Development of an Alerting System for Chemical Health Threats (ASHT)

The ASHT project is composed of two phases. Initially the aim of this project is twofold; firstly to determine the feasibility of using Poisons centres across Europe as the front line to detect sentinel events and to harmonize case reports thereby acting as a syndromic surveillance system to monitor covert deliberate release of chemicals; and also to develop an alerting system whereby Member States can be notified of the possibility of a deliberate chemical threat. The concept of a developmental rapid alerting system for chemical threats (DEV-RAS-CHEM) has been developed by the GIZ-Nord Poison Centre, and thoroughly tested by project partners. This phase of the project is now completed.

Phase II started in October 2008 and will include surveillance for non-deliberate chemical threats.

Associate Partners

European Association of Poison Centres and Clinical Toxicologists

GIZ-Nord Poisons Centre, University of Göettingen, Germany

Guy's and St Thomas' Medical Toxicology Unit, London

State Environmental Health Centre, Lithuania

Collaborating Partners

International Programme on Chemical Safety, World Health Organization, Switzerland

Grant Agreement number

2004212

Project Duration

October 2005 - September 2008

Funding

The project was partly funded by the European Commission

Publications

ASHT poster for Phase I (PDF, 454 KB)

Last reviewed: 9 March 2010