Symposium 5: Environmental Pharmacology: Global Perspectives and Matters Arising
Tracks
Track 5
| Tuesday, July 14, 2026 |
| 11:15 AM - 1:15 PM |
Details
Environmental Pharmacology is the study of chemical effects on living systems and the ecosystem encompassing a wide range of substances like pharmaceutical and hospital wastes, industrial chemicals, pesticides, herbicides e.t.c. These effects include extinction of living organisms, imbalance in ecosystems, diseases of diverse aetiologies and antimicrobial resistances e.t.c.
Efforts from different parts of the world to establish regulatory frameworks in this respect varies in scope and successes and the effects of these agents on the ecosystem may continue unnoticed and the impacts speculative and unmeasured.
Similarly, climate change and particularly heat waves do not only have an influence on human (and animal) health, but also on drug effects. Whereas high temperatures may change effectiveness, an increase of side effects has to be expected particularly in vulnerable populations, e.g. in older adults.
The symposium therefore aims at identifying the successes achieved globally, the existing gaps and opportunities to inform future directions.
Speaker
Prof. Dr. Petra Thürmann
Chair
University Witten/Herdecke
Drugs, heat and old age
Biography
Prof. Dr. Petra A. Thürmann, MD, is Director of the Philipp Klee-Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Helios University Clinic Wuppertal, Germany. Since 2021 she is Vice-President of the University of Witten/Herdecke.
After studies of Medicine at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt/Main she received a board certified specialist’s degree in Clinical Pharmacology in 1992 and PhD (Habilitation) in 1997. In 1997 appointment at the HELIOS University Clinic in Wuppertal and 1998 at the University of Witten/Herdecke.
Petra Thürmann was member of the Executive Committee of IUPHAR between 2004 and 2018. She is member of the Drug Commission of the German Medical Association, served from to 2011 until 2023 at the Advisory Council on the Assessment of Developments in the Health Care System (German Ministry of Health) and belongs since 2023 to the Expert Advisory Council “Health and Resilience” of the Federal Government of Germany.
Her research interest is focused on geriatric pharmacotherapy (e.g. PRISCUS list), drug therapy safety as well as gender medicine.
Session chair
Lars Gustafsson
Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital
Celia Matyanga
University of Zimbabwe
