2016•08•03     Hokkaido

The biannual Conference of International Society for Environmental Epidemiology – Asian Chapter was hosted by and held in Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan on June 26-29, 2016. This conference was chaired by Professor Reiko Keishi and the theme for this year’s conference was “Environment, Health, and Sustainable Society”.

The conference gathered about 450 participants from 19 countries. A wide range of environmental health-related topics were discussed, such as exposure assessments, air pollution, chemical exposure, infectious diseases, climate change, radiation, urban health, endocrine disruptors and epigenetics.

Two of UNU-IIGH’s students were given the opportunity to present their work in the conference by travel award. Noor Artika Hassan presented her work on “The Impacts of Climate Variability on Typhoid Cases in Malaysia” in the session of environment and infectious diseases. Soo Chen Kwan presented her work entitled “The carbon savings and health co-benefits of air quality improvement from transit infrastructure in city” in the session of social environment and health. The conference benefited the students as it allowed them to have intellectual discussions with the epidemiologist, scientists, health care specialist, and policy makers from Asian nations.

The conference ended with an excursion to a newly built house with low chemical exposure in the indoor environment which is called the chemiless-house. The experimental house was built with minimal use of chemicals with the aim of preventing sick-house syndrome associated with newly constructed houses. It is one of the sustainable development projects to promote better Quality of Life (QOL) for future generations.

(L-R) Noor Artika Hassan and Kwan Soo Chen in front of the Chemiless-House.

Photo: Noor Artika Hassan. Creative Commons BY-NC 2.0