Cycle Exposome chapter III
Knowledge and uncertainties: understand, interpret, dialogue with trust
In creating its Foundation, the French Academy of Medicine wished to put at the service of society as a whole its unique capacity to bring together, on essential health and social issues and around the best French and international experts, all stakeholders, political, medical, scientific, economic and associative. To fulfill its mission, the Foundation of the Academy of Medicine (FAM) has chosen to organize debates open to the public and the media and directly relayed to the public authorities, based on excellent scientific publications or communications. In addition to their level, these debates are distinguished from other events of the same type by the benefit of the institutional status and the guarantees of credibility and ethics which are recognized to the French Academy of Medicine.
After its first cycle of debates on the theme « Society and Aging », two others are underway on the themes: « Food today and tomorrow » and « Exposure to chemical pollution – Exposome and public health ».
The subject of human exposure to mixtures of chemical contaminants is wide-ranging, of major health importance and is becoming more complex by the day, as illustrated by the case of pollutants with endocrine disrupting effects. This pollution is sometimes visible, as in the case of smog in large megacities (Beijing, New Delhi, etc.), or invisible, as in the case of pesticides, plasticizers or solvents in the environment, drinking water or food.
The effects of this pollution on health (cancers, infertility, cognitive disorders, diabetes, obesity) and the associated economic impacts are better and better quantified. For the European Union, the annual cost of the impact of endocrine disruptors has been estimated at about 157 billion euros*.
Considerable work is still required to better quantify the risk resulting from the combination of the presence of a hazard, its effects and the exposure of populations.
There is a great deal of ambition to better assess exposure and quantify risks, particularly at the European level. It is a question of installing the notion of Exposome in the sense of the totality of an individual’s exposure inducing effects often in the medium or long term.
Thanks to the expected progress, the goal will be to identify the agents, situations and populations at risk in order to build health prevention policies.
This cycle will allow the audience to better understand the complex issue of the Exposome, its ambitions, and the major associated health issues. The proceedings of these debates will be presented to the French National Assembly.
Chapter III – Knowledge and uncertainties: understand, interpret, dialogue with trust
Two discussions have already taken place:
– the first one defined in a general way the different health risks linked to multi-exposure and the means to evaluate them
– the second one insisted on the different pathologies linked to the Exposome
It emerged that the progress made has enabled the identification of numerous agents, situations and populations at risk, but the toxicological and epidemiological elements in particular are still too limited to perfectly construct health prevention policies and considerable work is still required to better quantify the risk resulting from the combination of the presence of a hazard, its effects and the exposure of populations.
In view of the many concerns about the information on pollutants in our environment, the session will allow for exchange and debate. In particular, aspects concerning risks (proven, suspected or assumed), the taking into account of uncertainties and limits, and confidence in scientific information will be addressed.
It is in this spirit that this third debate is organized.
Programm
Moderation : Pr Yves Lévi (FAM Vice-president)
14:00 Introductions
Pr Patrice Tran Ba Huy (President of the FrenchAcademy of Medicine)
Pr Richard Villet (FAM General Secretary)
14:10 Quantifying risk in a context of uncertainty
Pr Yves Lévi (FAM Vice-president)
14:30 What can we learn from 30 years of IRSN barometer on the perception of risks by the French?
Ludivine Gilli (Deputy Head, Division for Strategic Planning, Foresight, Partnerships and Innovation – IRSN)
14:50 Chemical risk and society
Etienne Klein (Physicist, Director of the Laboratoire des Recherches sur les Sciences de la Matière – CEA)
15:10 Discussion with the audience
15:30 Chemical exposure and judicial orientations
Corinne Lepage (Lawyer – former Minister of the Environment)
15:50 Cognitive biases in risk communication and interventions
Pr Thierry Meyer (Deputy Director of the Laboratoire Parisien de Psychologie Sociale (LAPPS) Université Paris Nanterre/ Université Paris 8)
16:10 Discussion with the audience
16:35 Restoring trust and dialogue between citizens and policy makers on environmental health risks
Elisabeth Toutut-Picard (Member of Parliament for Haute-Garonne, co-chair of the Environmental Health Study Group at the National Assembly)
16:55 Concluding discussion
17:15 Conclusions
IMPORTANT: the debate will take place both in videoconference via Zoom and in person, with health pass control.
For the remote session, please register on the corresponding link, you will receive the connection link a few days before the event.
For the face-to-face session, please register on the corresponding link, within the limits of available places.
Place : Académie Nationale de Médecine, 16 rue Bonaparte 75006 Paris
The organizers reserve the right to make any changes required by health constraints.
