Dr Tushar Kant Joshi, director of the Centre for occupational and environmental health at Lok Nayak Hospital, Delhi has been awarded Research Integrity Award by International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) for 2003.

The International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) has voted him to be the recipient of the award. He is the only Indian to have won this award. He is a confirmed anti-asbestos and anti-incineration campaigner.

Dr T K Joshi is a B.Sc., MBBS, MS (Surgery), M.Sc. Occupational Medicine (London University) and has Certificate in Environmental Medicine (University of California, San Francisco), DLSHTM (UK).

The award is presented in Perth, Western Australia at the Annual Meeting of the the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology. ISEE is currently headed by Irva Hertz-Picciotto, who is the President of ISEE. Picciotto is a Professor at Department of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine, University of California, Davis Davis, USA.

This award was established to honor environmental epidemiologists who have withstood outside pressures and maintained the integrity of the field, in particular to "recognize those who have remained true to the core values of the profession by maintaining objectivity in protecting the public health interest above any other interest."

The ISEE Council has established a Research Integrity Award to recognize those who have remained true to the core values of the profession by maintaining objectivity in protecting the public health interest above any other interest. This Award is made periodically at the discretion of the ISEE Council and with acceptance of the awardee.

The ISEE provides a forum for the discussion of problems unique to the study of health and the environment. With membership open to environmental epidemiologists and other scientists worldwide, it provides a variety of forums for discussions, critical reviews, collaborations and education on issues of environmental exposures and their human health effects. Its current membership stands at 850 with members coming from 60 countries.

It fosters the study of health and the environment, ISEE encourages and supports: Epidemiological studies on the health effects of environmental exposures, Communication among epidemiologists, toxicologists, exposure analysts, and other environmental scientists and moral philosophers worldwide, Innovative approaches to substantive or methodologic problems and applications of environmental epidemiology, The use of environmental epidemiology to inform public policy, Involvement of scientists from developing countries in ISEE activities, reduced dues for members from developing countries and establishment of regional ISEE chapters throughout the developing world.

The ISEE is in the process of drafting a set of ethics guidelines for professionals in environmental epidemiology. As its starting point, a sub-committee of the ISEE Standing Committee on Ethics and Philosophy is using the already published paper entitled: "Towards ethics guidelines for environmental epidemiologists", which appeared in the Special Issue of The Science of the Total Environment (STOTEN) (Volume 184, Nos 1,2, 17 May 1996; pp.137-147). The title of the Special Issue is: "Ethical and philosophical issues in environmental epidemiology".

The field of environmental epidemiology often touches on issues that have policy implications. Thus, our research may affect or be perceived to affect parties with vested interests, either social or financial. For these reasons, epidemiologists may be subjected to pressures that run counter to the goals of scientific endeavors designed to provide understanding of the environmental influences on human health.

In this context, The ISEE Research Integrity Award has been established to honor environmental epidemiologists who protect public health above any other interest. Researchers who have demonstrated exceptional integrity in withstanding pressures contrary to the profession’s core value of protecting public health are eligible. The Award recognizes a researcher who withstands unusual pressure to distort, suppress or modify her/his line of inquiry, findings and/or their interpretation.

The Award recognizes environmental epidemiologists demonstrating integrity in the face of unusual pressure from special interests to: (1) not conduct an investigation of a sensitive issue; or (2) suppress the publication of results unwanted by an entity with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo; or (3) alter the results and interpretation of a study to better suit a position held by a vested interest.

Dr. Joshi was a visiting research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and returned to India to develop the field of environmental and occupational health. He was appointed as head of ICMR's Occupational Health Research Centre at Bangalore but opted to set up country's first teaching hospital based centre for occupational and environmental health at Lok Nayak Hospital as a National Consultant for World Health Organization, the only Indian centre mentioned in the Encyclopedia of Occupational Health and Safety published by the International Labour Office, Geneva.

He is currently consultant and a project director of the centre, making it internationally known within a span of three years by having collaboration with the University of Queensland and Berkeley, and World Health Organization. For these efforts, Collegium Ramazzini in Italy elected him a fellow in year 2001, an honour not conferred on any other Indian physician till this day. The fellowship is restricted to a mere 180 scholars, which includes some of the finest scientists in environmental and occupational health. He is the only Indian to be a fellow of the Collegium.

Dr. Joshi has conducted several international training workshops with Berkeley and Queensland, universities to train physicians in environmental health, as the country has no institution in this area. Dr Joshi is trying to develop the centre at Lok Nayak Hospital in to an international centre of excellence and has been assured support by the University of Harvard and others.

The union ministry of environment and forests, asked Dr. Joshi and a handful of scientists to evolve an 'Environmental Health Action Plan for India" in year 2000. He is member of the research advisory group of this ministry, and his centre at Lok Nayak is one of the few centres chosen to train physicians and scientists in the area of environmental health.

He is currently undertaking research on the 'health effects of benzene exposure in Delhi', a project funded by WHO. He advises Central Pollution Control Board and is an expert member in many of its committees. He is examiner for graduate, at Delhi University, for postgraduates at Sardar Patel University and for Ph.D. at JNU.

He is on the advisory board of international and national journals, has published papers in national and international journals, presented papers in national and international conferences, lectured extensively, advised NGOs, guided students in their thesis, taught post graduate students at National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, and Delhi University students, and has travelled extensively all over the world.

His centre at Lok Nayak Hospital is now nationally known for training in Bio Medical Waste and has trained nearly 4500 physicians and other healthcare workers. Dr Joshi has established bio medical waste as an academic discipline, and has played a significant role in stream lining medical waste management in Delhi govt. hospitals, which was in a sorry state in 1998 before he took over. He has been part of the efforts by civil society organisations like Srishti which specialises on Bio Medical Waste Management.

Dr. Joshi is the only member from India in the international organizing committee for a major conference on Pesticides to be held at the National Institute of Health, Washington in July 2002, to which he has been invited. The Centre for occupational and environmental health at Lok Nayak Hospital was set up in 1995 on the recommendation of an expert committee, which included some of the leading experts in government and private sector.

The centre, which began as a clinic, was headed from the beginning by TK Joshi who returned to India from UK where he was a visiting research fellow at the famed London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. This centre was the first centre on occupational and environmental health that has now become a leading national centre in the area of bio medical waste management, a national environmental health problem of infinite magnitude.

Before Dr. Joshi took over the subject, as no other medical or public health person wanted to touch it, the state of medical waste management in all Delhi govt. hospitals was in shambles. He was instrumental in developing a policy, and a plan on medical waste management with Australian experts for Delhi government hospitals in 1999. This policy has now been re-cast and another action plan drawn by him along with the training plan, to train nearly 15,000 physicians, nurses, and paramedics. (The action plan and the training plan are enclosed).

Countries like India which are grappling with the problem of air and water pollution and growing exposures to hazardous wastes, are in desperate need of environmental health centres to be able to train the next generation of physicians due to the growing magnitude of environmental degradation with consequent damage to human health. The present medical training does not include such topics and the country needs such expertise urgently which is scarce even in the advanced countries. Continuance of Dr. Joshi is vital for the effective implementation of the policy of the govt. of NCT Delhi, which is committed to a clean environment and protection human health. He has conducted several training work shops with Australian and US experts to train many scientists and physicians and will continue to do so if give an opportunity.

Dr. Joshi's presence is also vital for the ongoing research that he is doing for the ministry of environment and forests on the 'health effects of benzene' being funded by the World Health Organization. He has launched projects on the eye injuries with GNEC, and in working to launch a "National Programme on Hearing Conservation' with the dept. of ENT. He is being asked by universities such as Harvard for massive research projects running in to millions of dollars due to the image he created for the department.

It will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to replace Dr. Joshi, and in his absence the entire environmental health programme of the govt. of NCT Delhi which he struggled to create. `might simply collapse. The continuance of Dr. Joshi is in the interest of the dept. of health, the govt. of NCT Delhi and above all in the interest of the people of the country.

Kudos to Dr Joshi and congratulations!