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GreenFacts Foundation Previews Five New Studies on Environment and Health Issues

Press Release, 16 October 2003, GreenFacts Foundation asbl

Print version

Brussels, 16 October 2003 - At its annual conference on 16 October 2003, the GreenFacts Foundation has previewed five upcoming studies on environment and health issues. The studies address the issues of endocrine disruptors, dioxins, cadmium, power lines and lead, making scientific information accessible to non-scientific opinion leaders (policymakers, journalists, stakeholders and teachers).

Leadership Strategy
The upcoming release of these five studies marks significant progress in GreenFacts Foundation’s strategy to be the leader in scientific communication to non-specialists. "What we want is that policymakers and journalists, when faced with important environment and health decisions, will be able to turn to www.greenfacts.org to find clear, unbiased scientific information on a wide selection of issues" states Jacques de Selliers, GreenFacts Foundation’s General Manager.

The preview of the five studies was made for members, partners and invited guests during the GreenFacts 2003 Conference, Conveying Science into Policy, held on 16 October 2003 at the Atomium in Brussels. "Our annual conferences are aimed at bringing together those specialists and organizations devoted to proper scientific communication to non-specialists on health and environment issues," de Selliers said, "and GreenFacts is taking the lead in fostering cooperation and competence sharing among these professionals." The results of the conference and its various stakeholder workshops will be published before the end of October, 2003 on www.greenfacts-organization.org.

The GreenFacts Approach
GreenFacts takes previously published authoritative scientific documents and summarizes them in a language for non-specialists using its original Three-Level Structure of increasing details. By bringing these technical documents to a wider audience, GreenFacts hopes that policy debates will become more rational, leading to sounder decision-making.

The studies on Endocrine Disruptors, Dioxins and Cadmium are all based on recent WHO International Programme for Chemical Safety (IPCS) monographs, Power Lines is a summary of the 2002 International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) monograph and the Lead study is based on a combination of an earlier IPCS document with more recent materials (particularly concerning children’s health). The documents are all in various phases of the review process (non-specialist review, stakeholder review and peer review) and should all be published individually in the coming months.

GreenFacts Foundation asbl is a non-profit organization based in Brussels that summarizes authoritative scientific documents on environment and health matters on the Internet in a language that is accessible to non-specialists. It was formed in December, 2001 by stakeholders from the academe, industrial groups and environmental NGOs concerned about the difficulties of communicating scientific information on environment and health issues. More information can be found at www.greenfacts-organization.org.

For further details, contact:

GreenFacts asbl
32.(0)2.211.34.25