The Unit of Industrial Toxicology and Occupational Medicine of the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium has been active in the field of occupational and environmental health since the 1970s. The unit has carried out numerous experimental, clinical or epidemiological studies on the health risks of industrial or environmental pollutants having as principal target organs the kidney, the SNC or the respiratory systems. UCL has the qualifications and technical facilities to monitor the principal pollutants in ambient air, soil or biological samples such as urine, blood or alveolar air, and has access to a large battery of biomarkers measurable in urine or serum to detect early toxic effects on major target organs such as the kidney and the lung. UCL has been a pioneer in the development of non invasive renal and lung biomarkers (e.g. RBP, CC16) and in their application in epidemiology and in the health surveillance of occupationally exposed populations. Current research activities of UCL are focused on the respiratory effects of indoor or outdoor air pollutants, especially in children as well as on the health risks of heavy metals or dioxins/PCBs. UCL has also a long experience in the coordination of EU research projects and is actively participating to several international research projects with the support of various organizations (EU, NIH etc).

Alfred Bernard is Research Director of the National Fund for Scientific Research, Belgium and Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. Recipient of several awards including the "Health & Enterprise Award" (1989 and 1994) and the René Barthe International Award ( Stockholm, 1996), he is the author or co-author of more than 300 publications in international peer-reviewed journals or books, many in high-ranked journals. He is owner of two patents, a member of several international scientific committees (e.g. SCOT-ICOH) and of the Editorial board of several journals (e.g. Biomarkers, International Journal of Toxicology) and coordinator of two EU projects under FP4 (PNEUMO-NEPHROTOX, CT-96-171; BIOART, ERB IC15-CT98-0336) and one under FP5 (HELIOS, QLK4-CT99-1308). He coordinated the CLARA project in the French PRIMEQUAL programme (96-99) and numerous projects for the Federal and Regional Governments in Belgium in the fields of dioxins, heavy metals, traffic air pollution, chloramines, and biomarkers. Under FP4 and FP5, he acted as a partner in projects on environmental pollution (ULTRA, AIRNET, Cadmium in China), and was a partner in a NIH project on COPD (2002-2006). He is a temporary adviser for WHO (Air Quality Guidelines and CAFE program) and an expert in the evaluation of proposals submitted to EU research programmes (FP3, FP4 and FP5) and the INTAS programme. He has acted as an expert for several organizations in the USA, Canada and Europe and been an invited speaker and chairman at more than 25 international conferences during the last five years ( South Africa, Brazil, USA, Europe, Japan, Thailand, China etc).

UCL will be involved in WP 2.2 (biomarkers), WP 3.4 (water) and WP 3.6 (waste), with activities dealing mainly with the epidemiological application of biomarkers to assess exposure and detect early effects of toxic substances.