News from the Secretary, February- March 2007
Doctors for the Environment, Australia web page www.dea.org.au
A new web page has been promised “soon” in several of the DEA newsletters and many of you must have despaired at this prolonged gestation. We give our apologies and seek your recognition that the sustained effort to do this is inevitably put aside as everyday DEA tasks intervene. You will now find the new, less formal format at www.dea.org.au We are deeply indebted to Sarah Morton and webmaster Glen Morris for their hard work. The site is not yet finished and indeed much remains to be done. However at this stage we would value your input. Firstly let me explain that our audience is diverse and we therefore must cover several needs.
For members of DEA we must continue to publish details of the activities we undertake on their behalf, the Policies, submissions to Parliaments and our publications. We must inform members of some of the key publications and developments in our priority areas and indicate actions they can take to assist DEA and environmental health.
For other doctors who are not members who we know view the site, we need to publish information that will interest and educate them. We will utilise news feeds, we haven’t as yet decided, We have loaded one for illustration under “News Feeds” This is American and will not fulfill our core needs but it illustrates our intent.
For the general public and for politicians and their staff who look at the DEA site we need to explain why health is linked to the environment. This may seem elementary to members but in trying to arrange meetings with some ministers and their shadows we have had a response from their staffers “You are Doctors for the Environment, what’s that got to do with health” To answer this we are developing the picture bank with captions and explanation, with a rotating picture on the page to attract attention. This material attracts interest from those using words like “health and environment” on Google and in the few days since the page first appeared, school teachers are phoning for posters. Good news! You can help by submitting to the secretary for consideration pictures on topics that link health and environment in Australia.
We need your help please. Keeping in mind the necessary aims of the site, we would value your comments and criticisms. Please send to webmaster Glen Morris glen@ausnet.com.au with a copy to me , David Shearman mountlofty@ozemail.com.au
Important DEA Meeting in Melbourne on 13 March
GLOBAL WARMING AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION MEETING: 13 MARCH, CARLTON VIC
Doctors for the Environment Australia in association with The Climate Project are pleased to invite Victorian doctors to attend a presentation and discussion on global warming and the medical profession on 13 March from 6.30 - 9.00 pm at The Green Building, 60L Leicester Street, Carlton VIC 3053. A brief tour of the Green Building will be commencing at 6.30 pm followed by presentations at 7.30 pm. Speakers include Dr Grant Blashki (presenting an adapted version of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth presentation), Dr Colin Butler (on increases in sea levels, food insecurity and refugees) and more. Email RSVPs to mailto:greenclinic@acfonline.org.au by COB on 6 March 2007 as places are limited.
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is a word describing a collection of technologies which enable manipulation of materials at the nanoscale, that is, nanostructures, which are at the atomic scale between 1 and 100 nanometres. A nanometre is a millionth of a millimetre. The term "nanotechnology" was defined by Tokyo Science University Professor Norio Taniguchi in a 1974 paper as follows: "Nano-technology' … consists of the processing of, separation, consolidation, and deformation of materials by one atom or one molecule."
Many aspects of nanotechnology pose no threat to human health, for example ‘fixed’ nanostructures on the surface of glass to make it ‘self-cleaning’. However, DEA has concerns about some particles, namely ‘free’ nanoparticles, which are potentially hazardous to health.
These quotes are from. a draft policy paper prepared by DEA WA member Don Reid which will soon appear on our web page. We thank Don for his initiative. We need such initiatives from members and and seek input on this topic from any other members with expertise. Please contact me and your response will be forwarded to Don.
AGM and Scientific Meeting, 3-4 November 2007
In previous newsletters it has been reported to you that we intended to hold the 2007 Annual General Meeting in conjunction with a medical meeting in WA.
John Stokes, DEA Treasurer, indicates that we will meet in conjunction with the WACRRM (WA Centre for Remote and Rural Medicine) ‘Fremantle Educational Weekend’ on Sat 3rd and Sun 4th November. WACRRM runs several regional activities for rural GPs and this is their annual major state-wide meeting which is jointly run with the educational committee of Fremantle Hospital. It is planned that DEA will invite speakers of national eminence for the Saturday morning session and may run a parallel session on Saturday afternoon.
The meeting will attract CME points and will be a tax deductible expense.
The DEA AGM and dinner will be held on Friday evening, 2 November.
In notifying DEA members now we suggest that these dates go into your diary and that you plan to come to Fremantle.
Letter to Members of Federal Parliament
Doctors for the Environment Australia is in the process of writing to all Federal Members of Parliament to summarise some important points from our ”Energy Policy for Australia”, particularly related to the need for renewable energy and energy conservation.
David Shearman
Hon Secretary