History and Objectives:
The International Society of Ecotoxicology
and Environmental Safety was formally
established in 1972 as non-profit scientific
society, which statutory purpose is:
-
to bring together its members and other
interested persons from all aspects of
science and the general public and to promote
a scientific co-operation in order
- to
evaluate the current problems of environmental
quality and safety and to investigate
solutions to these problems on a national,
regional and world-wide basis.
- to this
purpose SECOTOX considers, among other
things, the question of air, earth and
water quality standards, the safe use of
food additives, drugs, pesticides, power
stations etc., as well as the protection
of plants, animals and man from the harmful
effects of chemicals and physical agents,
both natural and man-made.
- to elaborate
and to publish suggestions, including
the necessary data, in order to enable
the regulatory agencies of various countries
to make proper decisions as to evaluation
the safety of chemicals, toxic and physical
agents in the total environment.
- to
make recommendations to ensure environmental
safety and quality on a world-wide basis.
-
to make recommendations concerning ecotoxicological
education and training.
Among several distinguished
scientists from all over the world who
gave rise to the creation of SECOTOX, was
Dr. Rene Truhaut, member of the French
Academy of Sciences, who was the first
one to use around 1969 the term Ecotoxicology
in order to describe the study of adverse
effects of chemicals with the aim of protecting
natural species and populations, and Dr.
Friedhelm Korte, the founder of the Institute
of Ecological Chemistry of GSF in Munich/Neuherberg,
Germany. This Institute became the birthplace
of a widely recognized German school of
environmental chemistry, and was accepted
as the geographical site of SECOTOX.
The
formal foundation of SECOTOX was preceded
by a long series of meeting and symposia
held at the Institute of Ecological Chemistry
of GSF in Neuherberg, and attended, besides
scientists, by representatives of industry,
government agencies and international organizations
such as WHO, OECD and EEC. These meetings
resulted in the establishment in 1971 of
an International Academy of Environmental
Safety (IAES), and of SECOTOX, that was
founded a year later as a subsidiary body
associated to IAES. From the very beginning
SECOTOX operates internationally and consist
of members from Europe, the Far East and
the North and South America
The venue and
datary of SECOTOX symposia and meetings
comprise Japan (1973), Bonn (1974), Vienna
(1975), Nice (1979), Copenhagen (1982),
Rome (1985). SECOTOX formally sponsored
individual meetings on ecotoxicology in
Dublin (1989), Munich (1990), and co-sponsored
meeting in Paris (1989) and La Rochelle,
France (1991). The SECOTOX organ of publication
is the periodical Ecotoxicology and Environmental
Safety, which started in 1972/1973. The
foundation in 1979 of SETAC, a similar
North American Society of Environmental
Toxicology and Chemistry, and next in 1989-1990
of its subsidiary associations for England
(SETAC-UK) and Europe (SETAC-Europe) resulted
in continuous efforts of both societies
to fi nd the way of constructive co-operation
and in a closer attachment of SECOTOX to
European ecotoxicological problems. On
this background SECOTOX has carried out
and finalized its reorganisation into an
academic society in its own right and open
to all relevant and active researchers.
The revised statutes are duly registered
and are finally being stamped before the
Munich Court in Germany. Technically, the
reorganization of SECOTOX has resulted
in its legal separation from the IEAS on
order to make SECOTOX more operational.
SECOTOX has initiated a series of successful
specialized European Conferences of Ecotoxicology
held subsequently in Copenhagen (1988),
Amsterdam (1992) and Zurich (1994). The
4th European Conference on Ecotoxicology
has taken place in Metz, France in 1996.
In between smaller meetings like workshops
and symposia dealing with regional problems
of public health and environmental damage
caused by pollution in these specific regions
took place, being widely attended by scientists
and other interested parties representing
industry and government agencies, both
from the region and from other European
countries and international organizations.
The
main aim of these meeting was to stimulate
interdisciplinary discussions on regional
issues concerning ecotoxikology and environmental
health, according the principle: to think
globally, to act regionally. It was under
the presidency of Prof. Dr. F. Bro-Rasmussen
in 1988-1991, when great political changes
in Eastern European countries opened new
possibilities for contacts and collaboration
with colleagues from these countries. The
Meeting on Highly Contaminated Areas in
Eastern Europe in Gosen, Germany (1991)
showed that such contacts were very stimulating
for further development of ecotoxicology
and therefore one of the main objectives
of SECOTOX for the near future became to
promote the East-West communication. Since
the 2nd European SECOTOX Conference that
was held in Amsterdam in 1992, one of the
main activities of the society has been
the organization of regional scientific
meeting in various parts of Eastern Europe.
The first meeting took place in 1992 in
Nitra, the Republic of Slovakia. The workshop
entitled Environmental and Health Effects
of Industrial Pollution was attended by
more than hundred scientists from both
Eastern and Western European countries.
During the meeting, the first regional
section was established under the name
Central and Eastern European Regional Section
of SECOTOX (CEERS-SECOTOX). Prof. Dr. Jan
H. Koeman, President of SECOTOX 1992-1994,
deserves the special credit for initiating
establishment of this Section.
The countries
involved in first instance are the Republic
of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland,
Hungary and Ukraine. CEERS-SECOTOX was
formalized in 1993 during the next regional
meeting entitled Environmental Toxicology:
Pathways of Anthropogenic Pollutants in
the Environmental and Their Toxic Effects,
which took place at Porabka-Kozubnik, Poland,
in August 1993. Again almost all Central
and Eastern European countries were represented
there, including Russia and Latvia next
to the countries mentioned before. Finally,
in 1994 the 3rd meeting of the Central
and Eastern European Regional Section was
held at Balatonaliga in Hungary. The title
of the meeting was: Toxicity, Hazard, Risk. There
were an appreciable number of Latvian scientists,
who joined SECOTOX and also offered to
host one of the future meetings of the
CEERS-SECOTOX. Noteworthy was also the
presence of a group of about 15 young Polish
environmental physicians being trained
under WHO Programme.
A formal intention
of organization of the CEERS-SECOTOX meeting
in 1996 has acceded the representative
of the Czech Republic. Simultaneously with
the foundation of the Central and Eastern
European Regional Section, and the regional
CEERS-SECOTOX meeting, in 1993 another
regional workshop was organized in Rome
entitled Environmental Toxicology: Hazards
to the Environment and Man in the Mediterranean
Region. There was a remarkable attendance
of scientists from almost all countries
of the region, including Spain, Portugal,
France, Croatia, Greece, Israel, Maroccco,
Cyprus, Malta, Libya and of course Italy,
next to people from all other European
countries, North America, South Africa,
Thailand, India, Bangladesh and the Yemen
Republic. The regional approach appears
to be very successful and will be certainly
continued. In this connection, again a
special tribute should be paid to Prof.
Dr. Jan H. Koeman who played a key role
in the development of the regional activity.
Prof. Dr. Paul Vasseur, the President of
SECOTOX since 1994, consequently continues
this approach. A Regional Section on the
Mediterranean Region was formally established
during 8th International Symposium on Environmental
Pollution and its Impact on Life in the
Mediterranean Region, held in Rhodos, Greece,
in 1995.
Currently, the regional approach
finds new votaries among the representatives
of African countries. Therefore the first
International Symposium on Environmental
Pollution and Impact Assessment has been
held in Mohammadia, Marocco from October
9th to 11th in 1996. This conference intended
to cover the technological advances in
environmental analysis and to review the
state-of-the-art of knowledge on the impact
of pollution on ecosystems. The North-South
link will also be a matter of concern in
the forthcoming period. All the regional
meetings that were organized over the last
two years had an important scientific input
by a number of international organizations,
including the WHO European Centre for Environment
and Health, the International Register
of Potentially Toxic Chemicals of UNEP
(IRPTC), the European Environmental Research
Organisation (EERO) and the European Centre
for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals
(ECETOC).
The activities of SECOTOX are
directed not only to a more efficient exchange
of scientific data but also to the development
of unifying concepts with regard to important
target areas, such as the improvement of
methods to assess and predict environmental
and health effects of chemical pollution
and for instance strategies to deal with
the toxicity and environmental impact of
complex chemical mixtures. The idea of
European and global integration of environmental
protection efforts of scientists and policy
makers on the regional basis, at the same
time strongly co-ordinated internationally,
as the most rational and scientifically
sound approach to the elaboration of an
optimum regional ecotoxicological policy,
has been consequently presented and developed
at the consecutive SECOTOX events mentioned
above.
Finally, after over two decades of
ecotoxicology, we are now at across-roads
where we must deal with new issues that
will allow us to be more predictive towards
the long-term effects of micro-pollutants:
in other words, we really must make an
effort to introduce more ecology into ecotoxicology!
Ecological
assessment is now imperative and we must
develop the tools to achieve this. A new
eraseeking to better appreciate ecosystem
health is upon us, where environmental
and human health cannot be dissociated.
We, thus, invite you to become a member
of SECOTOX by using the forms attached.
As a matter of fact, the 4rth European
Conference of SECOTOX which was scheduled
to be held in Metz in August 1996 has addressed
this major theme. The conference in the
Central Eastern European Section of SECOTOX
on Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety
took place in Jurmala, Lativa from 24th
- 27th of August 1997. Main topics were
focused on the air- and water pollution,
waste treatment and remediation as well
as ecotoxicology of fi sh and environment
and health.
In 1998 a Conference in Antalya,
Turkey, was a focus on mediterrinean aspects
within SECOTOX society in collaboration
with TÜBITAK and universities. The first
conference of the Asian SECOTOX branch
was held on a Yangtse boat between Wuhan
and Chongqing, China in 1998.
In 1999 conferences
in Hungary (Balatanföldvar) and Germany
(Munich) took place.
At the last conference in
conjunction with the Hungarian society
of toxicologists in Munich as a biannual
central european SECOTOX conference and
assembly of the members and the council
a new president and board was elected.
Prof. Dr. I. Twardowska was elected as
successor of Prof. Dr. A. Kettrup. The
next meetings in the new millenium are
scheduled in Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia
and India.
The membership of the Council
of SECOTOX 1999/2000 was:
President: I. Twardowska
Past-President: A. Kettrup
Secretary: K.-W. Schramm
Treasurer: H. Parlar
Members: E. Belkhadir
Ph. Bourdeau
F. Bro-Rasmussen
P. Calow
H. De Kruif
M. Goto
P. Hansen
J. M. Jouany
R. Koch
J. H. Koeman
J. Kovacicova
A. Pinter
F. Salamitou
J. Schmieder
P. Vasseur
L. Vittozzi
Honorary Members: F. Coulston
F. Korte