International Conference on Environmental Epidemiology & Exposure
2 > 6 September 2006, la Villette Conference Centre, Paris

Science, population diversity, caution and precaution
Members of the International Scientific Advisory Board for the Conference

Ever since humans have attempted to rationally understand the causes of disease, they have been faced with ignorance and uncertainty. The continuous development of new tools, methods and theories to overcome these limitations has made it possible to push back the frontiers of knowledge. However, the great diversity in populations – diversity as to exposure conditions and degrees of susceptibility to environmental hazards – still represents an important source of uncertainty. This is, without doubt, one of the biggest challenges facing the scientific community. Deciding which level of protection should be implemented for different population groups is both a scientific and a policy issue. While precautionary measures are often more or less openly adopted by scientists when interpreting their data and scientific evidence, caution is also present in more diverse forms during the decision process, such as when the so-called “uncertainty factors” are used when setting environmental standards. The habitual iterative process for the advancement of scientific knowledge based on constant back and forth exchange between the scientists’ evaluation and the final decision is now strongly challenged by the appearance of the precautionary principle. The crucial difference is that the usual – and often private – exchanges between scientists and risk managers are now expected to take place in a transparent and publicly visible manner. In this new setting, each stakeholder is able to question the data, the scientific rationale and the balance of the final decision. Hence, the pressure of public opinion, which weighs heavily on the decision makers, also has an impact on the scientific world. The joint ISEE/ISEA Conference is a unique opportunity for the scientific community concerned with the future of our environment – our village, our planet – and with public health – for current and future generations – to question how the precautionary principle may change the way scientists work..

This international event attracted 1531 participants , including more than 200 students and many scientists from developing countries. These 1500 scientists, researchers, medical practitioners, elected officials and journalists gathered together to reflect on a number of major topics in environmental health, offering a great opportunity to assess the state of research and its contribution to public policies.

For more information: please download

Conference report
List of participants

Adrienne Pittman – conference coordinator - AFSSET

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