Anderson

ECU environmental health professor Alice Anderson (right) poses with Maj. Gen. Zhu Chenghu, who spoke on China’s defense policy in the context of global security, at the Workshop on China’s Perspective on Global Security. Anderson enjoyed visits to sites such as the Great Wall of China and Tiananmen Square. (Contributed photo)

Bioterrorism Focus of Travel

By Erica Plouffe Lazure

An East Carolina University environmental health professor visited China in June to gain an international perspective on the burgeoning threat of bioterrorism. Alice Anderson, who teaches in ECU’s College of Health and Human Performance, said she learned about the complex issues facing global security during her weeklong visit.

“Energy security, maritime issues and radiation security in arms control are all parts of the agenda at this conference, taught by Chinese scholars and government experts,” Anderson said.

“These topics all involve an environmental health component, and I learned how another country with such a huge population looks at ways to protect their citizens from threats to human health via bioterrorist acts.”

Anderson attended the Workshop on China’s Perspective on Global Security at China Foreign Affairs University with the help of ECU’s Center for Security Studies. The conference examined emerging security issues, disease control, transnational crime and international policy issues.

Anderson, who is a member of a Centers for Disease Control Taskforce for leadership in all hazards-response, plans to take what she learns in both China and a CDC conference held in July in Louisville, Ky., to enhance the multidisciplinary continuing education curriculum now in the works.

“I was extremely excited to be representing the ECU Security Studies and Research Center on this mission to learn non-traditional ways of managing threats to human health and well-being,” she said.

During her visit to China, Anderson created a web log. Her dispatches and additional photographs are available at http://www.ecu.edu/cs-admin/news/releases/2005/06/062005andersonblog.cfm .

1/22/07

This page originally appeared in the July 15, 2005 issue of Pieces of Eight. Complete issue is archived at http://www.ecu.edu/news/poe/archives.cfm.