Environment and Health

Anthropogenic changes to the natural environment pose serious threats to human health, welfare and security. Many examples link human health, environmental degradation and pollution at local, regional and global scales. For example, use of chemical substances known to be persistent, toxic and bio-accumulative (such as dioxins), pose serious threats to both natural ecosystems and human health, and improper management of surface water resources may promote mosquito breeding - vectors for malaria and filariasis. The bi-annual series of International Conferences on Environment and Health (ICEH) explore and promote interdisciplinary understanding such issues.

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KERF is dedicated to promoting scientific, technical and engineering solutions to current and emerging environmental issues with impacts on human and ecosystem health. Understanding and managing environmental relationships associated with economic development, population growth and human health requires inter-disciplinary co-operation among social, physical and life scientists. The ICEH Conferences support such co-operation. KERF initiated the 1st ICEH (Bangalore, Dec. 1998) in collaboration with Parisara Vignana Parishad. The 2nd ICEH (Bangalore, Dec. 2000) was held in collaboration with Lakeside Education Trust.

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Tropical Chennai lies on the Bay of Bengal. It is the fourth largest metropolis in India, offering sun, sand and surf. In December, the temperatures range between 26o C and 30o C. Dress for most occasions is light, casual, preferably cotton and comfortable. Evenings are pleasant. Chennai is as safe as any other international city. English, in many accents, is spoken widely in the city. The South Indian (Dravidian) culture is relaxed, and the people are friendly.

In the city, delegates are advised to travel by auto-rickshaw and taxicab, as the metropolitan transport is often crowded.

The University of Madras - the venue of the conference - is one of the oldest universities in India, established in 1857. The Centenary building is on the Marina, the second largest beach in the world. It is about an hour's drive from the International/Domestic Airport, but is quite close to downtown Chennai.

The Indian Geographical Society celebrated its Platinum Jubilee (75 years) last year. It is housed at the Department of Geography, University of Madras. The Department has traditional interests in environment and health, medical geography and contemporary geography of health care, including complementary care.

Not only is December in Chennai an opportune time for the conduct of the conference because of the pleasant weather, it is also the music festival season.

Please feel free to contact us by email, should you have any queries about the city and the venue. (Go to Registration for links on the city)

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The conference will run concurrent paper sessions, from the afternoon of December 15 to the morning of December 17, 2003. One or two themes will be discussed in each session. There will be a panel discussion, for one hour on December 16 and a round table, on the last day. The themes and sub-themes of the conference are:

Overall theme:
Urban Planning and Environmental Management for Human Health

Sub-themes:
· The local environment of slum areas and human health
· Water quality and water borne diseases
· Public participation in management of environment and health problems
· Air pollution and respiratory illness
· Solid waste management
· Indicators of human and ecosystem health
· Ecosystem approaches to planning and management
· Transportation
· Noise pollution
· Complexity in environment and health systems

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Abstracts:
Abstracts for oral paper and poster presentations may be submitted by October 30, 2003. Abstracts should be no longer than 250 words and should reflect one of the themes of the conference. Include up to 6 keywords. Abstracts should be submitted in electronic form (MS Word or WordPerfect format) to bunchmj@yorku.ca (for international participants) or tv@vsnl.com or madhasuresh@yahoo.com (for Indian participants). Abstracts will be peer reviewed and decisions communicated to authors by November 10, 2003.

Oral Presentations:
Oral Presentations on the topic of submitted abstracts will be of 20 minutes duration (including a short period for questions and discussion). Each presentation room will be supplied with overhead projector, 35 mm slide projector and LCD for powerpoint presentations.

Papers:
For inclusion in the electronic conference proceedings and for consideration in a special issue on "Environment and Health" of the Indian Geographical Journal, full papers must be submitted before the end of the conference.

Guidelines for Papers:
Full papers should follow guidelines of the Indian Geographical Journal and be submitted in electronic (MS Word or WordPerfect) format. Papers should not exceed about 5000 words. Every paper should start with an abstract of no more than 250 words.

References should be listed in alphabetical order at the end of the paper and cited in the text as a bracketed number. Footnotes should appear at the bottom of the respective page, typed in single space, and the footnote number, placed a little above the line, should run consecutinvely throughout the text. References details should follow the style below:

For a journal article:

1. Gopalan K.K., D.T. Vengayil, P. Udayavarma and M. Krishnan Kutty (1983). The Shrinking Backwaters of Kerala, Journal of the Marine Biological Association, India, 25(1), pp. 131-141.

For a book:

2. Ahmad E. (1973). Coastal Geomorphology of India. Bombay: Longmans.

For an edited volume:

3. Agrawal D.P., R.K. Avasia and S. J. Guzder (1973). 'A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Quarternary Problems in Maharashtra', in D.P. Agrawasl and A. Ghosh (ed.). Radiocarbon and Indian Archaeology, pp. 3-17.

Maps and charts should be submitted electronically in a standard graphics format such as tiff, gif or jpeg, and should be greyscale or black and white. The authors should agree to revise the maps and charts for reproduction if the paper is accepted for publication in the Indian Geographical Journal.

Authors name and affiliation should appear on a separate title page and should not appear anywhere else in the text so that the article may be impartially assessed by a referee.

All manuscripts submitted for publication in the Indian Geographical Journal must be accompanied by a letter stating that the article has not been published in or sent for publication to any other journal and that it will not be submitted elsewhere for publication unless a decision is received from the Indian Geographical Society.

Conference Proceedings:
Proceedings will be published electronically. All papers will be peer reviewed. Selected papers will be published in a special issue on “Environment and Health” of the Indian Geographical Journal, which is the official organ of the Indian Geographical Society.