetrics, the American Bar Association's Journal of Law, Science and Technology:
The Use and Misuse of Bradford Hill in U.S. Tort Law , 58 Jurimetrics J. 127-162 (2018).
In 1965 Austin Bradford Hill delivered the Presidential Address to the Royal Society of Medicine in London, England, articulating an important methodology for assisting causal inferences from epidemiological studies. This methodology has come to be utilized in civil (personal or tort) litigation by both plaintiffs and defendants and interpreted by U.S. judges, who now have enhanced duties to review scientific testimony. Unfortunately, some litigants and judges fail to understand and utilize the methodology as articulated by Hill. Importantly, his methods are more than recommendations from an important scientist; they are well anchored in probability theory providing a more solid foundation. Consequently, those who err both misapprehend his recommendations and aspects of standard probability theory. The legal import of these errors can easily disadvantage injured parties seeking legal compensation for harm. The article seeks to correct numerous errors and better guide scientists and courts who use Hill's considerations in assessing causation.
February 27th 2018
Fellow Pier Giorgio Natali invites Fellows and friends of the Collegium Ramazzini to take part in International HPV Awareness Day on 4 March.
This is an initiative aimed at increasing the worldwide understanding of HPV. It is also an opportunity to celebrate a landmark medical discovery, which in in the era of "omic", has not yet received due credit in the fight against cancer. The Give Love Not HPV campaign calls on everyone to take action to protect their family, friends and partners whether that is by getting informed, getting vaccinated or getting screened for HPV.
Ways to become involved:
1. Share information about International HPV Awareness Day on March 4th and links to
www.givelovenothpv.org
2. Follow @GiveLoveNotHPV on twitter, share posts with your followers and join the conversation using #GiveLoveNotHPV to highlight issues, data and priorities that are pertinent to your organization.
3. Organize an HPV learning event with your stakeholders, or organize a flashmob to raise awareness and distribute copies of our FAQs - be as creative as you like!
4. Reach out to press to talk about International HPV Day, write a blog, put an article in your regular newsletter etc. The key message is that sharing information about HPV, encouraging our loved ones to attend screening and by vaccinating our children we are giving love to the people we care about and taking steps to prevent HPV.
February 1st 2018
Fellow Roberto Luchhini is the co-author of an article on Bernardino Ramazzini, focused on his pioneering work on the nervous system: Riva, M.A., Belingheri, M., De Vito, G. et al. J Neurol (2018)
January 15th 2018
Collegium Ramazzini Fellow Nguyen Bich Diep informs Fellows that the Vietnam Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health (NIOEH) is organizing the Fifth International conference on Occupational and Environmental Health (ICOEH5) from September 10 to 12, 2018 in Hanoi, Vietnam. Details, including the call for papers and registration form, may be consulted on the conference website: http://icoeh5.nioeh.org.vn/.
January 5th 2018
James M. Melius, MD, DrPH was an occupational physician and a national and international leader in occupational medicine and epidemiology. He was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts in 1948 and died of cardiac arrest in Copake Falls, New York on January 1, 2018 at the age of 69.
November 6th 2017
Presentations and posters from the 2017 Ramazzini Days meeting are available for consultation online.
The conference included scientific sessions on: Environmental Epidemiology; Ongoing Experimental Studies at The Ramazzini Institute; Cancer Disparities, Occupational and Environmental Risks and Prevention Strategies; and Science, Health Regulatory Institutional Capacity, and Policies. More than 30 Fellows of the Collegium Ramazzini presented their work.
The Collegium Ramazzini was honored by the presence of special guest HRH Princess Dina Mired of Jordan, president-elect of the Union for International Cancer Control, who delivered a keynote address on Connecting the dots: the global fight against cancer and role of carcinogens in the developing world.
As always, the presentation of the Ramazzini Award to a scientist deemed by the Collegium Ramazzini to embody the ideals of Bernardino Ramazzni, was a highlight of the weekend. The 2017 recipient, Dr. Karel Van Damme of Belgium, gave an inspiring Ramazzini Lecture entitled, "Every worker is irreplaceable: a human rights approach to occupational health".
The 2018 edition of Ramazzini Days is scheduled for October 25-28 in Carpi, Italy.
October 12th 2017
The Collegium Ramazzini congratulates Fellow Paul Blanc on his designation as the 2017 awardee of the American Public Health Association's prestigious Viseltear Prize for "Outstanding Book on the History of Public Health". Professor Blanc's Fake Silk: The Lethal History of Viscose Rayon was published in 2016 by Yale University Press. The award ceremony will take place at the annual national APHA meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, USA on 7 November 2017.
September 20th 2017
The Collegium Ramazzini has just learned of the passing of Emeritus Fellow, Professor Nikolai Fedotovich Izmerov (19 December 1927-23 December 2016). Professor Izmerov was Director Emeritus of the Russian Research Institute of Occupational Health, RAMS, which he had developed into one of the leading occupational health institutes in the world. He was also a full member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and Chair of the Russian National Scientific Committee on Hygiene and Occupational Diseases. At the international level, Professor Izmerov served as Assistant Director General of the World Health Organization in Geneva from 1964 to 1971. He was elected to the Collegium Ramazzini in 1983. Read more about Professor Izmerov's distinguished career in the obituary published by the International Commission for Occupational Health of which Professor Izmerov was an active member since 1977.
July 31st 2017
Collegium Ramazzini Fellow and 2010 Ramazzini Award Recipient Marja Sorsa, was honored in 2017 with a prize from the NORDENSKIOLD SOCIETY in Finland.
Marja writes that this honor was not for sailing the Northeast Polar Route of the Arctic Ocean, but in recognition of a new paleontological finding of a fossil specimen of an elephant forefather Deinotherium sp., dated some 4-14 million years ago. She adds that in Finland this means a subtropical-tropical climate and two ice ages ago. The prize was also given for Sorsa's brave lifetime of scientific work.
The studies were largely based on the findings inside the bone marrow (algae, diatoms) and bone findings on earlier museum collections, for example in the British Museum of London. The scientific article, co-authored by Salonen, Saarinen, Miettinen, Hirvas, Usoltseva, Fortelius, Sorsa, was published in the US by Elsevier PPP 454 (2016 202-211) and is entitled The northernmost discovery of a Miocene proboscidean bone in Europe.
July 21st 2017
Honorary Collegium Ramazzini Fellow Kathleen Ruff argues that the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, while claiming to be evidence-based, continues to deny the evidence of conflict of interest. Read her opinion piece in the BMJ Blog of 21 July 2017.
Ruff is a senior human rights adviser at the Rideau Institute, Ottawa, Canada, and founder and co-coordinator of the Rotterdam Convention Alliance. She is an expert adviser on ethics to the Chair and the Executive Committee of the International Joint Policy Committee of the Societies of Epidemiology.
July 18th 2017
Collegium Ramazzini Emeritus Fellow and 2004 Ramazzini Award Recipient Herbert L. Needleman passed away at the age of 89 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Dr. Needleman was a pediatrician, psychiatrist, and public health hero. Below is an excerpt from the obituary published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He was also remembered in the New York Times on July 27th.
Dr. Needleman leaves a legacy of improved health for children across this country and the world. He was internationally renowned for pioneering scientific research on the effects of lead in children. His research linked low levels of lead exposure to lowered I.Q., poor school performance, and behavioral problems, including juvenile delinquency. Dr. Needleman's work played a critical role in the United States government's decision to remove lead from gasoline, a move that is credited with drastically reducing blood lead levels of American children. Dr. Needleman received numerous awards for his work, including the Heinz Award for the Environment, the Charles A. Dana Award, the Prince Mahidol Award of Thailand, the Ramazzini award of Carpi, Italy, and the University of Pittsburgh's Chancellor's Award for Community Service. Born into an immigrant family of Philadelphia pickle makers, Dr. Needleman was the first in his family to attend college. He went on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Needleman completed residencies in both pediatrics and psychiatry. He served as a Captain in the United States Army. Known to many as a formidable advocate for the disadvantaged, Dr. Needleman had a strong sense of social justice and a big, caring heart. It was these characteristics that led him to abandon private medical practice and devote his life to protecting children from harm. In 1966, he founded and led the Committee of Responsibility to Save War-Burned and War-Injured Vietnamese Children (known as COR), an organization of American doctors, scientists, clergy, and other concerned citizens who brought injured Vietnamese children to the United States for medical care. In 1967, Dr. Needleman and fellow pediatrician Benjamin Spock were jailed during an anti-war protest at the Pentagon. Around this time, Dr. Needleman began his study of the effects of low levels of lead in children, ultimately publishing more than 80 peer-reviewed scientific papers and a parenting book on the topic. During his career, Dr. Needleman held academic positions in the medical schools of Temple University, Harvard University, and the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Needleman was sharply criticized by the lead industry, whose business was damaged by the government's increased regulation of lead and efforts to clean up lead-polluted areas and houses. Attempts to discredit Dr. Needleman culminated in allegations of scientific misconduct in 1991. After extensive investigation and a lengthy hearing, no misconduct was found. Dr. Needleman's research has been replicated numerous times and is the foundation for later studies showing harmful effects at even lower levels of exposure. Dr. Needleman is survived by his beloved wife of 54 years, Roberta; his three children, Samuel, Joshua (Yael), and Sara Kline (Stephan); seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
May 30th 2017
The Aircraft Cabin Air Conference, the first global meeting on aircraft cabin air quality in more than a decade, is set to take place in London this September. Despite air accident investigators recommending detection systems be fitted to public transport aircraft over a decade ago, the technology has not been available and planes continue to fly with no warning systems to alert pilots and crew when the air supply to the cockpit and passenger cabin is contaminated.
The conference, running 19-20 September 2017 at Imperial College London, UK, will bring together the latest research, the field's most well respected experts and those solving this industry-wide problem to talk about solutions to the issue.
Thirty speakers from three continents, including Fellows of the Collegium Ramazzini, will present over eight sessions. Conference supporters include Pall Aerospace, the British pilot union the PPU, Air Canada Pilot Association (ACPA), Australian Federation of Air Pilots(AFAP), Australian International Pilots Association (AIPA), Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) - the largest flight attendant union in the world and Stirling University.
The conference is endorsed by: Collegium Ramazzini, International Joint Policy Committee of the Societies of Epidemiology IJPC-SE, and the European Sealing Association.
April 20th 2017
Emeritus Fellow Professor Hans-Joachim Woitowitz has been awarded The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
This is the highest tribute the Federal Republic of Germany can pay to individuals for services to the nation for achievements in the political, economic, social or intellectual realm and for all kinds of outstanding services to the nation in the field of social, charitable or philanthropic work. Professor Woitowitz has been a distinguished member of the Collegium Ramazzini since 1987 and received the The Ramazzini Award in 2006 for his important contributions to the prevention of occupational diseases.
March 13th 2017
Fellow Fiorella Belpoggi shares an article published in the EU Reporter which characterizes both IARC and the Ramazzini Institute as"rare bright spots for global collaboration" at a time when it seems as if the very idea of cross-border co-operation and international collective effort is under fire in both Europe and the United States. Read article here.
December 9th 2016
Fellow Mary Wolff recommends the November 2016 cover story in the journal of the American Chemical Society Asbestos: Still a global menace, Chemical and Engineering News, Volume 94 Issue 47 | pp. 28-31.
November 11th 2016
The 6th International Conference on the History of Occupational and Environmental Health is being organized by the Scientific Committee on the History of Prevention of Occupational and Environmental Diseases of ICOH (International Commission on Occupational Health) and chaired by Collegium Ramazzini Fellow Kjell Toren.
The scientific program will cover the history of risk assessment, occupational stress, dusty trades and the transition from seeing risks primarily as occupational to viewing them as part of broader environmental concerns. There will also be themes about the evolving history of occupational and environmental health in a global world, as well as work-related disability.
Program and conference updates including abstract submission information will be continuously updated at the webpage of the University of Gothenburg: www.medicine.gu.se/icoh-history.
October 28th 2016
The Collegium Ramazzini and the Town of Carpi are proud to recognize Richard Lemen, Ph.D. as the Irving J. Selikoff Award recipient for 2016. Dr. Lemen was presented with this award during the annual Ramazzini Days meeting in Carpi, Italy on 28 October 2016. Collegium Ramazzini President Philip J. Landrigan shared the following highlights from Dr. Lemen's career.
READ MORESeptember 25th 2016
John Christian Bailar III, MD, a resident of Mitchellville, Maryland, died Tuesday, September 6, 2016 at the age of 83.
Born in Urbana, Illinois to John and Florence (Catherwood) Bailar, John was beloved by family and friends for his rigorous mind, pursuit of challenge, and persistent humor. He graduated from University High School in Urbana, University of Colorado with a BA in Chemistry (following in his father?s footsteps), Yale University with an MD, and the American University(where he met his wife, Barbara) with a Ph.D. in statistics.
John began his career as an epidemiologist and biostatistician at the National Cancer Institute in Washington, D.C. While there, he wrote many seminal papers on breast cancer and mammography, bladder cancer, prostate cancer, and the comparisons of different cancer treatments. After two years at the Veterans Administration as Director of Research Services, John returned to the Cancer Institute for another eight years, during which time he was Editor for their journal.
After leaving government, John began an academic career, becoming a lecturer at Harvard University, Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Statistics at McGill University, and Chair of the Department of Health Studies at the University of Chicago. During his time at Harvard and McGill, he was also a statistical consultant to the New England Journal of Medicine. He became a Scholar in Residence at the National Academy of Sciences, where he was a frequent member and chair of committees and reviewer of reports.
John received many honors and awards over the years. Among these was election to the Collegium Ramazzini, election as a Fellow in the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a distinguished service medal from the Council of Biology Editors. His most distinguished award, and one he valued highly, was a MacArthur Fellowship in 1990.
He is survived by his wife of fifty years, Barbara Bailar, his brother Benjamin Bailar, his children Elizabeth, John IV, James (Crystal), and Melissa, his step-daughter Pamela Monaco (Don), numerous nieces and nephews, and eight grandchildren.
A memorial service is to be conducted at 3 p.m. on Sunday, October 9, 2016 in the Chapel of Collington Retirement Community, 10450 Lottsford Road, Mitchellville, Maryland. In lieu of customary remembrances, memorial donations may be given to Yale School of Medicine, Office of Development and Alumni Affairs, P.O. Box 7611, New Haven, CT 06519.
For additional information or to leave an online condolence, please visit
www.josephgawlers.comwww.josephgawlers.com
September 22nd 2016
Fellow Roberto Lucchini informs the membership that the event MANGANESE2016 will be webcast live from Sunday, September 25 to Wednesday, Sept. 28. The digital archive will be accessible for 7 days at no charge. Register for free at:
https://www.totalwebcasting.com/view/?func=RGTR&id=DBPQ4R29SS
One registered, you will receive an email with an event registration ID and website link.
July 19th 2016
The Collegium Ramazzini, an international academy of 180 scientists from 35 countries, experts in environmental and occupational health, has released a new Statement entitled A New Approach to the Control of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) .
COPD is a major and growing disease world-wide that is not well-recognized and is thus under-diagnosed. It is caused by exposures to a multitude of vapors, gasses, dusts and fumes known collectively as VGDF. The Collegium Ramazzini calls on the international community of occupational and environmental safety and health professionals to adopt a new paradigm towards the recognition and prevention of occupational and non-occupational exposures to VGDFs that cause COPD. Historically this community has understated the significance of VGDF exposures other than smoking. Moreover, a paradigm has been followed which addresses VGDF risk factors on an agent-by-agent basis.
In its 19th official statement, the Collegium Ramazzini proposes a new professional paradigm to reduce occupational and non-occupational VGDF exposures that cause COPD and which recognizes that in the real world most people are exposed to a mixture of VGDFs. To successfully implement the proposed paradigm, it is necessary to have in place more scientific data, better standards, and better surveillance/monitoring. The Collegium recommends a number of actions to prevent exposures to VGDFs, improve medical care for individuals with COPD, and compensate for COPD as an occupational disease.
Other recent positions of the Collegium Ramazzini include:
- The Global Health Dimensions of Asbestos and Asbestos-Related Diseases
- Most Types of Cancer Are Not Due to Bad Luck
- The Safety and Health of Migrant Labour: a Call to the International Community for Action
The complete collection of Collegium Ramazzini Statements may be consulted here.
Press contact:
Collegium Ramazzini
Kathryn Knowles
collegium@ramazzini.it
July 18th 2016
Online registration for Ramazzini Days is now open!
The event will be held Carpi, Italy beginning at 15:00 on Thursday 27 October through 15:00 on Sunday 30 October 2016. Book early to guarantee your choice of hotel accommodations.
Ground transportation will be provided from the Bologna International Airport (BLQ) and from the historical center of Bologna on the morning of Thursday 27 October. Wednesday arrivals are invited to arrange accommodations in Bologna so as to use the conference transportation from the city center the following day.
Return travel should be planned for the afternoon of Sunday 30 October or Monday 31 October. Return ground transportation will be organized on both days from Carpi to BLQ and to the historical center of Bologna.
Train travellers should plan on booking a connection all the way to Carpi (trains run from Modena centrale every 30 minutes). No transportation will be provided from the Bologna or Modena train stations.
June 7th 2016
Kathleen Ruff will receive a medal of honour in Quebec's National Assembly on 9 June 2016 for her decade of work to stop Canada's asbestos trade. Kathleen received a Special Award from the Collegium Ramazzini in October 2013 to honor her steadfast and effective advocacy in the international effort to ban the ongoing use of asbestos and for promoting better occupational and environmental health protections throughout the world.
The Montreal Gazette has published an extensive feature story on Kathleen and her life's work. Read the 4 June piece Kathleen Ruff: How one single-minded activist helped turn the tide on asbestos.
The Collegium Ramazzini congratulates our friend Kathleen on this well-deserved honor.
June 6th 2016
The Asian Asbestos Initiative is an international collaborative effort to eliminate asbestos use and Asbestos-Related Disease. The project targets developing countries in Asia, but also aspires to provide a model for the world.
Collegium Ramazzini Fellow and Executive Counselor Ken Takahashi served as AAI coordinator and managed a large public grant acquired during the period 2008-2014. The grant engaged researchers, administrators and NGOS as well as UN organizations such as the WHO, ILO, UNEP (RCS) and IARC. Under Ken's leadership, AAI organized international seminars for 7 consecutive years until the funding ended.
AAI was recently recognized as one of the WHO "success-stories" of the global network of WHO Collaborating Centres for Occupational Health. AAI was included in a recent WHO publication Improving workers' health around the world: Advancing the WHO global plan of action on workers' health (see pages 15-16 and 45). The Collegium Ramazzini congratulates Ken and his team at AAI for these important achievements.
May 17th 2016
Collegium Ramazzini Fellow Richard A. Lemen and other scientists have recently prepared a Fact Sheet on Chrysotile Asbestos summarizing the scientific consensus of its dangers. The Fact Sheet illustrates the clear consensus that chrysotile asbestos cannot be used safely nor is it a safe form of asbestos.
Summary of Facts
Throughout the last thirty years, scientific organizations and governmental agencies have thoroughly and meticulously reviewed extensive published data on asbestos and have concluded that all of its commercially viable fiber types (including amosite, anthophyllite, actinolite, chrysotile, crocidolite, and tremolite) cause disease and death resulting from asbestosis, lung cancer, mesothelioma and cancers of the larynx and ovary. There has not been identified any safe level of exposure to any form of asbestos; i.e. no threshold value below which all individuals would be risk-free of contracting an asbestos-related disease. Therefore, we support the immediate prohibition of the use of any form of asbestos-containing products, including those containing chrysotile, and call for their complete elimination.
May 17th 2016
The Priority Topics Committee of the Collegium Ramazzini is currently accepting proposals for scientific sessions for Ramazzini Days 2016. Fellows are invited to use this Google Form to submit abstracts for multi-speaker sessions or individual presentations or posters. Use the following Guidelines for Authors. The submission deadline is 15 June 2016.
Save the Date! Ramazzini Days will be held October 27-30 in Carpi, Italy. Online registration opens mid-July.
January 11th 2016
The Collegium Ramazzini, cooperated with the Dhaka Community Hospital Trust (DCHT), the International Social Security Association (ISSA), Harvard University School of Public Health and the International Labor Organization (ILO) in organizing 1) a professional training workshop and 2) a policy conference on environmental and occupational safety and health (EOSH), which were held in late November 2015 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
READ MOREJanuary 1st 2016
Please mark your calendars now for the 2016 edition of Ramazzini Days, to be held in Carpi, Italy beginning at 15:00 on Thursday 27 October through 15:00 on Sunday 30 October 2016. Following the success of the 2015 edition, and per the request of meeting participants, the Collegium will continue with the 3-day format.
Ground transportation will be provided from the Bologna International Airport (BLQ) and from the historical center of Bologna on the morning of Thursday 27 October. Wednesday arrivals are invited to arrange accommodations in Bologna so as to use the conference transportation from the city center the following day.
Return travel should be planned for the afternoon of Sunday 30 October or Monday 31 October. Return ground transportation will be organized on both days from Carpi to BLQ and to the historical center of Bologna.
Train travellers should plan on booking a connection all the way to Carpi (trains run from Modena centrale every 30 minutes). No transportation will be provided from the Bologna or Modena train stations.
Online registration for the event will open in July.
October 22nd 2015
On 21 October 2015 a workshop was organized by Istituto Superiore di Sanita' (ISS), Collegium Ramazzini and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Contaminated Sites. It aimed to address environmental health issues, and emerging and re-emerging issues in occupational health, integrating knowledge and expertise of scientists from different countries. Abstracts from the workshop are available in English and Spanish.
October 14th 2015
The Collegium Ramazzini, an international academy of 180 scientists from 35 countries, experts in environmental and occupational health, has added two additional commentaries to its twenty-five year record of denouncing the public health hazards of asbestos exposure.
The first, Comments on the 2014 Helsinki Consensus Report on Asbestos, recognizes the work of the 2014 expert committee convened by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health to update the 1997 and 2000 Helsinki criteria on Asbestos, Asbestosis and Cancer in light of new advances in research. The Collegium however expresses concerns about the sections of the Helsinki report that discuss criteria for pathological diagnosis of the diseases caused by asbestos, specifically:
1) over-reliance on the detection of "asbestos bodies" as indicators of past exposure to asbestos;
2) over-reliance on asbestos fiber counts in lung tissue as an indicator of past exposure to asbestos;
3) use of the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) at low magnification as a tool for evaluation of asbestos-related disease; and
4) lack of recognition that chrysotile is the predominant type of asbestos fiber found in pleural mesothelioma tissue.
The Collegium Ramazzini concludes that applying the 2014 Helsinki report recommendations on pathology diagnosis will lead to missed diagnoses of cases of disease caused by asbestos, failure of workers' compensation systems to properly compensate workers who have been exposed to asbestos, and lost opportunities for public health authorities to recognize asbestos hazards and to prevent asbestos-related disease.
The second, Comments on the causation of malignant mesothelioma, rebuts the false concept that recent exposures to asbestos do not contribute to causation of mesothelioma. Referencing the large number of cases of mesothelioma that have been brought to the attention of the Italian courts as possible occupational diseases, the Collegium Ramazzini concludes that risk of malignant mesothelioma is related to cumulative exposure to asbestos in which all exposures - early as well as late - contribute to the totality of risk.
The Collegium Ramazzini rejects as false, mendacious, and scientifically unfounded the claim put forth by the Italian asbestos industry and its expert witnesses that in cases of prolonged exposures to asbestos only the earliest periods of exposure contribute to mesothelioma induction, while all subsequent exposures have no causal role. The Collegium Ramazzini is deeply concerned that acceptance of this false claim will contribute to the unjust denial of workers' compensation and civil damages to affected workers, that it will hinder efforts to diagnose and prevent malignant mesothelioma, and that ultimately it will undermine the health of the public in Italy and in countries around the world.
Related positions of the Collegium Ramazzini on asbestos are available for consultation, including:
- The Global Health Dimensions of Asbestos and Asbestos-Related Diseases (2015).
[Translations:
Chinese, Japanese; Portuguese, and Spanish]
- Asbestos is Still With Us: Repeat Call for a Universal Ban (2010)
- Call for an International Ban on Asbestos: Statement Update (2004)
- Call for an International Ban on Asbestos (1999)
- Chrysotile Asbestos as a Carcinogen (1993)
Download
- Press release 14 October 2015
Press contact:
Collegium Ramazzini
Kathryn Knowles
collegium@ramazzini.it
October 1st 2015
Massimo Crespi passed away on 28 September 2015, two weeks after a diagnosis of lung cancer. He was a physician who devoted his professional life to the prevention, screening and early detection of cancer.
Professor Crespi earned a degree in Medicine at the University of Rome in 1959. After hospital training and specializations in Gastroenterology and Metabolic and Liver Diseases at the same institution, he joined the National Cancer Institute Regina Elena in Rome where he established the new Gastroenterology and Endoscopy Service. In 1980, Professor Crespi's interests shifted to oncology and under his chairmanship a new department was created at Regina Elena. This new "Cancer Detection Center" encompassed the whole spectrum of cancer prevention from epidemiology to six specialized units devoted to cancer screening. A fruitful collaboration between the Center and the International Agency for Research on Cancer led to research in Iran, China, South America and Africa focused on the multi-factorial etiology of esophageal cancer. Dr. Crespi became a leading figure in the international arena of gastroenterology as President of the World Organization of Digestive Endoscopy and Chair of the United European Gastroenterology Federation. He was also awarded Honorary Fellowship in the Royal College of Physicians in London and elected as a Governor of the American College of Gastroenterology. Professor Crespi remained devoted to the promotion of prevention and screening in retirement serving as the Secretary General of the Mediterranean Task Force for Cancer Control.
Professor Crespi participated actively in the Collegium Ramazzini since his election in 1983, serving multiple terms on the Executive Council. He lent his expertise and leadership to the creation of the Collegium's 12th official statement entitled "Cancer Prevention, Screening and Early Diagnosis, the Neglected Side of Cancer Control: A Call for Action" and was awarded in 2008 the academy's prestigious Ramazzini Award for his scientific and institutional contribution to the prevention, screening and early detection of cancer.
Massimo was a true follower of Bernardino Ramazzini and set an example as an innovator in preventive medicine. His contributions in the field of detection and prevention of gastrointestinal cancer aided the protection of public health around the world.
September 9th 2015
Three international courses on Occupational Health and Safety and Environmental Health were successfully held this summer under the auspices of the Collegium Ramazzini: i) the summer course "Teaching interventions crossing borders" from 30 July to 7 August at the Ludwig Maximillian University of Munich, Germany (Radon et al., 2009); ii) the "Advanced International Training Course in Occupational and Environmental Health", held 17-22 August at the Chulabhorn Research Institute in Bangkok, Thailand; iii) and the summer course "Occupational and Environmental Determinants of Diseases: a multidisciplinary approach as a key for prevention", held 31 August to 4 September at the University of Brescia, Italy.
READ MORESeptember 1st 2015
The Collegium Ramazzini, together with the Istituto Superiore di Sanita' (ISS) and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Contaminated Sites will host a day-long symposium on "Perspectives In Global Environmental Health".
The meeting will be held at ISS on 21 October 2015. Speakers from the Collegium Ramazzini include: Fiorella Belpoggi (Italy), Pietro Comba (Italy), Massimo Crespi (Italy), Rodney Ehrlich (South Africa), Francesco Forastiere (Italy), Raul Harari (Ecuador), Richard Jackson (USA), Melissa McDiarmid (USA), Pier Giorgio Natali (Italy) and Morando Soffritti (Italy). The event program may be downloaded here.
The event is open to the public. Due to limited seating, interested participants are asked to send an email to the Scientific Secretariat c/o Fellow Pietro Comba.
July 22nd 2015
The Mongolian National University of Medical Science (MNUMS) and the Collegium Ramazzini (CR) organized a Conference on Occupational and Environmental Health in Construction and Mining Sectors on 22-24 June 2015 in Ulaanbaatar, MN. The audience of approximately 70 included representatives from the Mongolian Construction and Mining sectors, NGOs, labor and Mongolian Government including the Ministry of Labor.
READ MOREJuly 13th 2015
The Collegium Ramazzini is deeply saddened by the premature loss of Fellow Paul J. Lioy, an active member since 1998. Colleagues at Rutgers have created a memorial website to honor Paul: http://paullioy.com/. The following obituary appeared in the New York Times on Sunday 12 July 2015.
READ MOREJune 24th 2015
18th statement of the international academy affirms long-standing position calling for a ban on all mining, manufacture and use of asbestos.
READ MOREMay 1st 2015
Please mark your calendars now for a special 3-day edition of Ramazzini Days, to be held in Carpi, Italy beginning at 15:00 on Thursday 22 October through 15:00 on Sunday 25 October 2015. This is the 10-year anniversary of the Collegium's "Living in a Chemical World" conference series and we will be celebrating by adding an additional day of scientific sessions to the annual meeting.
Ground transportation will be provided from the Bologna International Airport (BLQ) and from the historical center of Bologna on the morning of Thursday 22 October. Wednesday arrivals are invited to arrange accommodations in Bologna so as to use the conference transportation from the city center the following day.
Return travel should be planned for the afternoon of Sunday 25 October or Monday 26 October. Return ground transportation will be organized on both days from Carpi to BLQ and to the historical center of Bologna.
Train travellers should plan on booking a connection all the way to Carpi (trains run from Modena centrale every 30 minutes). No transportation will be provided from the Bologna or Modena train stations.
Online registration for the event will open in July.
March 24th 2015
Emeritus Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini Marek Jakubowski passed away on 14 March 2015 after a two-year battle with cancer.
Professor Jakubowski was a member of the scientific staff of the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine in Lodz, Poland, its Scientific Secretary and the Head of the Department Chemical Hazards. In his research he focused mainly on the toxicology of heavy metals and on the development of biological monitoring of environmental and occupational exposures.
For the last few years he was the principal investigator of a research project aimed at the evaluation of health risks from exposure to cadmium, manganese and volatile organic compounds, supported by the Polish Government. He was also coordinator of research carried out in Poland and financed by the European Commission such as Gene polymorphism and biomonitoring of styrene, Development of a coherent approach to human biomonitoring in Europe, and by the European Chemical Industry Council on Biological monitoring of exposure- trends and key developments.
Professor Jakubowski was a member of the WHO task groups developing the Air Quality Guidelines for Europe and documents on the Health Risk of Heavy Metals and POPs from Long range Transboundary Air Pollution. He belonged to the ICOH Commission on Occupational Toxicology and the served as head of the commission preparing scientific documentation of Occupational Exposure Limits in Poland. He published over 120 scientific articles and book chapters (e.g. in Patty's Toxicology and Handbook on the Toxicology of Metals). He fully retired from the Institute two years ago.
Marek Jakubowski will be remembered as an excellent scientist and a colleague who gave great satisfactions to all those who were fortunate to cooperate with him or work under his leadership.
Marek is survived by his beloved wife Elzbieta, two sons and four grandchildren.
March 10th 2015
The Collegium Ramazzini has published its 17th position statement entitled "Most Types of Cancer are Not Due to Bad Luck". The full text of the document and references may be downloaded here.
READ MOREMarch 3rd 2015
Emeritus Fellow and Past President of the Collegium Ramazzini Dr. Arthur Canfield Upton passed away on 14 February 2015. Dr. Upton was internationally recognized for his research on the health effects of ionizing radiation and other hazardous environmental agents. Born on February 27, 1923, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he spent his childhood, he graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, and, subsequently, from the University of Michigan, from which he received both the bachelor's and medical degrees (1944 and 1946 respectively).
READ MOREFebruary 23rd 2015
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Collegium Ramazzini Fellow, Professor emeritus MD, PhD Maths Berlin on January 26, 2015 at the age of 83.
READ MOREFebruary 15th 2015
The Collegium fully endorses the International Agency for Research on Cancer's (IARC) criticism of a report by Tomasetti and Vogelstein published in Science January 2, 2015, that asserts that environmental and lifestyle risk factors are of marginal importance (accounting for less than one third of cancers) and that cancer development is largely the result of "bad luck". Especially troubling about these authors' assertions, is the implied threat to primary prevention efforts, now seemingly deemed to be irrelevant, if "bad luck" is the operative driver of cancer cases. Such a notion is also vigorously disputed by the Collegium Ramazzini.
The full IARC statement may be consulted here:
http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/pr/2015/pdfs/pr231_E.pdf
The Tomasetti and Vogelstein article may be found here:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6217/78.abstract
January 8th 2015
Collegium Ramazzini Emeritus Fellow Dr. Peter Wardenbach peacefully passed away on November 29th, 2014 at the age of 69 at home, surrounded by his family. He leaves his wife Linda, 3 children and 3 grandchildren behind.
READ MOREDecember 18th 2014
Dear Fellows and Emeritus Fellows,
It is my sad duty to inform you of the recent deaths of two Emertius Fellows of the Collegium Ramazzini, Dr. Peter Wardenbach and Professor Dr. Friedrich Pott, both from Germany.
Prior to retirement, Dr. Wardenbach was the head of the Toxicology Group of the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. His interests included health based occupational limit values, classification and labelling of carcinogenic/mutagenic/reproductive toxicants and long term effects of granular and fibrous particles in the occupational setting. Born September 27, 1945, Peter passed away of lung cancer on November 29, 2014. He was a regular attendee at Ramazzini Days with his wife Linda.
Prof Dr. Friedrich Pott was Professor of Environmental Hygiene at the University of Duesseldorf before retiring. He was still publishing at the age of 72 with colleague Markus Roller and regularly submitted his work for poster presentation at Ramazzini Days even when he could no longer travel to meetings. Professor Pott was honoured with the Ramazzini award in 1991 for his contributions to the knowledge of carcinogenesis from natural and man-made fibers. Born May 25, 1931, Friedrich died December 11, 2014.
Detailed obituaries will be posted to the Collegium Ramazzini website shortly.
October 19th 2014
Collegium Ramazzini Fellow Carl Cranor, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and faculty member of the Environmental Toxicology Graduate Program at the University of California, Riverside, is Phi Beta Kappa's Romanell Professor in Philosophy for 2014-2015.
READ MOREOctober 14th 2014
Collegium Ramazzini Fellow Jorma Rantenen has made available the following links:
1) Background Document
http://bit.ly/1scIjeh
2) Short introduction of the background document
http://bit.ly/ZY5PT7
3) First SJWEH Consensus Report
http://bit.ly/1uGrr1S
4) Helsinki Declaration on ARDs 4
http://bit.ly/1yzubRk
5) Organising Committee: Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of malignant Pleural Mesothelioma. Asbestos Diseases Research Institute; Sydney; 2013
http://1.usa.gov/1vrrwYF
October 2nd 2014
The Collegium Ramazzini, Italian Superior Institute for Health and WHO Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health in Contaminated Sites will host a meeting on Contaminated Sites and Health: Recent Findings and The Way Forward, in Rome, Italy on Wednesday 22 October 2014 from 9:30-16:00.
The symposium is chaired by Collegium Ramazzini Fellows Pietro Comba (Italy) and Piero Giorgio Natali (Italy) and will include presentations by Fellows Massimo Crespi (Italy), Margrit von Braun (USA), Colin Soskolne (Canada), as well as by President Philip Landrigan (USA) and Secretary General Morando Soffritti (Italy).
Download the scientific program. Please direct inquires to CR Fellow Pietro Comba.
August 31st 2014
Collegium Ramazzini Emeritus Fellow Dr. Kaye H. Kilburn, MD passed away on 7 August 2014 at the age of 82 from complications of a stroke he suffered 12 July. Dr. Kilburn was one of the earliest members of the Collegium Ramazzini, elected in 1983. He and his wife of 60 years, Gerri, were regular attendees at the annual Ramazzini Days meeting in Carpi, Italy.
READ MOREJuly 28th 2014
Fellows are invited to participate in a symposium on Bridging Research and Educational Programs in Public Health and Preventive Medicine: an International Perspective, to be held in Modena, Italy on Friday 24 October 2014 from 9:30-12:30, prior to the start of the 2014 Ramazzini Days annual meeting. The event is organized by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Unimore) in collaboration with the Hygiene and Preventive Medicine Residency Program, the International Doctorate of Clinical & Experimental Medicine and the Research Centre in Environmental, Genetic and Nutritional Epidemiology (CREAGEN).
Endorsed by the Collegium Ramazzini, the morning will include presentations by Fellows Yoram Finkelstein, Leslie London, Roberto Lucchini and Elihu Richter as well as speakers from Unimore. This is a unique opportunity for the Collegium Ramazzini to engage with young Italian physicians during their training. Download the scientific program. Please direct inquires to CR Fellow Yoram Finkelstein.
June 26th 2014
Ramazzini Days will be held 24-26 October 2014. Online event registration will remain active from 14 July to 15 September. View the schedule of events here: www.collegiumramazzini.org/ramazzinidays2014.asp
Note important changes to the meeting schedule. The Council of Fellows meeting will be held on Friday afternoon. Fellows should plan to arrive at the Bologna International Airport (BLQ) or Modena Centrale train station before 13:00 on Friday 24 October. Thursday arrivals are invited to book individual overnight accommodations in Bologna; transportation from the city center of Bologna to Carpi will be provided by the conference organization on Friday morning. Return travel should be scheduled on Sunday 26 October or Monday 27 October.
At the time of conference registration Fellows will be directed to the payments page to pay conference fees, renew their annual membership and settle eventual arrears online. Payments may be made at any time by clicking on "Fees and Donations": http://www.collegiumramazzini.org/membership.asp
Fellows who are unable to attend the annual meeting are invited to send regrets to the General Secretariat, c/o Conference Manager Federica Scagliarini at events@ramazzini.it. Regrets should be received no later than 15 September. Please confirm current contact information at that time.
April 29th 2014
The University of Brescia (Italy) School of Medicine is now accepting applications for the 5th edition of its summer school program on "Occupational and environmental determinants of disease: multidisciplinary approach as a key for prevention". The course will be held from 1-5 September in Brescia, Italy. It is sponsored by the University of Brescia in collaboration with the Collegium Ramazzini, the International Commission on Occupational Health Scientific Committee on Education and Training, the Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (New York), the NIOSH Education and Research Center and the Italian Society of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene. The program and application procedure may be found online at www.summerschoolunibs.org.
April 3rd 2014
The Collegium Ramazzini, Harvard University and the Dhaka Community Hospital Trust hosted a conference entitled "Sustainable work/sustainable development, safety and health awareness training to improve working conditions in the garment, tannery and construction industries of Bangladesh" at the Dhaka community hospital on February 24-26, 2014 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was chaired by the Chairman of Dhaka Community Hospital Trust, Dr. Quazi Quamruzzaman and Dr. David Christiani from Harvard University representing the Collegium Ramazzini. Collegium Fellow Ronald Dobbin coordinated the organization of the conference on behalf of the Collegium Ramazzini.
READ MOREMarch 3rd 2014
The Collegium Ramazzini mourns the unexpected and premature loss of our colleague Hemantha D. Wickramatillake from Sri Lanka. Hemantha passed away this week while teaching in Kuala Lampur, Maylasia.
Dr. Wickramatillake was the former Director of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health in Sri Lanka and, at the time of his nomination to the Collegium Ramazzini, was one of only two fully-trained occupational medicine physicians in his country, a nation of 20 million people.
Dr. Wickramatillake earned his MD at the University of Ceylon, his Master of Science in Environmental Health and Occupational Medicine from the National University of Singapore and his PhD in Occupational Health at the University of Adelaide.
He held a number of academic appointments including at Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi, the University of Moratuwa and the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka, the University of Adelaide, Australia and Drexel University, USA.
Hemantha contributed to a number of international projects including extensive work following the devastating Tsunami that struck Sri Lanka in 2005. He was appointed by the United Nations as one of the 5 experts from Asian countries to evaluate the NGO collaboration in disaster reconstruction. He also worked with numerous other international organizations including UNICEF, USAID, the World Bank and various ministries in Sri Lanka.
Hemantha was married and was a great sports enthusiast, basketball being his favorite. He was elected to the Collegium Ramazzini in 2010 and attended two editions of Ramazzini Days, in 2011 and 2013. We extend our deepest sympathy to his family and the wide network of patients and colleagues who held him in such high regard.
March 1st 2014
The dates for Ramazzini Days 2014 have been set - mark your calendars for October 24-26 in Carpi, Italy. This year's meeting will include an additional session on Friday afternoon. Plan to arrive in Bologna the morning of the 24th and depart the late afternoon of the 26th or morning of the 27th. Online registration will open in July 2014.
January 6th 2014
Dhaka Community Hospital and Collegium Ramazzini, with assistance from the International Social Security Association (ISSA), propose to undertake a training of Bangladeshi public health and medical practitioners, business and labor leaders, related NGOs and others interested in evidence-based protection of the health of Bangladeshi workers and their families with practical tools they need to seek improvements, especially in the high risk Textile/Garment-making, Tanneries, and Construction Sectors. This training course will be held in Dhaka on Feb. 24-26, 2014
READ MORENovember 13th 2013
The Collegium Ramazzini and the Town of Carpi are proud to recognize KATHLEEN RUFF as the recipient of a Special Award to honor her steadfast and effective advocacy in the international effort to ban the ongoing use of asbestos and for promoting better occupational and environmental health protections throughout the world.
READ MOREOctober 26th 2013
The Collegium Ramazzini and the Town of Carpi are proud to recognize JOHN R. FROINES as Ramazzini Award recipient and Ramazzini Lecturer for 2013 for his outstanding career in occupational and environmental health research and advocacy, especially his pioneering work to develop the federal occupational lead and cotton dust exposure standards in the United States and his work in California that led to the recognition of diesel exhaust as a significant toxic air contaminant, preserving the health and the lives of millions.
READ MOREAugust 12th 2013
The Collegium Ramazzini extends its most sincere congratulations to Fellow Ana Soto, who was named Blaise Pascal Chair in Biology at the Ecole normale superieure in Paris.
The Blaise Pascal Chair, (Chaires Internationales de Recherche Blaise Pascal, France) was established in 1996 by the Government of the Ile-de-France Region for internationally acclaimed foreign scientists in all disciplines. A scientific committee annually selects the most outstanding candidates from all over the world. Since its inception a number of famous scientists were the Blaise Pascal Chair laureates: G?rard Debreu (UC Berkeley, 1983 Nobel Prize in Economics), Ahmed Zewail (Caltech, 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry), Igor Mel'čuk (University of Montreal, the world leading researcher in linguistics), George Smoot (LBL, 2006 Nobel Prize in experimental Astrophysics), Robert Langlands (UBC, 1996 Wolf Prize, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th century), outstanding theoretical physicists Gabriele Veneziano (CERN/College de France), Alexander Zamolodchikov (Rutgers), and others.
Each year four scientists are chosen for this great honor; Collegium Ramazzini Fellow Ana Soto is this year's recipient of the biology chair. Her predecessor in biology is Elizabeth Blackburn, a Nobel Laureate. Professor Soto will spend 12 months in France at Ecole Normale Superieure over two years, working on a project to develop theoretical insights on the complexity of development. Her host is Professor Giuseppe Longo, a member of the European Academy of Sciences.
See announcement (in French) on Ecole normale superieure website.
July 2nd 2013
The prestigious Paracelsus Medal awarded to Emeritus Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini, Professor Hans-Joachim Woitowitz (Germany), for his outstanding contribution to occupational health, his life's work on Asbestos research and regulation and his unbending fight for Asbestos-victims and their compensation. The Paracelsus Medal is the highest distinction of the German Federal Medical Association, the chamber representation of all 400.000 German physicians. Among the recipients are distinguished names such as Albert Schweitzer.
READ MOREJune 13th 2013
The Collegium Ramazzini has sent a letter to President Barroso and Commissioners Tajani, Potočnik, and Borg urging stringent hazard-based evaluation criteria for EDCs and a precautionary approach that will protect the general population and workers against these serious hazards.
READ MOREJune 6th 2013
It is with great sadness that the Collegium Ramazzini shares the news of the premature death of Fellow Istvan Ember from Hungary. Professor Ember was one of the most active members of the Collegium Ramazzini, organizing the recent symposium at University of Pecs where he was the Head of the Public Health Institute. Professor Ember was a mentor to many young scientists, several of which accompanied him to Carpi for the annual Ramazzini Days meeting and participated in the scientific poster sessions. One of these colleagues, Katalin Gombos, prepared the text below, making special note of how important Collegium membership was to our friend Istvan.
READ MOREMay 17th 2013
Based on his studies of brain toxicity in children, Philippe Grandjean's book reviews how industrial chemicals are causing a silent pandemic of chemical brain drain. He links vulnerable development of our complicated brain circuitry to functional changes caused by environmental pollutants and exposes how a combination of academic naivet?, negligence by regulatory authorities, and irresponsible interference by vested interests has created a public health crisis of chemical brain drain. The book was released in May in the US by Oxford University Press. In connection with the book release, Philippe Grandjean has launched a website for news and comments on industrial chemicals that damage brain development.
March 25th 2013
The Collegium Ramazzini will hold an International Scientific Symposium on Emerging Issues in Environmental and Occupational Health: Mining and Construction in Transition Economies. This event will be held in Yerevan, Armenia on April 22-24, 2013 in collaboration with AUA College of Health Science and AUA Akopian Center for the Environment. The scientific program and participants may be consulted on the
conference website.
March 19th 2013
Congratulations to Collegium Ramazzini Fellow Maria Neira and team who have just announced the recent launch of their joint UNEP/WHO Update on the State-of-the-Science of Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals.
The report looks at effects of exposure of EDCs with special considerations to vulnerability and is availabile on the WHO children's environmental heath website:
http://www.who.int/ceh/publications/endocrine/en/index.html.
March 16th 2013
The 5th ICOH Conference on the History of Occupational and Environmental Health will be held 28-31 October 2013 at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The theme of the conference is "The struggle about evidence in occupational and environmental health". ICOH made a special effort to coordinate dates with the annual meeting of the Collegium Ramazzini, scheduled for 25-27 October in Carpi, Italy. For the conference program, registration and abstract submission, visit: http://www.icoh2013-history.org
March 6th 2013
On 19 March 2013 CR Fellow Paul Lioy will deliver a seminar at the University of Brescia's School of Occupational Medicine. The title of his lecture is "Exposure science in the 21st century: an opportunity to improve research in occupational and environmental health sciences".
READ MOREFebruary 25th 2013
Fellow Fiorella Belpoggi represented the Collegium Ramazzini as an expert contributor at the October 2012 meeting of WHO Europe in Bonn. The report of the meeting "Health Aspects of Chemical Safety: Strategic Directions for Actions" is now available on WHO/Europe website:
http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/184402/e96794.pdf
January 31st 2013
Applications are now being accepted for the 4th edition the Summer School of Brescia, Italy organized by Fellow Roberto Lucchini under the auspices of the Collegium Ramazzini. The title of this year's session is "Occupational and environmental determinants of disease: multidisciplinary approach as a key for research and prevention". The program will run from 2-6 September 2013, ECM credits are available. For more information visit: http://summerunibs.neurotoxmet.org
January 28th 2013
The 2013 Late lessons from early warnings report is the second of its type produced by the European Environment Agency (EEA) in collaboration with a broad range of external authors and peer reviewers. The case studies across both volumes of Late lessons from early warnings cover a diverse range of chemical and technological innovations, and highlight a number of systemic problems. The 'Late Lessons Project' illustrates how damaging and costly the misuse or neglect of the precautionary principle can be, using case studies and a synthesis of the lessons to be learned and applied to maximising innovations whilst minimising harms.
Numerous Fellows of the Collegium Ramazzini contributed to the pubblication. To download the contents visit:
http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/late-lessons-2
January 10th 2013
The dates for Ramazzini Days 2013 have been set - mark your calendars for October 25-27 in Carpi, Italy. Plan to arrive in Bologna the 25th and depart the late afternoon of the 27th or morning of the 28th. Online registration will open in July 2013. Happy New Year!
September 13th 2012
Collegium Ramazzini Fellow Richard J. Jackson has been selected for the 2012 Heinz Award in the area of Environment. The Heinz Awards pay tribute to the memory of Senator H. John Heinz III by celebrating those who embrace, as he did, the joyous American belief that individuals have both the power and responsibility to change the world for the better. As a reminder of the virtues of hard work, determination, excellence and a broad vision for the future, the Heinz Family Foundation annually recognizes a remarkable group of individuals for their extraordinary contributions. (Continue reading for Dr. Jackson's bio).
READ MOREAugust 26th 2012
Fellow Ellen Silbergeld would like to share the following article with the Collegium Ramazzini. The Cost-Effectiveness of Environmental Approaches to Disease Prevention. N Engl J Med 2012; 367:295-297 July 26, 2012
READ MOREJuly 24th 2012
In a Statement released on 24 July 2012, national and international organisations that study the causes and prevention of disease epidemics, call, for the first time, for a global ban on the mining, use, and export of all forms of asbestos. The Statement has already been endorsed by over 150 public health, civil society organizations and individual scientists from twenty countries, including the Collegium Ramazzini.
"Continued use of asbestos will lead to a public health disaster of asbestos-related illness and premature death for decades to come, repeating the epidemic we are witnessing today in industrialised countries that used asbestos in the past," stated Dr. Stanley Weiss, chair of the Joint Policy Committee of the Societies of Epidemiology (JPC-SE), which released the Statement. The JPC-SE comprises a number of Canadian, U.S. and international epidemiology organisations [full text continues below].
July 30th 2011
CR Fellow Birger Heinzow informs the Collegium Ramazzini that applications are now open for Australian Institutions to host a 2012 Fulbright U.S. Senior Specialist.
The Fulbright U.S. Senior Specialist Program subsidises Australian educational institutions to bring a U.S. Senior Specialists to Australia for between two to six weeks. It encourages collaboration with United States faculty and professionals on curriculum and faculty development and a variety of other activities. Applications open 1 July 2011 and close 7 October 2011. For more information and application forms visit: http://www.fulbright.com.au/scholarships/australian-institutions/us-senior-specialist.html or email administrativeoffice@fulbright.com.au
July 21st 2011
CR Fellow Leslie London informs Fellows that the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Capetown is currently seeking to appoint a Director of Cancer Research. This is a fixed term, 3-year contract post at the level of an Associate Professor/Professor. The closing date for applications is 15 August 2011. The full advertisement may be viewed at http://www.uct.ac.za/about/intro/vacancies/external.
July 21st 2011
On 19 July 2011, the Collegium Ramazzini sent a letter to Russian Minister of Health Dr. Tatiana Golikova regarding the Russian proposal to ban asbestos in friction material in the Eurasian Economic Community. The Collegium Ramazzini praises the Ministry of Health for its progressive attempt to safeguard citizens? well-being and offers its support and assistance to the Minister. The full text of the letter is published below, the pdf version is available for download here: CR to Golikova_19.07.2011.
READ MOREJuly 18th 2011
Fellows are invited to register online for the 29th edition of Ramazzini Days, to be held in Carpi, Italy from 28-30 October 2011. Registration will remain open until September 15th. Participants are reminded that hotel accommodations are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.
If you know you will not be joining us in Carpi this year, kindly register your official regrets with the General Secretariat by sending an e-mail to Conference Co-Manager Susanna Tassinari at events@ramazzini.it
Abstracts for the Work of the Fellows session are now being accepted by the Priority Topics Committee. Send 1-page abstracts to committee chairwoman Dr. Melissa McDiarmid at mmcdiarm@medicine.umaryland.edu
All payments to the Collegium Ramazzini are now being accepted in US dollars via the new online Paypal/credit card system. Fellows may settle annual membership dues, pay Ramazzini Days registration fees and make Jubilee donations in a single transaction during conference registration or anytime by visiting the page Fees and Donations.
A line-item receipt will be generated by Paypal at the time of the transaction, please print and save this for your records.
We look forward to seeing many of you in Carpi in October and wish you a pleasant summer.
Susanna Tassinari and Erica Tommasini
Ramazzini Days Conference Co-Managers
events@ramazzini.it
Kathryn Knowles
Collegium Ramazzini Secretariat
collegium@ramazzini.it
July 1st 2011
Fellow Richard Lemen signals the following Slate Magazine article to Collegium Ramazzini colleagues, posted Thursday June 30, 2011:
Canada's Breathtaking Hypocrisy on Asbestos by Stephen Davis
July 1st 2011
Fellow William W. Au is organizing the 6th international conference on environmental mutagens in human populations to be held in Doha, Qatar, March 26 - 29, 2012.
The draft scientific program may be downloaded here: Doha Conference_March_26-29_2012.
Fellows interested in attending the conference and/or participating as speakers are invited to contact Dr. Au for additional information:
William W. Au, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for the 4-year English Medical Curriculum, and
Chairman, Faculty of Preventive Medicine,
Director, MPH Education Center
Shantou University Medical College
No.22 Xinling Road, Shantou 515041, China
Phone number: (86-754)-88900279
Email: wau@stu.edu.cn
March 9th 2011
Please mark your calendars now for Ramazzini Days 2011, to be held on the 29-30 October with arrivals Friday 28 October. Thanks to the suggestion of Fiorella Belpoggi, the General Secretariat and Ramazzini Institute are working to plan a special visit to the home of Professor Maltoni (now Museum Maltoni) in Bologna on October 28th for those Fellows able to arrive in Bologna in the morning. The event and luncheon will commemorate 10 years since Professor Maltoni's death and will allow Fellows to meet some of the volunteers of the Ramazzini Institute who have been supporting the Collegium with fundraising initiatives for the last 25 years.
Fellows planning to attend the luncheon at Musuem Maltoni should arrive at the Bologna International Airport (BLQ) or Bologna Centrale Train Station; transportation to the museum will be arranged. Fellows who are not attending the museum tour/luncheon are asked to arrive at BLQ or the Modena/Carpi stations; transportation will be arranged to the Hotel Touring in Carpi. Departures should be scheduled for late Sunday afternoon October 30th or Monday October 31st.
Online event registration will open in mid-July 2011. Questions may be directed to Conference Manager Federica Scagliarini events@ramazzini.it or to the CR General Secretariat c/o Kathryn Knowles collegium@ramazzini.it.
February 4th 2011
The Conference, organized by the ‘Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health COEH, MAMC’ of New Delhi, is supported by Indian Ministry of Labour and Employment in scientific partnership with the Collegium Ramazzini, the Drexel University School of Public Health, Philadelphia, USA and the Heartland Hospital (NHS Trust) of Birmingham, West Midlands, UK.
The conference will include state-of-the-art presentations by eminent experts from centers of excellence in North America and Europe as well as from the International Labour Organization and the WHO.
Topics for study include:
- pneumoconiosis due to inorganic dust such as silica, coal, hard metal dust;
- disorders associated with organic dust exposure such as asthma and byssinosis;
- cancers in the workplace.
Special features:
- “Hands-on training” in Clinical, Radiological and Pulmonary function testing;
- Workshop on Techniques of Exposure Assessment;
- International Symposium on Safety and Health in Building and Construction.
Contact: kantjoshi@gmail.com for more information.
January 12th 2011
A December 9th Lancet article entitled "Canada accused of hypocrisy over asbestos exports" reports the latest developments in the battle to ban Canadian export of asbestos. Download pdf Lancet December 11, 2010 pp 1973-1974. Recent Collegium Ramazzini efforts to support the ban of asbestos Canada include a December 21st letter from Secretary General Morando Soffritti to Jean Charest, Premier National Academy Quebec, opposing the financing of an anonymous consortium of foreign investors to open the Jeffrey mine and export 5 million tons of asbestos to Asia over the next quarter century [see text below].
READ MOREJanuary 10th 2011
The Collegium Ramazzini extends its condolences to the family of Emeritus member Louis S. Beliczky who passed away January 5, 2011 at the age of 85. As forner Industrial Hygiene and Safety and Health Director for the United Rubber Workers, he is remembered by his colleagues as a pioneer who devoted his entire life to the cause of protecting working against occupational threats to health. (obituary follows).
READ MORENovember 1st 2010
The 2011 edition of the Annual Ramazzini Days will be held in Carpi, Italy on October 29th and 30th. Fellows should plan to arrive at the Bologna International Airport or Modena/Carpi train stations on Friday 28 October. Departures should be scheduled on Sunday afternoon October 30th or Monday October 31st. Online registration will open in July 2011. Questions may be directed to Conference Manager Federica Scagliarini events@ramazzini.it.
September 24th 2010
Dear Colleagues,
It is with deep sadness that I inform you that our colleague Dr. Jenny Pronczuk De Garbino passed away in Geneva on 20 September at the age of 63. In the words of her colleague Dr. Ruth Etzel, Jenny was a tireless champion for children’s environmental health and she inspired people around the world to take action to protect children from environmental hazards. Her infectious laugh, indefatigable spirit and superb judgement will be greatly missed.
Dr. Pronczuk De Garbino was originally from Montevideo (Uruguay), where she trained as a physician at the School of Medicine. In Uruguay Dr. Pronczuk De Garbino was appointed Head Professor of Clinical Toxicology and Director of the National Poisons Centre in Montevideo. She joined the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1991 and worked actively to promote chemical safety, setting up poison centres and medical toxicology training.
After her retirement from WHO in June 2009 she continued her active support of the global children’s environmental health movement.
In 2008 she was recognized by the US Environmental Protection Agency as the International Children’s Environmental Health Champion.
She will be remembered during the Council of Fellows at the Ramazzini Days 2010.
The Family can be reached by mail at 4 Chemin de Ruisseau, 1297 Founex, Switzerland or by email at inmemoryofjenny@gmail.com.
Dr. Morando Soffritti
September 17th 2010
The European Parliament and the Council are considering the European Commission's draft biocide regulation (COM(2009) 267 final), which is intended to replace the current EU Biocidal Products Directive 1998/8/EC. Following the 2008 Statement of the Collegium Ramazzini on the control of pesticides in the European Union in 2008, the Executive Council of the Collegium has issued a series of related recommendations on the control of biocides, arguing that biocides need stricter regulation than the current proposal before the European Parliament and Council contains. Download Collegium Ramazzini Call for Action on Biocides in the EU.
READ MOREAugust 19th 2010
Collegium Ramazzini Fellow Dr. Peter Sly recently published an editorial in the Medical Journal of Austrialia entitled "Asbestos still poses a threat for global health: now is the time for action" [MJA 2010; 193 (4): 198-199]. The article, a call for Australia to support international bans on the asbestos trade, was picked up by a number of international media outlets. Read the coverage in
August 14th 2010
Collegium Ramazzini Fellow Dr. Samuel Milham, MD, MPH, has published a new book entitled Dirty Electricity, Electrification and the Diseases of Civilization. Milham's book takes readers through his early years and education, following the twisting path that led to his discovery that most of the twentieth century diseases of civilization, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and suicide, are caused by electromagnetic field exposure.
Milham was awarded the 1997 Ramazzini Award for his outstanding contribution to the epidemiology of occupational disease, with particular reference to carcinogenic risk from electromagnetic fields.
For more about Dirty Electricity and to order a copy of the volume, visit http://sammilham.com/index.shtm.
July 2nd 2010
The July 1st edition of Environmental Health Perspectives contains the editorial “A Repeat Call for the Banning of Asbestos” , written by Linda S. Birnbaum (Director, NIEHS) Jane C. Schroeder, Hugh A. Tilson (Editor in chief, Environmental Health Perspectives). The same issue also includes the commentary “The Case for a Global Ban on Asbestos”, written by Collegium Rammazzini Fellows Joseph LaDou, Barry Castleman, Arthur Frank, Michael Gochfeld, Morris Greenberg, James Huff, Tushar Kant Joshi, Philip J. Landrigan, Richard Lemen, Jonny Myers, Morando Soffritti, Colin L. Soskolne, Ken Takahashi, Daniel Teitelbaum, Benedetto Terracini, and Andrew Watterson.
Asbestos in the news was also picked up by Reuters and published in the Globe & Mail: "Researchers Ask Canada to Ban Asbestos".
June 12th 2010
On Wednesday June 9 Quebec provincial Health Minister Yves Bolduc was accused in a letter signed by 36 prominent doctors and public health researchers from 21 countries of ignoring his duty as a medical doctor by supporting the use of asbestos. Quebec's Medical Code of Ethics says a doctor is "not to participate in any concerted action that puts in danger the health of an individual or a population." The main author of the letter is Dr. Philip Landrigan, president of the Collegium Ramazzini, an independent international academy of 180 renowned experts in the fields of occupational and environmental health. "Chrysotile asbestos causes serious harm to health. There is no safe exposure level. It goes on killing for generations," writes Dr. Landrigan, dean of Global Health at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Read full text below or link to the Montreal Gazette 12 June 2010.
READ MOREApril 22nd 2010
The Collegium Ramazzini congratuates its President, Dr. Phil Landrigan, on his recent appointment of as Dean for Global Health at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (NY, NY, USA). Dr. Landrigan, Ethel H. Wise Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine, is an internationally recognized pediatrician, epidemiologist, and leader in public health and preventive medicine. He has devoted his career to protecting children against environmental threats to health, most notably lead and pesticides.
READ MOREApril 20th 2010
Dear Fellows,
The first Call for a Ban on Asbestos developed by the Collegium Ramazzini was published in a number of journals in 1999. Now, two decades later, we need to repeat the message with a particular urgency. "Abestos is Still With Us: Repeat Call for a Universal Ban" was written by Fellows of the Collegium Ramazzini.
If you are a journal editor, or participate on a journal editorial board, we hope that you will consider advancing the Repeat Call for publication in your journal. The attachments are in the common journal formats for text and references.
If you belong to an association concerned with occupational and environmental health, we hope that you will place the Repeat Call on your website.
Ask journal editors to contact Joe LaDou if they have any questions: joeladou@aol.com.
March 17th 2010
Professor János Sugár, Emeritus member of the Collegium Ramazzini, passed away on his 88th birthday on January 27th, 2010. His teaching and research activity spanning more than 50 years in pathology departments of medical universities was particularly esteemed for his diagnostics of tumor pathology. He was head of the pathology department of the Research Institute of the National Oncology Institute from 1974 until 1992. His professional, scientific, teaching and science policy activities have been widely recognized over the years with numerous distinctions such as the Academy Prize of 1988, or the Order of the Star embellished with the Golden Wreath awarded by the Hungarian Republic. His interest focused on determination of pre-neoplastic processes, reversible and irreversible phenotypic and more recently genotypic characterization. He was the first to describe electron microscopic microinvasion preceding real invasion occurring in serious dysplastic tumors in skin, laryngeal, breast and gastroenteric pre-cancerous states.
January 29th 2010
Fellows are invited to mark their calendars now for the 2010 edition of Ramazzini Days, to be held in Carpi, Italy from Friday, October 22nd to Sunday October 24th. Ground transportation will be provided from Bologna International Airport (BLQ) and Modena Centrale Train Station to the Hotel Touring in Carpi on Friday, October 22nd. Return transfers will be organized on both Sunday, October 24th and Monday, October 25th. Questions about the event may be directed to Conference Manager Federica Scagliarini events@ramazzini.it.
January 18th 2010
The International Conference Preventing Emerging Occupational and Environmental Risks in South Asia and Beyond was held in New Delhi (India), 17-19 December 2009. The meeting, organized by the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health (COEH) of the Maulana Azad Medical College (New Delhi, India) in collaboration with the Collegium Ramazzini (Italy) and the Drexel University School of Public Health (Philadelphia, USA), saw the participation of more than 400 attendees. Among them, 10/12 Fellows of the Collegium Ramazzini, more than 50 international delegates and more than 300 local participants.
October 15th 2009
Dr. Djuric, Emeritus member of the Collegium Ramazzini passed away September 11, 2009. Born in Belgrade in 1926 he worked as toxicologist in the Serbian Institute of Occupational Health almost his whole life. He had a PhD in toxicology and was involved in laboratory, field work as well as research. Among his numerous distinguished publications, he was the author one of the first publications on molecular toxicology.
Dusan was continuously being invited as WHO and ILO expert in Occupational Toxicology, Occupational Health, Occupational Hygiene and Safety to assignments in different developing countries. One of his contributions was a leading, organizing and managing as a director of eight consecutive International Courses of Occupational and Environmental Toxicology for Developing Countries held in Belgrade. Dr. Djuric is one of the earliest members of the Collegium Ramazzini, elected in 1988.
September 23rd 2009
Collegium Ramazzini Fellow David Michaels has been nominated by President Obama to head the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Michaels is the Director of the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy and Research Professor and Interim Chairman of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. The New York Times calls the decision "wise" and describes Michaels as "a champion for workers' safety. Michels is awaiting Senate confirmation. Read here the NYT Op/Ed August 5, 2009.
August 16th 2009
The 4th International Conference on the History of Occupational and Environmental Health will be held in San Francisco, CA (USA) from June 19-22, 2010. The event is organized by the Office of Continuing Medical Education of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and includes a half-day pre-meeting workshop on Occupational and Environmental History Methods on June 19th. Fellows are invited to view detailed event information at www.cme.ucsf.edu/cme/.
August 4th 2009
An editorial by Collegium Ramazzini President Philip Landrigan was featured in the August 4, 2009 edition of The New York Times. The article is part of a series of commentaries in The Times featuring researchers and doctors from the Mount Sinai Medical Center. The full text of the editorial is available below.
READ MOREJune 20th 2009
Fellows interested in participating in the international scientific conference on "Preventing emerging occupational and environmental risks in South Asia and beyond" to be held December 17-19, 2009 in New Delhi, India are invited to contact Fellow TK Joshi.
READ MOREJune 18th 2009
Two years have elapsed since the Collegium Ramazzini organized its first seminar in Quito, Ecuador entitled "Salud Ocupacional e Ambiental: Emergencias en Paises in Desarrollos". The event, spearheaded by Fellow Raul Harari and co-sponsored by the International Labour Organization and the Organisacion Panamericana del la Salud, focused on occupational and environmental health problems in Latin America, with special emphasis on the problems of child labor. Raul Harari recently updated President Phil Landrigan and Secretary General Morando Soffritti on the impact that the conference and its published proceedings have had in the region [click title for text of letter].
READ MOREJune 18th 2009
The Collegium Ramazzini recently sent a letter of support to the Second Session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM2) regarding the proposal for a Global partnership to promote the implementation of the measures contained in paragraph 57 of the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development on phasing out the use of lead in paint [click title for text of letter].
READ MOREApril 2nd 2009
This year's annual Ramazzini Days meeting will be held in Carpi, Italy from October 23th (opening dinner) to Sunday, October 25th (closing lunch). Fellows should plan to arrive at the Bologna International Airport (BLQ) or at the Modena Centrale train station on Friday, October 23rd. Departures should be scheduled for Sunday afternoon or Monday.
Online registration for the event will open on July 1st. Questions may be directed to events@ramazzini.it.
January 16th 2009
The international scientific conference on "Preventing emerging occupational and environmental risks in South Asia and beyond", originally scheduled for January 2009 in New Delhi, India has been rescheduled for December 17, 18 and 19, 2009. Logisitical information will be posted when available on the Collegium Ramazzini website.
READ MOREDecember 19th 2008
The Collegium Ramazzini, an international academy of 180 experts in environmental sciences and occupational health, has published a new consensus statement calling for a worldwide reduction in exposure to lead. The position paper summarizes the scientific basis for instituting a worldwide ban on non-essential uses of lead and outlines 12 specific recommendations for reducing lead exposures through source identification, control, and elimination.
READ MORENovember 7th 2008
I. Bernard Weinstein, M.D., Emeritus member of the Collegium Ramazzini, died on Monday, Nov. 3, 2008, in New York City. He was 78. At the time of his death, Dr. Weinstein held four distinguished positions at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in New York: the Frode Jensen Professor of Medicine, Professor of Genetics and Development, Professor of Public Health, and Director Emeritus of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. He was also an attending physician at the Presbyterian Hospital.
READ MOREOctober 28th 2008
The Collegium Ramazzini, an international academic society dedicated to the understanding and prevention of occupational and environmental disease, independent of all commercial interests, calls upon the delegates to the Fourth Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention to sustain the Convention’s core principle of Prior Informed Consent and in that spirit to uphold the recommendation of the Chemical Review Committee to list chrysotile asbestos, endosulfan and tributyl tin compounds in Annex III of the Convention.
READ MORESeptember 23rd 2008
The Collegium Ramazzini, an international academy of 180 experts in environmental sciences and occupational health, has published a new consensus statement on the control of pesticides in the European Union. The brief position paper, which urges the EU to adopt strong legislation to protect public health and the environment against adverse effects of pesticides, has been sent to Members of the European Parliament and government representatives currently debating a proposed Regulation on the placing of plant protection products on the market.
READ MOREJuly 10th 2008
A letter expressing the Collegium Ramazzini's strong disagreement with the draft report “Proposed approach for estimation of bin-specific cancer potency factors for inhalation exposure to asbestos” was sent by Dr. Morando Soffritti to the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on July 10, 2008. The Collegium Ramazzini statement “Call for an international ban on asbestos” was enclosed.
READ MOREJuly 2nd 2008
it is now possible to register online for Ramazzini Days 2008 by visiting the website of the Collegium Ramazzini: http://www.collegiumramazzini.org/ramazzinidays2008.asp. Event registration is open from July 1st to September 15th and hotel accommodations are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.
READ MOREMay 21st 2008
The Collegium Ramazzini is pleased to announce the conferment of the Irving J. Selikoff Memorial Award to Professor Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc. The ceremony will be held at 11 am on Thursday, June 5, 2008 in the Hatch auditorium of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, located at 1468 Madison Avenue (@ E. 100th Street), New York, NY. Following the presentation of the award, Dr. Landrigan will deliver a lecture entitled “The Future of Occupational and Environmental Medicine”. All Fellows and friends of the Collegium Ramazzini are cordially invited to attend the event.
READ MOREMarch 18th 2008
This year's annual Ramazzini Days meeting will be held in Carpi, Italy from October 24th (opening dinner) to Sunday, October 26th (closing lunch). Fellows should plan to arrive at the Bologna International Airport (BLQ) or at the Modena Centrale train station on Friday, October 24th. Departures should be scheduled for Sunday afternoon or Monday.
Online registration for the event will open on July 1st. Questions may be directed to events@ramazzini.it.
January 8th 2008
The January 2008 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives contains a retrospective on the life and career of Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini Prof. Lorenzo Tomatis. Co-authors and Fellows James Huff and Ronald Melnick remember Prof. Tomatis as "a great human being, a staunch advocate for public health, a thorough and delving scientist, and a humanitarian par excellence...standing tall among other giants and trailblazers of environmental health science and public health advocacy including Cesare Maltoni, Norton Nelson, David Rall, and Irving Selikoff." Professor Tomatis passed away on September 21, 2007. Download here the full text of the article Environ Health Perspect 116:A16-17 [2008]. The photograph featured is courtesy of Prof. Tomatis' son Paolo.
January 3rd 2008
The Collegium Ramazzini’s recent Satellite Workshop “Occupational and Environmental Health in the Asia/Pacific Region” held Nov 30-Dec 1, 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand was a great success. The workshop attracted 184 participants from 19 different countries as follows: Australia (1), Bhutan (2), Canada (1), Croatia (3), Hungary (1), India (2), Indonesia (3), Italy (1), Japan (2), Korea (2), Myanmar (3), Pakistan (2), Philippines (1), P.R. China (2), Singapore (1), Thailand (143), USA (10), Vietnam (3), and WHO, Geneva (1). The event, which followed the Sixth Princess Chulabhorn International Science Congress, was also featured in the Thai Airways November in-flight magazine. The Collegium Ramazzini extends its most sincere thanks to Secretary General of the Sixth Princess Chulabhorn International Science Congress and Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini, Professor Mathuros Ruchirawat, for her hospitality and superb organization of the workshop.
READ MORENovember 4th 2007
The Secretary General of the Sixth Princess Chulabhorn International Science Congress and Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini, Professor Mathuros Ruchirawat, has invited the Collegium Ramazzini to organize a 2-day Satellite Workshop following the Sixth Princess Chulabhorn International Science Congress. This Satellite Workshop will be held in Bangkok from November 30-December 1 2007. It is entitled, “Occupational and Environmental Health in the Asia/Pacific Region”. The goal of the Satellite Workshop is to facilitate exchanges between Fellows of the Collegium and scientists in the Asia-Pacific region and thus to facilitate the dissemination of scientific knowledge as well as of new strategies for the prevention of environmental and occupational disease. The Collegium Ramazzini Satellite Workshop is structured to include invited speakers from both the Collegium and the Asia-Pacific region, with special focus on three areas identified as priority issues for public health in Thailand: air pollution, arsenic and pesticides. The scientific program may be downloaded as a pdf document here.
READ MOREOctober 22nd 2007
The Collegium Ramazzini, an international academy of experts in the fields of occupational and environmental health, is celebrating 25 years of service as a bridge between the world of scientific discovery and the social and political entities that must act on these discoveries to protect public health. Founded in 1982 by Irving J. Selikoff (USA), Cesare Maltoni (Italy) and other eminent scientists, the Collegium will commemorate its Jubilee anniversary in Carpi, Italy from October 25-28, 2007.
READ MORESeptember 24th 2007
Message from President Philip Landrigan
Dear Fellows of the Collegium Ramazzini,
Lorenzo Tomatis was a good man. He did much to advance the cause of public health and the health of workers. He was a true follower of Ramazzini.
I had the privilege to serve on two IARC Monograph Working Groups while Lorenzo was Director - the Benzene volume (#29) and the Silica volume (#42). What I remember most about those experiences was Lorenzo's strong sense of responsibility, his recognition that we absolutely had to get the science right, but that we also needed to present our findings in a way that would protect workers. I remember especially in the silica deliberations when the pressure on Lorenzo was fierce to declare silica to be not a human carcinogen. In response, he looked carefully at the data, he saw clearly that silica is indeed a carcinogen, and he resisted the pressure and made the proper declaration. That's what being a follower of Ramazzini is all about.
Dr. Philip Landrigan
Message from Secretary General Morando Soffritti
Dear Fellows,
It is with great sadness that I inform you of the death of our dear friend and Fellow, Lorenzo Tomatis. Lorenzo, together with Irving Selikoff, Norton Nelson, David Rall and Cesare Maltoni was among the scientists who contributed to create a culture of prevention in the strategy to control cancer. The energy and skill with which he gave life and continuity to the IARC monographs will be remembered as an important milestone for not only the agency, but also for public health.
In 2005, Lorenzo received the Ramazzini Award for his outstanding contribution to the prevention of cancer, in particular the identification of industrial agents. This year will have a moment of silence in Carpi to pay tribute to our colleague, a great scientist, intellectual and friend.
Dr. Morando Soffritti
August 3rd 2007
The final version of the Consensus Statement created following the International Conference on Fetal Programming and Developmental Toxicity (PPTOX) held in Torshavn, Faroe Islands in May 2007 is now available on the Collegium Ramazzini website under Fellows > Selected Publications of the Fellows: download here
READ MOREJuly 2nd 2007
We are pleased to inform you that it is now possible to register online for RAMAZZINI DAYS 2007 - JUBILEE CELEBRATION by visiting the website of the Collegium Ramazzini: http://www.collegiumramazzini.org/ramazzinidays2007.asp
Here you will find the schedule of events, an invitation to submit abstracts as well as important information about travel and accommodations. We would like to remind you once again that Fellows should make plans to arrive in Carpi a day earlier than usual, on Thursday, October 25th. Online registration will remain open until September 15th, however since hotel reservations will be assigned on a first-come, first-serve basis, we encourage early registration for the event.
May 26th 2007
From May 20-24, 2007, researchers in the fields of environmental health, environmental chemistry, developmental biology, toxicology, epidemiology, nutrition, and paediatrics gathered at the International Conference on Fetal Programming and Developmental Toxicity, in Torshavn, Faroe Islands. The conference goal was to highlight new insights into the effects of prenatal and early postnatal exposure to toxicants, and their sustained effects on the individual throughout their lifespan.
The event was co-chaired by Dr. Philippe Grandjean and numerous Fellows of the Collegium Ramazzini served on the International Scientific Committee. Immediately following the conference, the committee published a consensus statement entitled “Human health effects of developmental exposure to environmental toxicants”, now available on the event website: www.pptox.dk.
April 23rd 2007
On April 23, 2007, Morando Soffritti, MD was honored with the Collegium Ramazzini's third Irving J. Selikoff Award at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, USA. Dr. Soffritti was recognized for his "outstanding contributions to the identification of environmental and industrial carcinogens and his promotion of independent scientific research.” Following the presentation of the award by Collegium Ramazzini President, Philip Landrigan, MD, Msc, Dr. Soffritti delivered the Irving J. Selikoff Lecture on "The carcinogenicity of aspartame: the lessons we still must learn."
READ MOREApril 5th 2007
All Fellows are reminded to save the date for the 25th anniversary of the Collegium Ramazzini. In occasion of our Jubilee celebration, the annual Ramazzini Days meeting in Carpi will begin a day early, on Friday the 26th of October. Fellows should therefore plan to arrive in Bologna or Modena on Thursday the 25th. Online registration for the event will open on June 1st and a detailed program will be available on the web shortly.
READ MOREFebruary 23rd 2007
The Rutgers University Italian Studies Program and the NJ Italian and Italian American Heritage Commission Present the 2006/7 Italian Hours Rutgers Faculty Lecture: Paul Lioy, "Bernadino Ramazzini and his Legacy in Occupational and Environmental Medicine." The lecture will be held at 5 pm on Thursday, 8 March 2007 in Geology Hall, 85 Somerset Street, Rutgers-New Brunswick. The lecture is free and open to the public; reception to follow.
READ MOREFebruary 5th 2007
The Collegium Ramazzini is pleased to extended our belated congratuations to Professor William Au, who on on July 17, 2003, received the top honor from the United States Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) for his outstanding contributions to the agency and to public health.
READ MOREDecember 6th 2006
Dear Fellows of the Collegium Ramazzini:
It is my sad duty to inform you that our beloved Fellow, David V. Bates, M.D., died peacefully at his home in Vancouver, Canada on November 21, 2006. Professor Bates was a superb Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini. He was a skilled physician and a noted researcher who focused his work on the diseases of the lung, and especially on the diseases caused by asbestos, silica and other toxic dusts. He was a gifted teacher. He was a man of great courage who was never afraid to speak truth to power.
November 16th 2006
Under the leadership of Knut Ringen and other members of the Nordic Committee, we have developed a letter to the Prime Minister of Sweden urging him to reconsider the fate of the Swedish National Institute. We have written in this letter to strike a very positive tone in which we avoided political entrapment and spoke of the magnificent accomplishments of the Swedish Institute in worker protection over the past half century. We expressed our hope that the Government of Sweden will recognize these accomplishments and see fit to continue the existence of a national center for occupational health in Sweden.
On November 28th, the Office of the Prime Minister responded to the Secretary General affirming that the National Institute for Working Life will be phased out in 2007 in order to improve public efficiency.
November 8th 2006
Following the open communication of Dr. David Ozonoff during the 2006 Council of Fellows meeting in Carpi, Italy, we have sent a letter of concern on behalf of the Fellows to Mu'ammar al-Gaddafi regarding the barring of highly relevant scientific evidence in the trial of five Bulgarian nurses imprisoned in Libya.
October 13th 2006
The proceedings of the Collegium Ramazzini's 2005 conference "Framing the Future in Light of the Past: Living in a Chemical World" have been published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. The 943 page volume includes 78 papers and 45 poster abstracts. The cost of the volume for US/Canada is $145; for Europe and the rest of the world £75. To order the volume online, visit:
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/order/book_order.asp?ref=1573316539
July 6th 2006
The Collegium Ramazzini announces the launch of its new dynamic website: www.collegiumramazzini.org. The new site includes organizational information, a member directory with e-mails and professional profiles, downloadable CR Statements and bylaws, links to order CR conference proceedings and more.
READ MOREMay 26th 2006
On 18 May 2006, the Collegium Ramazzini was admitted to the special list of International NGOs (INGO) of the International Labour Organization.
READ MOREMarch 17th 2006
Dear Colleagues and Fellows of the Collegium Ramazzini,
It is with profound sadness that I announce the passing on March 17, 2006 of Ruth Lilis, MD, Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini and Professor Emerita in the Department of Community & Preventive Medicine of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
March 10th 2006
During the recent International Conference on Occupational and Environmental Health: Emerging Issues in the Developing World held in Quito, Ecuador, Collegium Ramazzini Participants President Philip Landrigan, Secretary General Morando Soffritti and Fellow Brigitte Froneberg were awarded honorary citizenship of the city of Quito.This honor was presented by the Mayor of Quito, Paco Moncayo Gallegos.
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The General Secretariat of the Collegium is located in the Castle of Bentivoglio, near Bologna.
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