The Institute is not a membership organization, operates no facilities, and tries not to duplicate the resources of other institutions. We avoid serving as an applicant organization for grants or contacts, choosing instead to function through members of our board and their institutions. The board is composed of researchers and educators who work together to do what each would find more difficult to do alone.

     Some of the projects we have worked on in the last twelve months:

• In December 1999, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Selikoff Awards for Cancer Research were presented to Dr. William Rom, New York University Medical Center, and Dr. Joseph Testa, Fox Chase Cancer Center, for their work on mesothelioma, a cancer associated with asbestos exposure for which there are no cures. A forum followed, the proceedings of which will be published as volume two of Genes, Cancer and Ethics in the Work Environment, in our International Reports series.

• Continued monitoring the social factors in the Department of Energy’s [DOE] medical surveillance program for beryllium-exposed workers. A report on this work will be published in The Human Ecology of Chronic Beryllium Disease in our publication series.

• Partnered with the Amarillo [Texas] Metal Trades Council in the Amarillo Health Project, to serve former and active workers and their families employed at DOE’s Pantex nuclear weapons facility.

• Assisted New York University become an National Cancer Institute Early Detection Center [Dr. William Rom, Principal Investigator.] The Center will serve asbestos-exposed workers in New York City and the Amarillo Health Project [Dr. Arthur Frank, University of Texas Health Center, Co-Investigator.]

• Continued to study stresses that for centuries have resulted in high rates of suicide and parasuicide among miners and their communities in the Rocky Mountains and in the Ore Mountains of Central Europe.

• Developed a model for ethical research that involves genetic testing and therapy, but protects both the “research subject” and our progress toward an Open Society.

The Institute is registered in the state of Maryland as an IRS 501[c]3 charity.

President: Arthur C. Upton, MD, Clinical Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

Vice President: Sheldon W. Samuels, Director Emeritus of Health, Safety and Environment, Industrial Union Department, AFL-CIO

Treasurer: William Nicholson, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Community Medicine, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine

Directors: Michael Flynn, President, CREST, International Association of Machinists

Arthur Frank, MD,. PhD, Professor of Medical Education and Cell Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas Health Center at Tyler

Antonio Giordano, MD, PhD, President, Sbarro Institute, Jefferson College of Medicine

Ivan Gut, MD, PhD, DSc, Center of Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Diseases, Czech Institute of Public Health

Philip J. Landrigan, MD, DIH, Professor and Chair, Director of Community Medicine, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine

 Tor Norseth, MD, PhD, Senior Toxicologist, Norwegian Occupational Health Institute

Knut Ringen, DrPH, MHA, MPH, Consultant

William Rom, MD, MPH, Professor and Director, Division of Pulmonary Medicine, New York University School of Medicine

Hans-Joachim Woitowitz, MD, PhD, Professor and Director, Institute for Occupational And Social Medicine, Justus Liebig University of Giessen, Germany

Charles Xintaras, DSc, Environmental Health Scientist, Athens, Greece