37th International Symposium on Halogenated Persistent Organic Pollutants - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The 37th International Symposium on Halogenated Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), Dioxin 2015, will be
held from 20th to 25th August 2017, at the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel, in Vancouver, Canada. The past 35
years have witnessed rapid advances in analytical and bioanalytical technologies for the detection
identification, and quantitation of POPs, increased understanding of their formation, fate and transport,
identification and characterization of new classes of POPs, and major progress in understanding their
biochemical and toxicological mechanisms of action and adverse health effects. These insights, coupled with
global distribution and the biological and environmental persistence of POPs, have made them a major issue of
increased interest and concern of scientists and regulators, and a major challenge for some countries to
reduce/minimize their presence in the environment, animals and food. Current research on these chemicals
now encompasses a broad range of scientific disciplines, from analytical and environmental chemistry to
molecular biology, toxicology and epidemiology. The broad and long term goals of this symposium are to bring
together the world's experts in these diverse scientific areas of POPs research and to provide them with a
unique multidisciplinary forum in which to communicate and discuss recent results and emerging issues, and to
develop interdisciplinary collaborations and translational approaches to addressing the problems of global POP
contamination. This meeting will provide such an opportunity for the 800-1000 participants expected for this
four and a half day conference of more than 40 oral presentation sessions and three open poster sessions
covering a diverse range of topics. Each day will commence with a plenary lecture by a leading international
POPs expert followed by oral presentations in four concurrent sessions on a variety of POPs areas. The
afternoon sessions begin with an open poster session attended by all participants, and then two sequential
blocks of four concurrent oral presentation sessions. The final day will conclude with an overall summary
session describing significant advances reported during the meeting and discussing future challenges in POPs
research. The national and international organizing committees will ensure that there will be significant
participation by students, postdocs and young investigators, parity in the numbers presentations by women,
minorities and persons with disabilities, and balance in the number of presentations by researchers from
various regions of the world. The Dioxin symposium provides a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary
communications and interactions among participants from diverse scientific backgrounds and disciplines but
who have a common interest in POPs. These interactions and collaborations are expected to continue to
result in major advancements and new insights into the formation, fate and distribution of these ubiquitous
contaminants, their environmental impact and health effects.
