Please email pbc@uq.edu.au if you have any recent news items that you wish to have considered for inclusion on the News page.
Greetings Team! We have a number of activities to report on. We continue to encourage all team members (researchers, partners, trainees, collaborators) to send in their activity updates, including photos and news items for subsequent updates.
Thermal and non-thermal health effects of low intensity non-ionizing radiation: An international perspective
Belpomme D, Hardell L, Belyaev I, Burgio E, Carpenter DO
Highlights
- Exposure to electromagnetic fields has increased dramatically.
- Electromagnetic fields at low and non-thermal intensities increase risk of cancer in animals and humans.
- Some individuals are particularly sensitive and develop a syndrome of electrohypersensitivity.
- There is an urgent need to recognize hazards associated with excessive exposure to non-thermal levels of electromagnetic fields.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749118310157
Dr. Mahmood A. Khwaja and Anum Aslam
Sustainable Development Policy Institute Policy Brief # 60
16 April, 2018
An opportunity exists for graduate students to participate in an online/face-to-face course on Ecosystem Approaches to Health, offered by CoPEH Canada. The course is available starting in May. Further information is available in the flyer.
Participants can participate in the full program at UBC, UQAM, or UofGuelph, or participate only in the webinars (which are also available to international students).
As the global electronic waste (e-waste) stream grows, it is becoming increasingly important to understand how exposure to e-waste affects human health. Components used to make electronic devices, such as laptops, cell phones, and televisions, contain a variety of metals and chemicals that can harm health when people are exposed through handling or just living near e-waste streams. NIEHS will work with WHO to raise understanding of the importance of controlling exposures to e-wastes among health practitioners and decision makers.
UQ Researchers are working at the intersection of science, education and policy to better understand and reduce pollution’s impact on children’s health.
A recent article in the Australian Financial Review discusses the impacts of short-term and long term-exposure to environmental hazards in urban areas. Professor Peter Sly, PBC Chair and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Children’s Health and the Environment at the University of Queensland, is quoted.
Cities as a health hazard, Financial Review, 8 December 2017.
Addressing the first Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury (COP1), held in Geneva 24-29 September 2017, Dr. Mahmood A. Khwaja, Senior Adviser Chemicals and Sustainable Industrial development, emphasized expedited support to developing countries, through capacity building, technical assistance and technology transfer, for sound chemicals management and safeguarding public health.
Over 1500 delegates from 152 countries (including two Presidents and several Ministers and Vice Ministers of Environment) participated in COP 1.
