Professor from Texas A&M University Visits NCKU to Teach Environmental Disaster Response Analysis and Assessment Techniques

The Department of Food Safety/Hygiene and Risk Management, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), will host the International Workshop on Environmental Hazards Identification and Exposure Assessment of Multi-chemical Substances from January 10th to 13th. The workshop will be held simultaneously at the International Conference Hall of the Kuang-Fu Campus and the campus of the NCKU of Science and Technology. Four scholars and experts from Texas A&M University will be personally invited to Taiwan to teach, aiming to strengthen the knowledge and strategies of professionals from academia, industry, and government in assessing the hazards of local complex chemical pollution and formulating response strategies.

President Huey-Jen Su of NCKU welcomed the distinguished guests who had traveled from afar and shared that while NCKU originally began with a focus on engineering science, the university was honored to become the first national university hospital established since the government relocated to Taiwan in 1981. This pivotal moment laid the foundation for NCKU's transformation, leading it to evolve towards a diverse and interdisciplinary approach, accumulating academic capacity over the years. As a public health scholar, President Huey-Jen Su also acknowledged the significance of the workshop's topics, allowing participants from various backgrounds to actively present their areas of concern and engage in fruitful exchanges during the program.

Yein-Rui Hsieh, Director of the Toxic and Chemical Substances Bureau at the Environmental Protection Administration, emphasized the importance of scientific risk assessment and diversified risk communication in chemical substance management. He highlighted the need for further organization in information collection, identification, management, and disclosure to ensure more comprehensive data linkage. Additionally, he noted that the assessment and management of chemical substances, risk communication, and disaster prevention and rescue are all areas of concern for the Chemical Substances Bureau. The workshop will cover topics such as quantitative risk assessment, risk at specific plant sites, case studies of chemical leaks, and on-site sampling courses, providing participants with valuable knowledge and insights. It is hoped that all attendees will benefit from the workshop.

The Texas A&M Superfund Research Center is a research unit supported by the National Institutes of Health and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Scholars from various disciplines collaborate on projects aimed at monitoring air quality and analyzing geological pollutants in the vicinity of the Houston industrial area. Their contributions in assessing the risk of catastrophic chemical pollution events and developing rapid analysis methods for environmental pollutants are noteworthy and merit reflection and learning.

The speakers include Ivan Rusyn, Professor and Director of the Superfund Research Center at the Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences, Texas A&M University; Weih-Sueh Chiu, Professor of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology; Thomas McDonald, Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health; and Garett Sansom, Assistant Professor in the same department. They will respectively share their practical experiences in independent data analysis, big database data processing, chemical substance and soil analysis, and risk communication.

The 4-day workshop program is divided into two main themes: "Risk Assessment Course" and "Disaster Response Course." Under the "Risk Assessment Course," topics will include an introduction to rapid quantitative risk assessment, case studies of chemical leaks, risk assessment at specific sites, and disaster response sampling and rapid community investigation under the "Disaster Response Course." Participants will be arranged to conduct soil and groundwater sampling and analysis within the Dashe Industrial Zone in Kaohsiung to train practical skills. Additionally, academic research results will be shared by Professor Hsiu-Ling Chen from the Food Safety Research Center at NCKU, Associate Professor Chih-Da Wu from the Department of Surveying at NCKU, and Assistant Professor Yu-Syuan Lo from the Food Safety Research Center at National Taiwan University. The participants include nearly 90 individuals, including doctoral students, professors, and representatives from public sectors and environmental assessment companies, from institutions such as NCKU, Chang Jung Christian University, and National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, among others, with relevant backgrounds.