A WORLD-WIDE scientific study into the threats to human and environmental health in coastal areas will come to Bermuda this weekend.

The Atlantis mobile laboratory will make its first stop on a global tour at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research, along with seven travelling scientists.

Researchers, technicians and students will also come to the island, along with their three laboratories, and will work on the project with BBSR faculty members, doing local research and testing over the next two months.

The Atlantis scientists use new, easy-to-use techniques to measure the concentrations and effects of contaminants, natural toxins and pathogens that may threaten public health and the ecosystem. Local senior school students will have a chance to visit with the scientists and get involved in their research, which includes studies of human toxicology, marine ecotoxicology and environmental microbiology.

Bermuda was chosen for the Atlantis programme's first mission because it is an island nation with a well-equipped research station for field support, said Atlantis program organiser Dr. ?ric Dewailly, of Laval University in Qu?bec City.

"BBSR invited us through a grant from the XL Foundation. This grant made it possible for us to bring Atlantis to Bermuda," said Dr. Dewailly.

"Actually, the Atlantis project was conceived after my sabbatical year in 1999, which I spent at BBSR, and through work initiated by Tony Knap (BBSR's director) trying to link ocean and human health. In that sense the idea came from Bermuda and is now returning to the island. It is also a direct activity from BBSR's International Centre for Ocean and Human Health."

BBSR established the International Centre for Ocean and Human Health in 1998. The centre is considered the first of its kind on an international scale to address both the health of the ocean and health from the ocean, for example in the form of nutrients and pharmaceuticals.

Atlantis organisers are also planning an open house at the end of their visit that will allow the public to tour the laboratories, see displays of the students' experiments, and learn the results of the scientists' research. The details of the open house will be announced in November.