Biomedical research leaders: Report on needs, opportunities, difficulties,education and training, and evaluation

The National Association of Physicians for the Environment (NAPE) has assum ed a leadership role in protecting environmental health in recent years. Th e Committee of Biomedical Research Leaders was convened at the recent NAPE Leadership Conference: Biomedical Research and the Environment held on 1-2 November 1999, at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. Th is report summarizes the discussion of the committee and its recommendation s The charge to the committee was to raise and address issues that will pro mote and sustain environmental health, safety, and energy efficiency within the biomedical community. Leaders from every important research sector (in dustry laboratories, academic health centers and institutes, hospitals and care facilities, Federal laboratories, and community-based research facilit ies) were gathered in this committee to discuss issues relevant to promotin g environmental health. The conference and this report focus on the themes of environmental stewardship, sustainable development and "best greening pr actices." Environmental stewardship, an emerging theme within and outside t he biomedical community, symbolizes the effort to provide an integrated, sy nthesized, and concerted effort to protect the health of the environment in both the present and the future. The primary goal established by the commi ttee is to promote environmentally responsible leadership in the biomedical research community. Key outcomes of the committee's discussion and deliber ation were a) the need for a central organization to evaluate, promote, and oversee efforts in environmental stewardship; and b) immediate need to fac ilitate efficient information transfer relevant to protecting the global en vironment through a database/clearinghouse. Means to fulfill these needs ar e discussed in this report.