CLF Director Addresses Need for Collaboration at International Symposium for Environmental Health Forty-eight speakers and 192 participants reviewed current research and identified future opportunities for collaboration at the recent International Public Health Symposium on Environment and Health Research, “Science for Policy, Policy for Science: Bridging the Gap,” held in Madrid, Spain. In his keynote presentation, “Is Science Serving the Needs of Policy-makers?” CLF Director Dr. Robert Lawrence, discussed the need for scientists and policymakers to work together and adopt an ecological perspective. Research data will be needed to establish regulations, conduct risk and cost-benefit analysis, and choose strategies that regulate or incentivize behavior, according to Dr. Lawrence. Despite the need for cooperation, case studies illustrated the difficulty in overcoming barriers such as the lack of a common system of measuring environmental health impacts, he noted. The event was organized by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe and the Carlos III Institute of Health of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, in cooperation with the European Commission (EC) Directorate-General for Research. The Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs of Spain hosted the symposium. The outcomes of the symposium will provide a base for policy discussions during preparations for the Fifth ministerial Conference on Environment and Health to be held in Italy in 2009. The symposium results will also be used to set priorities for future policy-oriented environment and health research activities in the European Union. | 
