Short Conference Report
The Conference ECOpole’08 was held in hotel Uroczysko (near Szklarska Poreba, Poland), from Oct. 23rd, 2008 to Oct. 25th, 2008. It was the seventeenth ecological conference of the series of meetings organised by the Society of Ecological Chemistry and Engineering, Opole, PL.
135 participants, including delegates representing 14 countries (from Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Israel, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Slovakia, Spain and Ukraine) took part in the event and presented 22 oral contributions and 132 posters.
The Abstracts of the Conference contributions (accepted by the Scientific Board) were available on the Conference website before and during the conference.
The Conference issue of the quarterly Ecological Chemistry and Engineering S containing among others keynote speakers papers, was distributed at the Conference Reception desk together with a CD-ROM (containing short info. on Keynote Speakers, Abstracts of the Conference presentations as well as ECOpole’08 Conference Programme).
The Conference Agenda was divided into 4 sections:
* SI Ecological Chemistry and Engineering – 23.10.2008 (Thursday)
* SII Environment Friendly Production and Use of Energy – 24.10.2008 (Friday)
* SIII Forum of Young Scientists and Environmental Education in Chemistry – 24.10.2008 (Friday)
* SIV Health, Ecology and Agriculture – 25.10.2008 (Saturday).
The Conference was opened by prof. Maria Wacławek, Chairperson of the Organising Committee and prof. Witold Wacławek, Chairman of the Scientific Board, President of the Society of Ecological Chemistry and Engineering and Representative of the Polish Chemical Society. Opening address was delivered by prof. Tomasz WINNICKI(National Council of Environmental Protection, Warszawa, PL).
Prof. Bernd MARKERT (International Graduate School [IHI], Zittau, DE) initiated the Plenary Session with the lecture: „From biomonitoring to integrated observation of the environment – The Multi-Markered-Bioindication-Concept (MMBC)”. During the conference the plenary lectures were delivered also by 5 invited lecturers: prof. AntonAMANN (Medical University, Innsbruck, AT) „Exhaled breath analysis: quantifying the storage of lipophilic compounds in the human body”, prof. Jerzy BARTNICKI (Meteorological Institute DNMI, Oslo-Blindern, NO): „Airborne load of nitrogen to European seas”, prof. Bogusław BUSZEWSKI(Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, PL): „The application of hyphenated separation techniques in earlier cancer diagnosis – old problem and new facts”, prof. Agáta FARGAŠOVÁ (Comenius University, Bratislava, SK): „Phytotoxicity and interactions of chromium and nickel” and prof. Manfred SAGER (Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, Wien, AT): „Input of minor and trace elements to soils from fertilization with respect to N and P application”.
Very interesting presentations were also given by dr Angelika Liermann (University of Potsdam, Potsdam, DE): „Energy- and carbon dioxide-balances during the production and utilization of renewable energy”, dr Mariusz Macherzyński (University of Science and
Technology, Krakow, PL): „Distribution of Cr, Pb, Cu, Cd and Zn in sediment samples from the Dobczyce dam reservoir (Southern Poland)”, prof. Henryk Matusiewicz (Poznan University of Technology, Poznan, PL): „High-resolution continuum source AAS:
a better way to perform flame atomic absorption spectrometry using hydride generation technique”, prof. Janusz Szurkowski (University of Gdansk, Gdansk, PL): „Application of photoacoustic spectroscopy in studies of environment contamination effect on plants”, prof. Ireneusz Śliwka (Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, PL): „Assessment efficacy of international regulations on CFC’s and SF6 concentration in the atmosphere of Poland”, prof. Susana Viegas and prof. Mario Gomes (Superior School of Health Technologies, Lisbon, PT): „Environmental monitoring of formaldehyde”, prof. Magnus Vircavs (University of Latvia, Riga, LV): „Sediment quality assessment in Latvia water bodies” and prof. Bogdan Zygmunt (Gdansk University of Technology, Gdansk, PL): „Occurrence and determination of short chain monocarboxylic acids in different wastewaters”.
Thursday, a day of hard work, was finished by the Poster Session of the Section Chemical Pollution of Natural Environment and its Monitoring. Many of the discussions begun at the posters, lasted until the evening hours.
The next point of Thursday Conference Programme was the one-hour-long Musical Soirée.Students of the Public Musical School in Jelenia Gora (Chamber Band, Accordion Quartet andBig Band) played classical and contemporary compositions. The audience applauded the players and claimed for bis.
At 19.30 the Conference participants were invited for a Conference Dinner.
On Friday morning, the day started with an ecological excursion. The participants had a chance to visit the air pollution monitoring station in Cieplice Zdroj, near Piechowice – situated in the former so-called Black Triangle region (of total area of 34 500 km2 and with population of 6.25 million). The excursion was proceeded by a computer presentation delivered on Thursday by mgr Lucyna Polańska (National Inspection of Environmental Protection, Jelenia Gora): Assesment of air quality in Jelenia Gora region. As we could hear and see its huge environmental problems of this region were solved.
As usually during the ECOpole Conference, the second day included the Session
of the Young Scientists (a forum of young scientists that present and discuss local ecological problems of their countries). During the Young Scientists’, Environmental Education and Renewable Energy Poster Session 31 posters were presented. The Scientific Board granted awards (sponsored by the Society of Ecological Chemistry and Engineering) for the best presentations. The awards for poster presentations were given to Ł. Gałczyński (Czestochowa University of Technology, Czestochowa, PL): How people use of microalgae?, J. Hoffmann, K. Hoffmann,M. Borowiec, M. HuculakandJ. Baran (Wroclaw University of Technology, Wroclaw, PL): Study of the possibilities of utilization wastes from phosphorus compounds factory in mineral-organic fertilizers and M. Rebola,M.J. Silva, H. Louro, A.M.M. Antunes, S. José, M.H. Rebelo and A.S. Cardoso (Portuguese National Health Institute, Lisbon, PT): Chlorinated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons associated with drinking water chlorination – preparation, quantification and genotoxicity characterization.
After the conclusion of the Friday scientific agenda, the Conference participants were invited for a Grill Party.
The third day was dedicated to the impact of environment food and pollution on human health.
After two very interesting plenary lectures delivered by prof. AntonAmann and
prof. BogusławBuszewski the last Conference Poster Session came up.
The last Plenary Session was opened by prof. Janusz Szurkowski lectureon.
Closing the conference, prof., prof. Maria and Witold Wacławek made short recapitulation. In general, ECOpole’08 was focused on monitoring the quality of natural environment, its effects on human life, environmental education as well as application of renewable sources of energy.
They expressed gratitude to all participants for coming and taking active part in the Conference and particularly thanked all Chairmen of Sessions.
They announced, that full text of the presented papers will be published (after obtaining reviewers’ positive opinions) in the successive issues of the journals Ecological Chemistry and Engineering A and S and they will be distributed to all participants.
The Extended Abstracts of the presentations will be published in two subsequent issues of semi-annual Proceedings of the ECOpole.
Thanks to the financial support of the Polish Ministry of Scientific Research and Higher Education, it was possible, among others to publish Extended Abstracts and full Conference contributions as well as to help to pay the fees of the young scientists taking part in the Conference.
At the end they invited all Colleagues to attend the ECOpole’09 conference.
Maria Wacławek
