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Home › News Centre › National Press Releases ›2008 Press Releases ›  Warning and informing in the global village
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Warning and informing in the global village

16 September 2008

The European Commission has funded a research project which aims to determine the feasibility of setting up a rapid alerting system for chemical incidents.  Delegates at the Health Protection Agency’s sixth annual conference, taking place at the University of Warwick from 15-17 September 2008 will find out progress towards developing a system to alert European Union Member States of a chemical incident.

Following a chemical incident, the speed and effectiveness of the response is a critical factor in reducing any impact on public health. Once developed and implemented, the system would allow European Union Member States to communicate with each other instantly about actual or possible chemical releases and, most importantly, to determine the actions needed.

Poisons centres are already well established across Europe and they would play a key role in detecting chemical releases that could have EU-wide, or even global, significance.

Delegates at the Agency’s conference will hear how establishing an EU-wide alerting system for chemical exposures using poisons centre data is a key step towards protecting the public from the accidental or deliberate release of toxic substances.

The Agency is managing this project and other partners include the WHO-Geneva, the poisons centres in Germany, France, Lithuania, the UK and the European Association of Poisons Centres and Clinical Toxicologists. 

Professor Gary Coleman from the Health Protection Agency said: “It is important to have a mechanism in place across Europe to share information regarding chemical incidents and alert countries of such events where appropriate. This is why the European Commission has funded this project. Poisons centres throughout Europe could provide a vital link and play an important role in detecting the exposure to chemicals following accidental releases may these be accidental or deliberate.”

 

Ends

 

Notes to editors

  1. The Health Protection Agency’s Annual Conference takes place at the University of Warwick from 15th to 17th September. Further information can be found at the conference website at www.healthprotectionconference.org.uk  
  2. The Health Protection 2008 conference press office can be contacted between 9am – 5pm on 024 765 72982; out of hours on 0208 200 4400.

 

Last reviewed: 16 September 2008