TIAFT2012

WELCOME TO TIAFT2012 IN HAMAMATSU, JAPAN

On behalf of the Organizing Committee of the 50th Annual Meeting of the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists (TIAFT), it is my great pleasure to invite all of you to our meeting to be held in Hamamatsu, Japan.

On 11 March 2011, a big earthquake and resulting tsunami attacked the Pacific Ocean side of the northern Japan district and caused heavy casualties. These disasters also damaged a Fukushima atomic power plant, resulting in leakage of radioactive elements. Just after the occurrence of the disaster, many of you might imagine that the whole Japan islands had been contaminated by high-level radioactivities. This is an exaggeration, and is not true. The contaminated areas were limited to the circular area with about 30-km radius around the power plant. Decontamination is now in progress in these areas. Hamamatsu is located more than 400-km distant from the damaged power plant. We have neither radioactivity contamination nor damages by the earthquake in Hamamatsu. The radioactivity problems at the plant in Fukushima are being settled down step by step by our technology.

We will have the TIAFT2012 meeting jointly with Japanese Association of Forensic Toxicology and also Japanese Society of Legal Medicine, and are expecting that more than 700 people will gather at the TIAFT2012. Especially for young TIAFT members, who have never visited Japan, it will be a good chance to come into contact with a unique culture of Japan, its people and sophisticated industries. We assure you that you will enjoy them in Hamamatsu.

We are sincerely looking forward to seeing all of you at the TIAFT2012 in Hamamatsu.