Accomplishments:
Impact on Regional Environmental Analysis and Public Health Programs

While the majority of our training efforts have been focused on Uruguay, we have from the start of this Center endeavored to create a truly regional program so have also tried to encourage collaborative interactions with the countries bordering on Uruguay----Argentina and Brazil---and with the other major countries in the area, Chile and Peru. In the ideal, we hope that Montevideo will eventually become a major center for affordable and attractive regional training, in Spanish, in environmental monitoring and public health. This process seems to be occurring, as demonstrated in the Table below. Especially worthy of note are the Programs that have become technically and financially self-sustaining; these will continue without additional FIC support, and are currently recognized as important components of local public health efforts.

Impact on Regional Environmental Analysis and Public Health Programs

Disease or Condition	Partner	Impact	Is Program Now Self-Sustaining?	Methodology Used
Hydatid Cyst Disease	WHO, PAHO	Regional network for standardization of hydatid disease immunodiagnosis, that provides consultancy and reference diagnostic reagents to PAHO control program.	Partially	ELISA
Tricothecene Toxins in Grain (e.g., DON)	Uruguayan Bread and Wheat Processing Industry	Training of Uruguayan Health Authorities, and private industry personal in IA for mycotoxins. Local development of IA.	YES (self-funded by Uruguayan grain processing industry)	ELISA
Pesticides in Groundwater	Province of Montevideo (IMM)	Transfer of IA technology for pesticide analysis to the IMM for regular monitoring. First survey of pesticides in ground water in Montevideo.	YES	ELISA/Instrumental Analysis
Dioxins in sediments and soil	Province of Montevideo (IMM), National Environmental Agency	Affordable IAs for dioxin from UC Davis, were validated and instrumented in the IMM lab for regular monitoring.	YES	ELISA/Instrumental Analysis
Algal Toxins (Microcystins) in Rio de la Plata	Uruguayan Government, FREPLATA (an NGO)	Local development and regional training for analysis of these toxins.	Partially	ELISA
Infant Diarrhea from Contaminated Drinking Water	University of Salta, Argentina INIQUI-CONICET	Transfer and development of sensitive PCR methods to improve the capacity to monitor drinking water safety in Salta Province.	NO, but grants applied for	RT-PCR AND PCR
Postgraduate Programs in Environment, Toxicology, Health, etc.	University of Salta, Argentina INIQUI-CONICET		Partially	Distance learning
Disinfection of Water using ultrafiltration	University of Salta, Argentina INIQUI-CONICET		Partially	Microbiological methods and PCR ELISA
Toxins in Fish in Human Food Chain	Brazilian Universities (Bahia, Sao Paulo)	A pilot study, growing out of the Santiago regional meeting (2004), to use ELISA to estimate human consumption of toxins from fish in a primitive area.	NO, pilot study	ELISA
Stimulated Phase-out of Leaded Gasoline in 2004 in Uruguay	Michael P. Walsh, Consultant, UdelaR, Uruguayan Government, and FIC	FIC sponsored a major workshop in Montevideo for academics, government agency personnel, refinery management, and a visiting expert, Dr. Walsh, to encourage this process.	YES	Replacement With MTBE

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