2010/4

Dear Subscriber !

Welcome to the April issue of EVISA's Speciation Newsletter.

This month once again mercury is in the news. In the form of an ethyl mercury containing compound called thimerosal, mercury is part of most swine flu vaccines. While health organizations such as CDC always affirm that the use of thimerosal in vaccines is safe, many toxicologists have obtained different alarming results. The organomercury compound is blamed to cause besides other effects, neurological disorders such as the autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One study often cited by the Center of Disease Control (CDC) for the safety of vaccines is now questioned: one of the authors has vanished with almost $2 million dollars meant for research. (See the news below !)

World-wide millions of people were meant to receive a thimerosal containing shot during the swine flu vaccination campaign in the last few months. However, a big part of the ordered doses of the vaccines were not used, simply because people were questioning their safety. Unused vaccines expire these days and therefore have to be disposed. According to EPA rules, the expired vaccines containing mercury above the critical concentration have to be handled as "hazardous waste". (See the news below !)

The question is, whether we should be glad that many people have not accepted to get the vaccine dumped into their bodies. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) faces mounting charges that it overreacted to the pandemic. Nevertheless, WHO has launched an internal review of its response and announced that a committee of 29 outside experts would conduct an independent assessment.

Anyhow, the question of the safety of organomercury compounds in vaccines should not be answered by politicians nor by judges but through scientific studies.  Analytical scientists together with toxicologist and biologists could play a major role in such studies.


NEWS | EVENTS | VACANCIES | DIRECTORY | LINKS
NEWS

EVISA is keeping you updated  with what is going on in speciation analysis. In this section you will find news about the most current research results, about trends, legal issues and informations from manufacturers in the field of speciation analysis.

With all the links to further information and publications the News archive is a valuable collection of "hot topics" in speciation analysis. We continuously update even former news with new links and information so that all news are actual all the time.

Antimony mine disaster
The world's largest antimony mine has become the world's largest laboratory for studying the environmental consequences of escaped antimony -- an element whose environmental and biological properties are still largely a mystery.
more

Unused swine flu vaccine turns into hazardous waste
Stuck with thousands, of unused swine flu shots, local health care providers are faced with the problem to discard flu vaccine for the first time in recent memory.
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Researcher Behind CDC Vaccine Safety Claims Disappears with $2M
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reports in The Huffington Post that Dr. Poul Thorsen, a key researcher from Denmark whose studies have been used to support CDC’s claims that the MMR vaccine and vaccines containing thimerosal (a mercury-based preservative used for years in multi-dose vaccine vials) were perfectly safe for use on children, has vanished with almost $2 million dollars meant for research.
more

Publication on the separation of Gd-based contrast agents awarded
The Eberhard-Gerstel Award, for the first time presented during the Analytica 2010, was given to Dr. Jens Künnemeyer from the University of Münster for his outstanding contribution in the area of speciation analysis. The young scientist had published a new method for the separation and determination of Gd-based contrast agents in water samples by means of an hyphenated technique using hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC).
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EVENTS

With a list of about 50 current entries EVISA is informing you about interesting events and keeps you updated with their deadlines. By consulting our list of deadlines you won't miss the opportunity for early registration at reduced fee or the chance to submit your contribution in time.
 more infos...
 
Please do not hesitate to inform us in case that your conference related to speciation analysis is missing in our Agenda.
Graduate Course on Speciation and Bioavailability
Location: Wageningen/The Netherlands
Date: 12.04.2010 - 16.04.2010
more

EGU2010 session IG5 - Isotope Geoforensics: Principles, Techniques & Applications
Location: Vienna, Austria
Date: 02.05.2010 - 07.05.2010
more

EnviroAnalysis 2010: The 8th Biennial Conference on Monitoring and Measurement of the Environment
Location: Toronto, Canada
Date: 10.05.2010 - 13.05.2010
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As 2010: 3rd International Congress on Arsenic in the Environment
Location: Tainan, Taiwan
Date: 17.05.2010 - 21.05.2010
more

58th ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry
Location: Salt Lake City, UT
Date: 23.05.2010 - 27.05.2010
more

5th Nordic Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry
Location: Loen, Norway
Date: 06.06.2010 - 09.06.2010
more



VACANCIES

EVISA provides information about open positions for Ph.D. students, PostDocs and permanent staff in the field of speciation. Looking to fill a vacancy or needing a new career challenge? Either way this service is FREE. Many laboratories and research facilities (from Greenland to Crete) have already found their highly educated stuff through this service by EVISA. If you would like to post an open position here, please contact us at info@speciation.net !

Doctorates

University of Liverpool: Iron speciation and humic substances in seawater
It is proposed that the student in this project makes a detailed study of the chemical speciation of iron and the concentration of iron-binding HS. Previous work has demonstrated the presence these ligands in Liverpool Bay and the Irish Sea. We will now concentrate on the estuary of the Mersey as a source of these ligands. The work may be extended to the Irish Sea. Samples will be collected during cruises with the University research vessel or the Environment Agency.
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Postdoctoral

Raleigh, NC, USA: Speciation, Dissolution, and Toxicity of Fly Ash
This basic research is funded by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) through Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) to determine the fate and effects of trace elements associated with coal fly ash released into terrestrial and aquatic environments.
more


Other
DIRECTORY

EVISA's directory of scientist is a versatile tool to facilitate contact with scientists in the field of speciation and related sciences. The directory is fully searchable for names, addresses, research topics etc.  You should bookmark this directory as an always up-to-date address book. (In order to hinder SPAM robots for collecting the E-mail accounts, we hide them in a special format).

More than 265 active scientists in the field of speciation analysis already joined the directory. Join this great directory that is extensively linked to all type of other information on this site, such as homepages, conferences and literature.

If your entry is still missing in this directory, please contact us at info@speciation.net.

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LINKS

EVISA provides an easy access to external information. Our database contains more than 2100 links to relevant information from numerous top scientific resources spread over the whole Web. The database is searchable both via full-text and categories such as elements, type of species and type of information. We are permanently updating our links section.

If your web site is missing here, please e-mail your link information to info@speciation.net.

 
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No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. The Newsletter represents only the opinion of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Community. The European Community is not responsible for any use that might be made of the information provided.