Over the past few decades, there has been a decline in cancers attributable to environmental and occupational carcinogens of asbestos, arsenic, and indoor and outdoor air pollutants in high-income countries. For developing countries, however, these exposures are likely to increase as industrialization expands and populations grow ^[1].

Among the industry sectors, workers may be significantly exposed to various known or suspected carcinogenic compounds from construction and manufacturing materials such as: persistent organic pollutants (POPs) including flame retardants, crystalline silica, asbestos, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), BTEX compounds (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and Xylene), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), bitumen fume, coal tar, and heavy metals^[2]. This may cause adverse affects to the worker’s health, especially carcinogenic risk during long term exposure at workplace. Therefore, strategies for mitigating and controlling occupational exposure to these chemical carcinogens are urgently needed.

Also, this proposed conference will comprehensively investigate the potential environmental and occupational health hazards of chronic exposures to carcinogenic compounds from construction and manufacturing materials and effective methods to mitigate and control their harmful risks. This international conference provides a valuable opportunity for local and foreign scientists to exchange knowledge and experiences on  studies on occupational and environmental health, and intervention measures toward worker health protection and promotion. In addition, it is an occasion for summing up the activities of occupational and environmental health as well as assessing the needs for capacity building and continuous training to improve occupational hygienists or engineers with a comprehensive knowledge in environmental sustainability, pollution control, occupational health and safety, and waste disposal and transportation for a developing economy.

^[1] Hashim D, Boffetta P. Occupational and environmental exposures and cancers in developing countries. Ann Glob Health. 2014 Sep-Oct;80(5):393-411. doi: 10.1016/j.aogh.2014.10.002. PMID: 25512155.

^[2] Hosseini B, Hall AL, Zendehdel K, Kromhout H, Onyije FM, Moradzadeh R, Zamanian M, Schüz J, Olsson A. Occupational Exposure to Carcinogens and Occupational Epidemiological Cancer Studies in Iran: A Review. Cancers (Basel). 2021 Jul 16;13(14):3581. doi: 10.3390/cancers13143581. PMID: 34298794; PMCID: PMC8305339.

 Conference objectives:

• To share research results on occupational and environmental health hazards of chronic exposures to carcinogenic compounds from construction and manufacturing sectors.
• To search for feasible and effective sollutions/intervention methods to address the adverse occupational and environmental health risks derived from construction and manufacturing sectors in developing countries.
• To assess the needs for capacity building and continuous training to improve occupational hygienists or engineers with a comprehensive knowledge base in environmental sustainability, pollution control, occupational health and safety, and waste disposal and transportation for a developing economy.
• To promote potential collaborations among the institutions through various academic exchange activities in the field of occupational health and safety.

Benefits for Conference Participants/Attendees:

• Information on studies and intervention measures on occupational & environmental health hazards of chronic exposure to carcinogenic compounds from construction and manufacturing sectors at national, regional and international levels will be updated and exchanged.
• The effective orientations and strategies on dealing with occupational & environmental health problems of chronic exposure to carcinogenic compounds from construction and manufacturing materials will be developed.
• The awareness of participants, different stakeholders and social organizations of occupational and environmental health problems will be improved.
• The collaborations between VNU-CRES and research institutions, universities and organizations at local and international levels will be explored and developed.

Conference date: October 24 – 26, 2024

Venue: 19 Le Thanh Tong street, Hoan Kiem district, Hanoi, Vietnam

Conference format and main languages:

• Online and onsite (in-person)
• English

Conference deliverables:

• Conference brochures and program (English);
• Abstract e-books (English) and USB sticks;
• Printed conference proceeding books – ISBN (English)