RiskManche: European scientific research project.
Objectives: to further integrate cross-border research and practice in the field of water-related disease control in the France (Channel)-England Region.
In the RiskManche project, with support of the inter-regional European program INTER-REG IV A, the EHESP, High School of Public Health in Rennes (France), is member of a research consortium for the risk analysis about shellfisheries and food safety.
The partnership between both sides of the channel is a major strength of the project RiskManche: on the French coast, with INFREMER based in Brest, the geosciences institute of CNRS in Rennes, the University of Caen and EHESP School of Public Health in Rennes, and on the British side the University of Brighton, the UK Environment Agency, and a scientific research institute of shellfisheries and aquaculture science in Weymouth (CEFAS).
The cross-border consortium aims to improve knowledge on the risk induced by the presence of hazards in rivers, marine waters and shellfish in the Region through the identification and enumeration of viruses, bacteria in shellfishes. One of the main objectives of the project is to study the influence of agricultural, urban and industrial activities on the microbial and chemical contamination of shellfish and to find indicators to identify the source of pollution.
That is the reason why the department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Sanitary Engineering in EHESP, in collaboration with the University of Brighton, will lead a structured cross-border risk perception analysis with numerous stakeholders (from producers to consumers) and a communication process (seminars and conferences). In the social, cultural and political context of both those regions, health risk for the local population is known and established, but cannot be quantified. The research of the EHESP team consists in analyzing all risk perception variants by stakeholders in different contexts, uses and risk management local practices and options. Public seminars for the dissemination of those analyses will be organized with the aim of promoting a collective and cooperative approach and process of local risk management on both sides of the channel.
Read the description of the project RiskManche (pdf, 131 kb)
Contacts
Cyrille Harpet
Department of environmental and occupational health and sanitary engineering – EHESP
cyrille.harpet@ehesp.fr
Michèle Legeas
Department of environmental and occupational health and sanitary engineering – EHESP
michele.legeas@ehesp.fr