Health & Environment – at Pollutec 2005

New studies very regularly confirm the extent of this and regulations are introduced in an attempt to limit the impact by bringing in new assessment obligations, banning certain substances and lowering waste thresholds.

Never off the front pages, health risks are giving rise to greater and greater concern amongst the general public, professionals, manufacturers or local authority managers. The visitor surveys carried out by Pollutec (international environment show) bear witness to this. In 2002 30% of the show’s visitors said that they were interested in this theme but by 2004 it was 70%.

In order to respond to these expectations, this year Pollutec – taking place from 29th November to 2nd December at Paris-Nord Villepinte (France) – will devote a considerable amount of space to the Health & Environment and will create a real centre of expertise, with a major discussion Forum, a daily panel on Pollutec TV and a Village dedicated to solutions that are already available.

At the heart of show discussions

What are the dangers to which we are exposed through the pollution of the air that we breath, the water that we drink or the products that we eat? Have the critical exposure thresholds been identified? Do we know how to measure the real impact on our health? What monitoring and tracking tools do we have today? How do national or European policies take health risks into account?

It is questions like these that the experts gathered together this year at Pollutec will attempt to answer in the course of numerous discussions held during the show.

On the programme:

• A major Environment, Risks and Health Forum, co-ordinated and moderated by INERIS (National Institute for the Industrial Environment and Risks) in partnership with the IRSN (Radio-protection and Nuclear Safety Institute) and the CSTB (Building Scientific and Technical Centre). Every day, experts - representatives of professional, scientific, industrial bodies or institutes - will discuss the various types of risk that we are confronted with, their impact on our health, and the means of prevention being investigated. Six major themes will be considered: How to preserve water quality? (29/11); Health and Environment (30/11); Air and pollution (30/11); Chemical substances (1/12); Energy pollution (1/12); Polluted soils (2/12).
• A daily Health Panel in the Pollutec TV studio, moderated by the magazine ERS (Environnement, Risques et Santé), that will deal with topical questions: Cancer and the environment (29/11); Mobile telephony: what health risks? (30/11); Communication and information in environmental health (1/12); Nanotechnologies: what might concern us? (2/12).
• There will also be a score of conferences held in lecture theatres or exhibitor conferences dedicated to new prevention solutions and/or the control of risks (legionella, chemicals, explosion …), various aspects of risk management (certification, system evaluation…), legal questions (eg.: the criminal liability of the head of the company), problems of health and safety at work

A village dedicated to solutions

Pollutec will also host a Health and Environment Village, entirely dedicated to the prevention and management of health risks. When it was staged for the first time last year in Lyons, this village was a great success: 70% of the visitors questioned stated that they were interested in its development at the show (source: ECCE survey).

In response to their expectations, this village will be expanded this year and will bring together more than a dozen laboratories, equipment companies or specialist service companies.

As of the end of September, the following had already booked for the village or its environs: ADC (asbestos diagnostics), Ansell Healthcare Europe (protective equipment), Bioquell (environmental safety, bio-decontamination), CEA Liten (catalytic and/or antibacterial nanostructured materials), Comimex (safety equipment), ESRI (GIS), Eurofins/Analytico (dioxin, legionella, soil analyses..), ICA IP Cleaning France (bio-misting), IDSF (water/air/surface disinfection), Laboratoire Alpa (microbiological, eco-toxicological analyses, nosocomial monitoring analyses…), Lara Europe Analyses (air/waste/polluted sites and soils analysis) and VigiCell (predictive toxicology, in vitro and in vivo tests).

And an extremely comprehensive offer spread across the whole of the show

The theme will be omnipresent outside the village across the whole of the show, demonstrating just how far the technology of today is influenced by the need to take health risks into account. As of the end of September, over 150 exhibitors offering solutions for the diagnosis, prevention or control of health risks have already booked for Pollutec, in sectors as diverse as: Risks, of course, but also Analysis/Measurement/Monitoring, Water, Decontamination of Sites and Soils, Waste/Recycling.

Large numbers of exhibitors will be presenting innovations at the show (new approaches, new services or products). Announcements that have already been made include: a highly innovative method – and one that has been nominated for the EEP Awards (European environmental innovation awards) – for assessing the toxicity to man of certain products (VigiCell), new tools for the management of the risk of legionella (IRH, Permo BWT France), new systems for the detection of toxic substances in water (Anhydre), an “intelligent dustbin” for the collection of waste that poses a risk (AA Management), software to improve the tracking of hospital waste (Ducamp), protective equipment to reduce the risk of viral contamination (Mapa), new risk analysis and control tools (Norisko, SGS Multilab, Stratocom).

Pollutec 2005 will bring together some 1,400 exhibitors, 30% of whom will be foreign, in 50 000 m² of space. It will offer a complete panorama of the solutions available for the prevention and treatment of pollution in all fields: water, waste/recycling, air, clean energy or renewables, sites and soils, risk management, analysis/measurement/monitoring, noise. Over 40,000 manufacturing or local authority visitors are expected.