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Report from IUPAC-Sponsored Symposium

10th International IUPAC Symposium on Mycotoxins and Phycotoxins (10th ISMP)
21-25 May 2000, Guarujá, São Paulo, Brazil

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This series of conferences was initiated by the IUPAC Commission on Food (VI.5), and the first symposium was held in Kungälv, Sweden in 1973. Some eight symposia have taken place in subsequent years in venues as diverse as Pretoria, Tokyo, Mexico, and Rome. The meetings have developed a considerable reputation for the high quality of interdisciplinary scientific contributions, and they have become the principal international meetings on mycotoxins and phycotoxins. This tenth meeting in the series, which further enhanced this reputation, was held 21—25 May 2000 at the seaside resort of Guarujá near São Paulo, Brazil. The symposium was organized by the Instituto Adolfo Lutz (with the National Organizing Committee chaired by Dr. Myrna Sabino) and attracted some 306 participants from 57 countries.

The program was organized on the basis of a plenary session on mycotoxins and phycotoxins on the first day, followed by parallel sessions on subsequent days. In total, there were 61 oral contributions and 212 posters, with an accompanying small scientific manufacturers exhibition. The truly interdisciplinary nature of the symposium can be seen from the program, which covered global significance of mycotoxins and phycotoxins, analytical developments, quality assurance, proficiency testing, methods validation, sampling, risk assessment, occurrence and human exposure, toxicology, and mode of action. A significant proportion of the participants were from developing countries, and a roundtable on "Analytical methods for developing countries" and a session on "Research on mycotoxins in developing countries" were aimed at meeting their needs. In addition, an FAO-sponsored Analytical Quality Assurance Workshop for mycotoxins for Latin American participants preceded the symposium. The symposium program also included a roundtable on "Nomenclature for phycotoxins", where the issue of novel phycotoxins–currently being identified with increasing frequency, yet being trivially and nonsystematically named–was recognized as a source of confusion and an area in which IUPAC should take a lead. It was, therefore, proposed that an Interdivisional Working Group on Nomenclature for Phycotoxins be established.

A special committee selected the best oral presentation given at the symposium, awarding the "ILSI Brazil Award"–consisting of a certificate and USD 1 000–to Dr. V. Sewram from PROMEC, South Africa for his paper on "Hair: A noninvasive matrix for assessing chronic exposure to fumonisin mycotoxins". The best poster presented at the symposium was recognized by the "BRASEQ Award", consisting of a certificate and USD 500, which went to Dr. L. P. Keong of DSO National Laboratories, Singapore for a poster on "The determination of domoic acid in aqueous samples using a solid-phase microextraction technique coupled to liquid chromatography". Proceedings of the symposium, comprising the oral contributions, will be edited by Willem de Koe; copies can be ordered from [email protected]

> book info

The Commission on Food (VI.5) will be disbanded by the time of the next symposium, owing to the upcoming restructuring of IUPAC. In order, therefore, to ensure continuance of this important series of meetings, it was proposed that future meetings be cosponsored by AOAC International and that the 11th Symposium be held at the University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland, USA) in 2003 or 2004.

Prof. John Gilbert
Chairman, IUPAC Commission on Food (VI.5)
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food
Central Science Laboratory
Sand Hutton, York, England, UK

> Published in Chem. Int. 22(5), 2000


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