Through the years the TEMA meetings have become noted for an informality that encourages free exchange of criticism in a field of work somewhat noted for its controversy. It is for this reason that many of us place so much value on the recorded discussions of our meetings that effectively monitor the scientific standards of its contributions without engendering the injured isolation that sometimes follows such exposure to differing ideas.

This free exchange of data and ideas has contributed very substantially to a much wider understanding of the significant roles of cobalt, copper, iodine, zinc, selenium and chromium deficiencies in the health and productivity of farm animals. Although we have realised for many years that deficits of iron and iodine were of pre-eminent importance for human well-being, it has taken recent failures in humanitarian relief policies to awaken a much wider practical interest in the importance of the essential trace elements for human health. While this has posed many diagnostic problems for which we still lack solutions, the frequency with which the micronutrient deficiencies are invoked to explain failures in humanitarian relief programmes is its own testimony to the urgent need for studies in this field. That TEMA is playing its part is fully evident from the list of consultants acknowledged in the recent World Health Organisation publication Trace Elements in Human Nutrition and Health.”