The Municipal Institute of Medical Research is a public centre focused on scientific research in Biomedicine and Health Science fields, as well as on the training of highly qualified researchers in these fields. The members participating in this research come from the Respiratory and Environmental Health Research Unit of FIMIM. A number of European and Spanish projects are being coordinated from this Unit, mainly focused on environmental factors affecting human health, and aetiology of respiratory diseases. The participants have been involved in projects on disinfection by-products and other drinking water pollutants in relation to bladder cancer, respiratory health and adverse effects on reproduction.
Professor Manolis Kogevinas, MD, PhD, is an epidemiologist at the Respiratory and Environmental Health Research Unit of FIMIM. He is the coordinator of large multicentre epidemiological studies on environmental causes of asthma and genetics in cancer, and has been coordinating the efforts for the harmonisation of research in birth cohorts in the EU. He was the Chairperson in the recent IARC Monograph on disinfection by products and Cancer (IARC 2004). Dr. Cristina Villanueva, PhD is an environmental epidemiologist at the Respiratory and Environmental Health Research Unit of FIMIM. Her main research field has been the assessment of the potential health effects related to the exposure to disinfection by-products and other drinking water pollutants. Her activities have included design of studies, exposure assessment and statistical analysis of data to evaluate risks such as bladder cancer and adverse birth outcomes.
This partner will participate in WP3.4, in which capacity it will be involved in all tasks involving evaluation of effects on human health: review of the health literature on the possible adverse and beneficial effects of substances in water; modelling of exposure and ingestion data, systematic review, meta-analysis or pooled analysis of the epidemiological and toxicological data to obtain exposure response relationships; and estimating the health impact by combining the exposure and health data.
