Environmental Toxicology Program

This program was established in 1988 under the International Centre for Environmental and Industrial Toxicology (ICEIT) and it is now a well recognized program offering training for developing countries primarily in the Asia/Pacific region. The training program comprises a series of training courses/workshops taught by world renowned international experts. ICEHT’s program has trained more than 4,400 trainees from over 32 countries. Representatives from at least 10 developing countries have participated in most of the training activities.

Training courses and workshops at the country level are also organized in selected countries in the Southeast Asian region that have established technical cooperation programs with ICEIT. During 1998-present, in-country training has been organized in Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Justification of local training in certain countries is predicated on the need to train a critical number of personnel to be potential trainers for subsequent training at the national level, to ensure that training is appropriate to existing facilities and implementation mechanisms in each participating country, so that displacement of personnel as well as costs for provision of training are minimized.

The training activities have enabled ICEIT to earn international recognition. In 1990, United Nations Environmental Programme designated ICEIT “UNEP Centre of Excellence in Environmental and Industrial Toxicology” in recognition of the outstanding activities that it has undertaken.

Since its establishment, the program has received support continuously from various sources such as UNDP, the Royal Thai Government’s Department of Technical and Economic Cooperation, Asian Development Bank, United Nations Environment Programme and ASEAN Foundation.

In 2005, as a result of collaboration between CRI and World Health Organization in the area of Health and Environment within the region (SEARO, WPRO), CRI was designated WHO Collaborating Centre for Capacity Building and Research in Environmental Health Science and Toxicology. The name ICEIT has now been changed to International Centre for Environmental Health and Toxicology (ICEHT) in line with the center’s broader mission.