The 145th Annual Meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (Fukuoka)

Organizer: Maki Tokumoto (Sch. Pharm., Aichi Gakuin Univ.), Fumihiko Ogata (Fac. Pharm., Kindai Univ.)

While several metals are effectively utilized in various industrial applications, they also have the negative aspects of causing environmental pollution due to metals contained in wastewater from mines and factories and in waste products. Recovery of harmful metals released into the environment is extremely difficult, and there are concerns about the impact of harmful metals on the environment and organism. Health hazards caused by harmful metals are still an international problem, but many of the mechanisms by which metals cause toxicity have not yet been elucidated. To address the problem of environmental pollution by such harmful metals, it is necessary to conduct environmental monitoring and purify the pollution, to evaluate the health effects of harmful metals and to elucidate the mechanism of toxicity, and then, to take therapeutic and preventive measures.
In this symposium, young researchers who are actively conducting research on harmful metals as a cause of environmental pollution will be invited as symposiasts to discuss 1) purification system of wastewater including heavy metals, 2) environmental factors modifying vascular toxicity caused by cadmium, 3) biological defense mechanisms via redox regulation against methylmercury, and 4) tellurium metabolic pathways and its toxicological significance. We hope that this symposium will put a renewed spotlight on the issue of environmental pollution by harmful metals.