News

The first back-to-back meeting of the the POPs Review Committee (POPRC) and of the Chemical Review Committee (CRC) was held in Rome 14-18th October 2013 and 21-24 October 2013, respectively. Both representatives from RECETOX – outgoing POPRC member, prof. Ivan Holoubek who spent there 10 years since POPRC‘s inception and the incoming CEE POPRC member, Dr. Pavel Čupr who will represent the Czech Republic in 2014-2018 participated in the meeting.

10th year of the traditional Symposium on Environmental Informatics, ISESS 2013 was held in Neusiedl am See, Austria on 9-11 October 2013. Masaryk University contributed significantly to both the organization of the conference and the conference programme. The latter featured lectures on information systems GENASIS (Global Environmental Assessment Information System) and GMP DWH (Global Monitoring Plan Data Warehouse).

Experts on monitoring of persistent organic pollutants met in the hotel Continental in Brno from September 17-20, 2013. The participating members of the Regional Organization Groups (ROG) and of the Global Coordination Group (GCG) for the Global Monitoring Plan of the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) arrived from all five UN regions. Part of the meeting was also held at RECETOX premises.

About 50 international scientists both from governments and academia and IT specialists met in the 5th GEO Health and Environment Community of Practice (CoP) Workshop organized by Global Earth Observation Secretariat at Marvin Center, George Washington University, Washington D.C., from 23-25 July 2013. This meeting serves as forum for earth observing communities in public health, medical and other areas, for taking stock of progress, information exchange, establishment of new partnership and planning future collaborations.

Regional Centre RECETOX co-organized side event together with UNEP and WHO on the Global monitoring plan to the Stockholm Convention on Tuesday 30 April 2013 lunchtime.

Regional Centre of the Stockholm Convention in Brno - Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment (RECETOX) and Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses (IBA) Masaryk University, Czech Republic, have successfully finalized the development of the complex software and visualisation tool for global levels of the Stockholm Convention contained persistent organic pollutants in the atmosphere and human tissues (human milk and blood). Portal was launched on 22 February 2013.

The Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention is hosting webinars on various issues to assist Parties and others in implementing the Convention. Four webinars will be held in February and all of them will be focused on new chemicals listed in the SC: BDEs and PFOS.

The members of the Regional Organization Groups and Global Coordination Group for the Global Monitoring Plan (GMP) for POPs met in Geneva from 10 to 12 October 2012 to update the GMP guidance, agree on the GMP data handling strategy and define regional arrangements for the implementation of the second phase GMP in the five UN regions. Experts from the SC Regional Centre for Central and Eastern Europe (part of RECETOX) were also invited.

A new issue of the International HCH & Pesticides Association Newsletter was published at the end of December 2012.

The Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention is hosting webinars on various issues to assist Parties and others in implementing the Convention. The first 2013 webinar, held on 15 January, will be focused on PFOS and their open applications.