The organizing committees are putting together an exciting and informative scientific and social program for us, covering all the fields and topics we have come to expect from an ICADTS conference. In 2007, we will be meeting jointly with the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists (TIAFT), which offers additional opportunities for joint sessions and activities.
The conference will start on Sunday August 26th, 2007, with day long special sessions and workshops on topics including Drug and DUI courts, Field Impairment Testing, Analytical Toxicology, and the Annual Alcohol Ignition Interlock Symposium. The ICADTS workgroups will also meet on Sunday for work sessions. Each day of the conference will start with featured presentations from top U.S. and international policy leaders and opinion makers in the field of alcohol, drugs and driving, followed by our usual high quality scientific sessions featuring both oral and poster presentations. Our scientific program co-chairs, Doug Bierness, Michael Walsh, Jørg Mørland and Dan Isenschmid would welcome your submissions of papers, or suggestions for special topics. They can be contacted through our web site at www.t2007.org. We also have an outstanding social program. On Tuesday afternoon we will take a break from our hard work for tours of local sights and attractions including the choice of a city tour, a visit to the Boeing airplane factory, and a local attractions tour including a stop at a local winery. We will be offering additional tours through the week for spouses and accompanying persons, and options for post conference tours and sightseeing through a local tour company. Our social program also includes a farewell banquet with Northwest food and drink, and receptions at the Seattle Museum of Flight, and Seattle Art Museum.
We are working to keep registration costs down, and will offer special rates for early registration, student attendees and young scientists, and developing country delegates. See the web site for details at www.T2007.org. Be sure to mark your calendars and make plans to submit your papers, and join us in Seattle in 2007!
New officers have been elected by the members of ICADTS. The new officers assumed their positions at an Executive Board meeting in Berlin, Germany on May 6, 2006. Four of the Board positions carry forward from the last election. Ralph Hingson of the USA becomes President. Asbjørg Christophersen of Norway becomes Secretary. Barry Logan of the USA becomes Treasurer and Han de Gier of The Netherlands becomes Past President, with duties as chair of the Award, Membership and Nominating Committees. Wolf-Rüdiger Nickel of Germany was elected President-elect. Jan Ramaekers of The Netherlands was elected Assistant Treasurer and Jean Shope of the USA, Assistant Secretary. David Shinar of Israel and Philip Swann of Australia were elected Executive Board members-at-large. Richard Compton and Sue Ferguson of the USA continue their terms as Board members for three more years.
Newly elected Board members-at-large will serve 6-year terms. All other officials will serve for three years in their new positions. Sixty one percent of the dues paying members participated in the election, conducted by the ICADTS Nominating Committee.
Leaving the Executive Board after many years of service to ICADTS are Barry Sweedler of the USA (Past President), Mary Sheehan of Australia (Treasurer), Dan Mayhew of Canada (Secretary) and Inger Marie Bernholt of Denmark and Günter Berghaus of Germany (Members-at-large).
Outgoing President Han de Gier gave a farewell presentation at a miniseminar held by ICADTS. His presentation, Drugs other than alcohol and driving: what have we learned after 25 years of research, is posted on the ICADTS website. The other presentation from the miniseminar will be posted at a later date.
The International Traffic Medicine Association will be holding its 20th World Congress in Melbourne, Australia from the 16th to the 18th of October, 2006. The ITMA was formed over 40 years ago with the aims of furthering the then nascent discipline of Traffic Medicine. Since that time the world has seen a great number of advances in traffic safety, many of which began with discussions in the field of traffic medicine.
The ITMA congress will be of interest not only to medical practitioners but to a wide range of professionals involved in road safety, transportation and crash investigation. These include doctors, police, engineers, researchers, lawyers, policy makers and many others. Subjects that will be covered include: hospital and emergency care of traffic crash victims, management of multiple trauma, engineering aspects of traffic crash prevention, traffic crash reconstruction and interpretation, forensic aspects of traffic crashes, alcohol, drugs and driving, driver and passenger safety, driver assessment and testing, older drivers, education and research, public health and policy aspects of traffic crashes, and traffic law enforcement.
There will be a session on the second day entirely devoted to drugged driving. This will feature presentations on detection, analysis and assessment of drug effects as well as an overview of the Victorian screening program using saliva testing.
The congress will be held at the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria congress centre in mid springtime, when Melbourne and many other parts of Australia are at their most beautiful. It is a perfect opportunity to visit this great country and improve your knowledge of traffic safety related subjects at the same time! Please visit the congress website at www.trafficmedicine.org for further information.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism have released a guide to sentencing driving while intoxicated (DWI) offenders. The guide is based on more than 30 years of research on the effectiveness of sanctions for impaired-driving offenders. In addition to sanctions, the guide also covers issues associated with alcohol involvement in fatal crashes, treatment approaches and characteristics, DWI courts, and screening and brief interventions. The guide also includes a DWI sentencing checklist. The guide can be viewed at: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/alcohol/dwioffenders/.
The proceedings from the 6th Annual Ignition Interlock Symposium held in Annecy, France in September 2005 are now available. Under the theme, A Global Perspective, discussion focused on the development and expansion of interlock programs internationally.
More than 90 delegates representing 12 countries attended this symposium. Delegates truly gained "A Global Perspective" during the diverse sessions that featured: research on first and repeat offenders and criterion-based program features, developing programs and advancements in ongoing programs delivered from several countries, and emerging technologies that included presentations from Saab and Volvo. Sponsors of the conference included Alcohol Countermeasure Systems, Dräger Safety Diagnostics, Inc., LifeSafer Interlock, Inc., Smart Start, Inc., Monitech, Inc., the International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (ICADTS), and the Centre d'Études et de Recherches en Médecine du Trafic.
Visit www.trafficinjuryresearch.com to view and downland the 6th Annual Ignition Interlock Symposium proceedings in PDF format.
The 44th scientific meeting of the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists (TIAFT) will be held in Ljubljana, Slovenia in the Cankarjev Dom Congress Centre and in the main building of the Medical Faculty from August 27 to September 1, 2006. Topics to be covered include: behavioral toxicology (alcohol, drugs, traffic safety); occupational and environmental toxicology; workplace drug testing and doping control; drug abuse; postmortem toxicology; clinical forensic toxicology; toxins, herbals and venoms; analytical methods; alternative specimens; and quality assurance and accreditation.
An additional symposium on Medicinal Drugs and Human Performance is scheduled for September 1. The aims of the symposium are: 1) to inform pharmacists, doctors and general public in Slovenia about the problem of medicinal drugs and human performance (in connection with driving, workplace duties), for more safe and properly use of medicinal drugs, 2) to establish a better communication: physician-pharmacist-patients (medicinal drug consumer), 3) to establish an educational program for health professionals (prescribing and dispensing medicinal drugs) which could be adopted and executed also in other European and non-European countries, 4) the exchange of information contributing to the improvement of labeling and the categorization system of medicinal drugs. ICADTS member Majda Zorec Karlovšek is serving as Chairperson of the TIAFT Organizing Committee. Visit www.tiaft2006.org, for information about the meeting and the symposium.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has released guidelines designed to provide law enforcement agencies with a uniform and successful method to plan, operate, and evaluate low-staffing sobriety checkpoints. According to NHTSA, when implemented in conjunction with departmental policy and constraints imposed by State or local courts, low-staffing sobriety checkpoints provide an effective tool to combat the impaired driving problem. The guidelines can be viewed at: www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/enforce/LowStaffing_Checkpoints/index.htm.
A new study by E. Desapriya, I. Pike and P. Raina compared the injury severity and vehicle damage severity rates of alcohol-related crashes with rates of non-alcohol-related crashes in British Columbia (BC). Injury severity rates and vehicle damage severity rates were taken from 2002 Insurance Corporation of British Columbia traffic collision data. Risk of injury collision was increased for those drinking and driving compared with those driving sober (Odds ratio 1.32). Importantly, the risk of vehicle damage severity was increased for those drinking and driving compared with those driving sober. The study reinforces existing literatureshowing an increased risk of injury and fatality to drivers and occupants in alcohol-related crashes. This paper not only emphasizes this well-known relationship, but also such consequences as increased vehicle damage severity. The connection between drinking and severity of motor vehicle crashes is popularly believed and has now received substantial scientific support. There is strong justification for injury prevention experts and policy-makers to step up motor vehicle crash injury prevention advocacy by implementing evidence-based policies to reduce rates of alcohol-impaired driving in the province of BC. Most unintentional injuries in BC are related to motor vehicle crashes. Significant improvements can be made in these statistics by: increasing the use of occupant protection (safety belt and child restraint seats); reducing alcohol-related injuries through multiple strategies including corrections in the physical environment, extensive enforcement of drinking and driving laws and health promotion/education.
The study appeared in the International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion, Vol. 13, No. 2, June 2006, 89 - 94.
A recently published book, Injury and Violence Prevention, Behavioral Science Theories, Methods, and Applications, includes a chapter on Modifying Alcohol Use to Reduce Motor Vehicle Injury. It was written by new ICADTS President Ralph Hingson and David A. Sleet.
The book, edited by Andrea Carlson Gielen, David Sleet, and Ralph Diclemente, points out that until recently, injury prevention science has primarily focused on product development and environmental engineering, which has led to a significant decrease in injuries. Products such as seat belts, child safety seats, bicycle helmets, smoke alarms and others have played a major role in reduced morbidity and mortality due to injury. The promotion of safety legislation and regulations have also had a significant impact. It is pointed out that most injuries have a behavioral component and are therefore preventable. One implication is the need for behavioral scientists to play a greater role in developing the science of injury prevention.
The book challenges researchers in human behavior to test some of the injury control theories of William Haddon and health education theories of Mayhew Derryberry. It suggests that the real challenge is to demonstrate the usefulness of theory in designing, developing and evaluating the effectiveness of injury prevention behavior change interventions. The book includes sections on behavior change theories and models, research and assessment methods for behavior change interventions, behavior change interventions to reduce injury risk, and a section on cross-cutting issues.
The chapter on modifying alcohol use to reduce motor vehicle injury includes sections on BAC and fatal crash involvement, characteristics of alcohol-related fatalities and fatal crashes, and interventions to reduce alcohol-related crashes. The book was published by Jossey-Bass (ISBN-13: 978-0-7879-7764-1).
A study conducted by Ingebjørg Gustavsen, Jørg Mørland and Jørgen G. Bramness of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Division of Forensic Toxicology and Drug Abuse, investigated the concentration-effect relationship between blood amphetamines concentrations and impairment in a population of real-life users. Experimental studies have investigated effects of low oral doses of amphetamine and methamphetamine on psychomotor functions, while less work has been done on effects of high doses taken by abusers in real-life settings. There are indications that intake of high doses may impair traffic related skills, and that abuse of amphetamines may cause hypersomnolence at the end-of-binge. Eight hundred and seventy-eight cases with amphetamine or methamphetamine as the only drugs present in the blood samples were selected from the impaired driver registry at The Norwegian Institute of Public Health. In each case the police physician had concluded on whether the driver was impaired or not. 27% of the drivers were judged as not impaired, while 73% were judged as impaired. There was a positive relationship between blood amphetamines concentrations and impairment. The relationship reached a ceiling at blood amphetamines concentrations of 0.27- 0.53mg/l. Younger drivers were more often judged impaired than older drivers at similar concentrations.
Despite the performance enhancing qualities of amphetamines demonstrated in some low dose laboratory experiments; this study revealed a positive relationship between blood amphetamines concentration and traffic related impairment. The study was published in Accident Analysis and Prevention, Volume 38, Issue 3, May 2006, pages 490-495.
A study by Hsin-Li Chang, T. Hugh Woo and Chien-Ming Tseng of the Department of Transportation Technology and Management, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, ROC investigated the effectiveness of administrative lifetime driver's license revocation (ALLR) and its impact on offenders, based on a two-stage survey of 768 offenders. It was found that after ALLR had been imposed, 23.4% of these offenders were still driving almost the same as before, 59.8% drove significantly less frequently, and only 16.8% of the offenders gave up driving completely. The results of logistic regression models showed that offenders' compliance with ALLR was significantly correlated with their personal characteristics (age, income), penalty status (incarceration, duration of ALLR), and the need to drive for working, commuting and shopping. Elderly and low-income offenders were more likely to abide by the ALLR restriction. Analysis found that ALLR is fairly effective in keeping offenders off the road, but that it may reduce their ability to make a living, resulting in the less fortunate becoming more helpless. The study appeared in Accident Analysis & Prevention, Volume 38, Issue 2, March 2006, Pages 269-276.
The TRB Circular, Drugs and Traffic from the U.S. Transportation Research Board Committee on Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Transportation is now available on the TRB website at: http://www.trb.org/publications/circulars/ec096.pdf The Circular includes background papers and a summary of discussions from the June 2005 international workshop on that topic conducted at the Academy of Sciences conference center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA . The Circular was edited by Committee Chair Kathryn Stewart. The workshop provided an opportunity for researchers from various areas of traffic safety and drug research from around the world to summarize and synthesize the current state of knowledge regarding drugs in traffic, including several important topics, such as the risks posed by drugs in traffic, the effects of drugs, medicinal drugs, the legal framework, and enforcement. The workshop was made possible by support and sponsorship of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse and Transport Canada. ICADTS was also a sponsor.
A study by T.F. Nelson, E.R. Weitzman and H. Wechsler of the Harvard School of Public Health evaluates the effect on drinking and driving outcomes of the A Matter of Degree (AMOD) program, a campus-community coalition initiative to reduce college binge drinking. The researchers compared student responses at 10 colleges participating in the program and students attending 32 similar colleges that did not participate in the program. They also divided the program sites into two groups of five according to their level of program implementation and compared each with the non-program colleges. They examined driving after any alcohol consumption and driving after five or more drinks among drinkers who drove one or more times a week per month and riding with a high or drunk driver among all students at these colleges beginning in 1997 through 2001. Significant reductions were found in driving after drinking, driving after five or more drinks and riding with a high or drunk driver at the program colleges relative to the comparison colleges. Further analyses indicated that these reductions among the AMOD program colleges occurred at the sites with high program implementation relative to comparison sites, while no statistically significant change was noted at the program sites with low implementation. The program effect on the two drinking and driving outcomes appeared to be mediated by frequent binge drinking, while significant decline in the riding with an intoxicated driver outcome was not mediated by the individual's drinking. The researchers concluded that campus-community based environmental alcohol prevention is a promising approach for reducing alcohol-impaired motor vehicle crashes among this population. The study was published in Traffic Injury Prevention, Volume 6, No. 4, 2005, pages 323-30.
August 27 - September 1, 2006
44th Meeting of the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists - Ljubljana, Slovenia
A satellite symposium on Medicinal Drugs and Human Performance will take place on September 1.
Visit www.tiaft2006.org for information on the meeting and symposium.
October 16-18, 2006
20th World Congress of the International Traffic Medicine Association - Melbourne, Australia
Visit www.trafficmedicine.org for information.
October 22-25, 2006
7th International Annual Interlock Symposium - Beaver creek, Colorado, USA
Visit www.ignitioninterlocksymposium.com for information.
December 3-8, 2006
The Robert F. Borkenstein Course on Alcohol and Highway Safety: Testing, Research and Litigation
Contact: Center for Studies of Law in Action, Indiana Univ. Tel: 812-855-1783, Fax: 812-855-7542, Email: dlindsay@indiana.edu. Visit www.indiana.edu/~lawactn for information.
August 26-31, 2007
T'2007 - 18th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety - Seattle, Washington, United States
Sponsored by ICADTS and The International Association of Forensic Toxicologists.
Visit www.ICADTS2007.org for info.