London - Is it safe for pregnant women to eat fish out of the Great Lakes? How is our environment affecting our health? Why are Aboriginal Canadians being especially hard hit by environmental toxins? “EcoHealth Toxicology” is the timely and critical subject of The University of Western Ontario’s 4th Annual Ivey Symposium which will be held today starting at 9:45 a.m. at the Lorraine Ivey Shuttleworth Auditorium in the Monsignor Roney Building at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Dr. Gideon Koren, who holds the Ivey Chair in Molecular Toxicology at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, will open the symposium with a look at the risks environmental toxins pose for pregnant women and their babies. "The Ivey Chair in Molecular Toxicology is very focused on the toxic effects we, as humans, have on our environment. The pollution and contamination of water and wildlife come back to haunt us as we see more toxicological diseases in humans,” says Dr. Koren, who is a professor in the Departments of Paediatrics, Medicine, and Physiology & Pharmacology. “This is the first ecohealth meeting for Western and it signals the seriousness with which the University views this issue.”

Other presenters will focus on toxicology monitoring on Walpole Island and the human cost of environmental catastrophes. Charles Trick who holds the Ivey Chair in EcoHealth at Western, and Jack Bend of the Department of Pathology will discuss their studies on the effects of pollution and contamination on First Nation communities near Sarnia and in Hudson Bay.

An agenda for the day can be found at: http://www.schulich.uwo.ca/moleculartoxicology/documents/brochure_2009.pdf