Hello everybody, I am working as a public health physician in the regional public health department for the Laurentian area, north of Montreal. I am involved in quite a few quite diverse public health activities - a situation I suppose to quite common in non-urban public health departments where there are few ressources. On an ongoing basis I am involved in two main areas. The first area are environmental health impact assessments. I am working on all regional environmental impact assessments while doing some research on this topic at the same time. My research topic is focussed on developing the environmental assessment framework in public health in order to move from typical health protection aspects to health promotion. When applied to projects, environmental assessments can be used to work towards healthy and sustainable environments through both the use of rational impact assessment models and health promotion processes like empowerment. When applied to programs, plans and policies, environmental assessments can be used as a tool for healthy public policies. The second area of activities is focused on public health ethics. I am involved in a research group of the Fonds de recherche de sante du Quebec working on a research framework in the area of public health research as well as public health actions like health promotion programs. If anybody in this group is interested in these areas I would like to establish contacts off-line. My main interest and experience in using the Internet for my work in public health is centered on establishing professional contacts and exchanging information. Use of the Internet as a means of public education and advocacy is certainly very promising, but I cannot yet contribute any experiences on this topic. Reading the personal introductions of everyone, I was wondering about the possibilities to store all this information in a WWW site so that one can go back to these valuable information when needed. ............................................................................ Reiner Banken M.D. Medecin-conseil en sante publique Direction regionale de la sante publique des Laurentides 185, rue Durand Saint-Jerome (Quebec) Canada J7Z 2V4 Tel: (514) 436-5669, # 273 Fax: (514) 436-1761 E-mail: [log in to unmask] .............................................................................