The advantages of international cooperation.

At the meeting on Science, Research and Development, organized by the European Commission and held April 19-24 in Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands, 48 projects with participation from 75 laboratories in 17 European countries were presented. The multicenter approach once more stressed the idea that environmental problems are global, and we should try to solve them in cooperation with various countries. Speakers at the meeting put forth the idea that similar projects should be done on a more international basis; for example, with the United States, Japan, and Australia. It is well known that U.S. technology aids research in other countries. One example is the Teplice program, started in Czechoslovakia in 1991. The goal of this program is to analyze the impact of air pollution on the health of the population in northern Bohemia, one of the most polluted regions in Europe. Thanks to the help of scientists from the U.S. EPA, it was possible to start an extremely fruitful collaboration. The first fruits of this project were accomplished using equipment supplied by the European Commission through the PHARE program. In northern Bohemia, it was possible for the first time to analyze the concentrations of various pollutants in the air, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), arsenic, lead, and mercury , and evaluate the impact of these pollutants on the health of children by analyzing functional respiratory and neurobehavioral changes. Using American technology for personal monitoring, DNA adducts were analyzed in relationship to each person's exposure to PAHs. Another technology helped analyze the effect of air pollution on sperm morphology; an increase in sperm abnormalities were related to pollution. Preliminary analyses suggest increases in low birth weight and prematurity in the pregnancy outcome project. Key to evaluating the effects of environmental pollution are new techniques to determine genetic polymorphism and sensitivity of different groups to mutagens and carcinogens. These achievements indicate that human monitoring may enable us to determine and prevent risks to individuals. This may in turn allow us to address questions about possible adaptation to pollutants. Comparing results of the effects of air pollution on acute morbidity and mortality in Western versus Eastern European countries, it seems that people exposed to high levels of pollution for a long period of time do not exhibit increasing morbidity and mortality during air inversions as do people who have not been exposed to high levels of pollution. Studies of genetic polymorphism may explain why …