HARMLESS @ ICEM2022

The International Association of Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Societies (IAEMGS) is a global organization composed of 13 international Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Societies. While these societies meet individually on an annual basis, every four years the IAEMGS convenes a gathering of all EMGS known as the International Conference on Environmental Mutagens (ICEM). The vision of the EMGS is to promote critical scientific knowledge and research into the causes and consequences of damage to the genome and epigenome in order to inform and support national and international efforts to ensure a healthy, sustainable environment for future generations. 

The EMGS mission is (1) to foster scientific research and education on the causes and mechanistic bases of DNA damage and repair, mutagenesis, heritable effects, epigenetic alterations in genome function, and their relevance to disease, and (2) to promote the application and communication of this knowledge to genetic toxicology testing, risk assessment, and regulatory policy-making to protect human health and the environment. In addition, international EMGS work through the IAEMGS to promote, support and foster training and research in genetic toxicology and environmental mutagenesis.

This summer took place the 13th International Conference on Environmental Mutagens (ICEM2022) in Ottawa, Canada, from the 27^th August until the 1^st September. This year’s edition was celebrated in parallel with the 53^rd Annual Meeting of the Environmental Mutagenesis & Genomics Society (EMGS). The conference encompassed both our changing exposures and ground-breaking tools available to assess adverse genomic effects. Our changing environment includes global warming and the resulting water and air pollution that threaten the survival of our species, the realization of space tourism and colonizing other planets, and technological advancements that allow us to modify the genomes of species at will. Our changing technologies include increasingly data-rich and quantitative sources of mechanistic information, innovative in vitro models and tools, artificial intelligence and novel bioinformatics platforms, and in the clinic, opportunities to tailor disease treatments and custom-design drugs. Today, more than ever, understanding how our environment shapes our genomes and the resulting health effects requires global effort.

Around 500 international delegates from research, regulation, industry, and policy makers joint this edition.

As one of HARMLESS experts in nanoparticle toxicology, Ulla Vogel (NRCWE) gave on 30^th August an oral presentation, as key note speaker, with the title “Status after Two Decades of Nanosafety Research: Toxicology of Inhaled Nanoparticles and Regulatory Needs”, where she presented examples of health-based occupational exposure limits for the process-generated nanoparticle diesel engine exhaust, for insoluble nanoparticles such as carbon black and titanium, for the asbestos-like carbon nanotubes and for ZnO, a soluble nanoparticle.