The Health Protection Agency is an independent body charged with protecting the health and well-being of everyone in England and Wales. Health protection includes preventing and controlling infectious diseases; reducing the adverse effects of chemical, microbiological and radiological hazards; and preparing for potential or emerging threats. HPA work against radiological hazards is in partnership with the National Radiological Protection Board. The Agency was set up in April 2003 to provide a single specialist organisation on which the National Health Service (NHS) the public, the government, and other bodies can depend for support and advice. HPA expertise is provided by specialist medical, nursing, technical and scientific staff, backed by administrative and support functions in a network of local and regional teams.
HPA Centre for Radiation, Chemicals and Environmental Hazards. The Health Protection Agency provides authoritative scientific and medical advice to the NHS and other bodies about the known health effects of chemicals, poisons and other environmental hazards, both in the event of chemical incidents and in relation to long-term consequences of low level, chronic exposure to chemicals and poisons. This advice covers clinical issues such as antidotes and medical treatment, protective equipment, decontamination, evacuation, and toxicological and epidemiological advice on the likely impact on public health. Guidance is available round-the-clock from medical toxicologists, clinical pharmacologists, environmental scientists, epidemiologists and other specialists. Some staff are based in the Agency’s Chemical Hazards and Poisons Division, which includes four specialist centres in Birmingham, Cardiff, London and Newcastle, and a head office in Chilton, Oxfordshire. Among the services provided are emergency response training and in-depth investigation to determine the impact of chemical contamination. The Agency advises doctors and nurses on the best way to manage patients who have been poisoned through a contract with the National Poisons Information Service (NPIS). From April 2005 the chemical centres of HPA will merge with the National Radiological Protection Board and together they will become the Centre for Radiation, Chemicals, and Environmental Hazards of the HPA.
Dr Giovanni Leonardi is Consultant Environmental Epidemiologist at the Centre. Dr Michael Joffe is Head of Epidemiology. Their responsibility is in relation to the development of surveillance, tracking, and epidemiology programmes for identification and prevention of ill-health attributable to environmental hazards in England and Wales. Dr Leonardi is currently involved in several national and international environmental epidemiology studies, including on chronic exposure to carbon monoxide and neuropsychological outcomes (UK DH funded), on arsenic in drinking water and cancer (ASHRAM, EU funded), as well as studies estimating health impact of choices in industrial activity (Pollution in Urban Environment, EPSRC funded). Dr Joffe is working on several studies on factors affecting human fertility as well as health impact assessment.
HPA will contribute to WP 2.3 (health surveillance) and WP3.5 (Chemicals in household).
