2021 Central and Eastern European Conference on Health and the Environment - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The seventh Central and Eastern European Conference on Health and the Environment (CEECHE) will be held at Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania. CEECHE is an important platform for continuing coordination of U.S. and Central and Eastern European (CEE) stakeholder expertise directed at multiple facets of environmentally induced diseases. This proposed meeting builds on 30 years of international interactions dedicated to building a network of scientists, health experts, and federal and private stakeholders poised to address a central problem: environmental insults linked to comprised health. Major concerns of environmental pollution in Baltic states, such as Lithuania, and CEE stakeholders include air pollution, water pollution, and the threat of nuclear contamination. Thus, the goal of CEECHE 2021 is to explore, promote, support and provide the resources to representative individuals across Central, Eastern and Northern Europe with a focus on health and environment. Key areas of focus will include emerging (and ongoing) issues for water resources that impact drinking water sources, indoor and outdoor air pollution health effects and mitigation approaches, environmental disease prevention strategies including lifestyle factors, public policy implications and next- generation scientific leadership. Collaboration between the US and Lithuanian scientists through previous CEECHE meetings have established opportunities to explore new ideas for addressing common environmental challenges, such as water and indoor and ambient air pollution. The University of Kentucky Superfund Research Center, Lexington, Kentucky, proposes to partner with the Vytautas Magnus University, to organize and implement the CEECHE 2021 in Kaunas, Lithuania, June 6-10, 2021. Conference objectives are centered on the conference theme of Seeking Solutions for Environmental Exposures and Disease Risks and are to: 1) provide an intellectual exchange between scientists and trainees in the field of environmental pollutant exposure and disease risks by exploring sustainable strategies for environmental detection and remediation of hazardous pollutants; 2) review environmental insults related to water and air pollution on population health as a variant of disease by including studies related to persistent organic pollutants, metals, mixtures and new and emerging pollutants; 3) compare, understand, and assess population health impacts associated with exposure science and prevention of environmental disease through positive lifestyle modifications and new risk assessment paradigms; and 4) provide a platform to strengthen the relation and collaboration between trainees and young environmental scientists from the US, CEE and Baltic regions relative to environmental challenges in the 21st century and beyond. CEECHE meetings have focused on highly contaminated geographic environments in CEE that pose severe multinational health threats. There are few, if any, other international venues that bring together CEE and U.S. scientists. The conference site in Kaunas, Lithuania will facilitate maximum participation of European Union and other CEE scientists and stakeholders with their U.S. counterparts to promote productive scientific discussions and collaborations focused on emerging global priorities, including air and water pollution and associated challenges in the area of environmentally induced disease.
