Mark Lawrence Zammit starts his term as President of the EAPCCT

Photo 1: Passing of the gavel. Mark Lawrence Zammit (right) President of EAPCCT, being handed the gavel, by the Past-President of EAPCCT Prof. Paul I Dargan, during the EAPCCT Presidency transition, at the 46th EAPCCT Congress held in Vilnius, Lithuania. Professor Paul Dargan, is a leading clinical toxicologist at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London, frequently collaborates with the World Health Organisation to address toxicological outbreaks and chemical exposures. Prof. Dargan helped introduce the WHO Guideline for the Clinical Management of Exposure to Lead, which assist physicians in making decisions about the diagnosis and treatment of lead exposure for individual patients and in mass poisoning incidents.

Mark Lawrence Zammit, Visiting Senior Lecturer, within the Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, has started his term as President of the European Association of Poison Centres and Clinical Toxicologists (EAPCCT) at the EAPCCT General Assembly held on 28 May, 2026 in Vilnius, Lithuania, during the 46th EAPCCT Congress. He was elected to the post two years previously (as President-Elect) during the EAPCCT 2024 congress in Munich, Germany.

The EAPCCT was founded in 1964 by a group of physicians and scientists with the specific goal of advancing knowledge and understanding of the diagnosis and treatment of all forms of poisoning. It is considered one of the foremost scientific associations in the field of clinical toxicology.

Mark Lawrence Zammit has been involved in the field of clinical toxicology for many years and is also a contributor or co-author of important European Medicines Agency and World Health Organisation documents in the field of clinical toxicology and poison centres:

- EMA guidance on the use of medicinal products for treatment in case of exposure to chemical agents used as weapons of terrorism, crime, or warfare

- EMA guidance on the use of medicinal products for treatment and prophylaxis in case of exposure to biological agents used as weapons of terrorism, crime or warfare

- WHO Guidance document: At least one poison centre in each country: summary for policy makers 

- WHO Guidance document: Poison centres as essential unit for poisoning prevention and sound chemicals management: technical summary.

Photo 2: Mark Lawrence Zammit (centre), President of EAPCCT, together with from left to right Prof. Dr Martin F. Wilks, President of the International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX); the Past-President of EAPCCT Prof .Paul I Dargan; Colonel (retired) Prof. Dr Horst Thiermann, past director of the Bundeswehr Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Munich and Professor at Technical University, Munich who played a crucial role in analysing late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny's exposure to a Novichok-type nerve agent in 2020; and Dr Davide Lonati, EAPCCT Treasurer, Clinical Toxicologist at Pavia Poison Control Center and National Toxicology Information Centre, Toxicology Unit, IRCCS Maugeri Pavia, Italy (a world renowned expert on botulism and also a lecturer in the Masters in Pharmacotoxicology programme at the University of Malta) during the EAPCCT 2026 Congress in Vilnius, Lithuania.

He is also a contributor to a seminal guideline in the field published by WHO (Geneva) in 2021: WHO Guidelines for establishing a poison centre .

He has lectured in the field internationally at numerous congresses and workshops around the world as well as at numerous universities including Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa as well as the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany .

He is also an expert on Medical Countermeasures for Chemical Health Threats within the EMA Emergency Task Force of the European Medicines Agency; and the Malta Representative within the WHO European Environment and Health Process (EHP) Partnership on Poison Centres.

He was instrumental in the setting up of the Malta National Poisons Centre, which was officially inaugurated in May, 2024 as well as in developing the Masters in Pharmacotoxicology course within the University of Malta.

His latest research. of which he is corresponding author is a multi-country collaboration on deliberate self-poisoning: Koppen, A., Faber, K., Hondebrink, L., Zammit, M. L., Hermanns-Clausen, M., & Vodovar, D. (2026). Deliberate self-poisoning in four European countries: retrospective analysis of poison centre data. Clinical Toxicology, 1–10. 

As President of EAPCCT, Mark Lawrence Zammit is also looking forward to hosting the upcoming EAPCCT International Congress in Malta next year – between 18 and 21 May, 2027.

Photo 3: Mark Lawrence Zammit (third from left), President of EAPCCT, together with from left to right Prof. Dr Ana Ferrer Dufol, Professor of Toxicology, University of Zaragoza Medical School and President of the Spanish Foundation of Clinical Toxicology (a past visiting examiner at the University of Malta) and Past President of EAPCCT; Prof. Paul Dargan, Immediate Past President of EAPCCT, and Prof. Raido Paasma, EAPCCT President-Elect, Head of the anesthesiology and intensive care clinic at Pärnu Hospital in Estonia, who also gained international recognition for his frontline work and clinical research regarding the 2001 mass methanol poisoning outbreak in Estonia where over 150 people were hospitalised after consuming tainted, bootleg vodka.