In this issue we introduce our new Hygieia feature, based on Minerva in our parent journal. We hope Hygieia’s family tree will provide the genetic wherewithal for a flourishing and popular page. Future issues will carry short pieces reporting on findings from various journals ably copy-tasted by our colleague Harvey Marcovitch, the BMJ Journals Syndication Editor. See page394

At a time when the world is digesting the implications of the next stage in the Middle East conflict, we carry an editorial from the International Health Advocacy Group at University College on how to focus the public health response to Iraq, and a soapbox from Mervin Susser who wrote so poignantly from New York in the aftermath of September 11th. An editorial and linked paper on legionnaires’ disease, based on findings of an ecological association at the small area level between the presence of industrial systems with aerosol generating devices and the incidence of legionnaires’ disease in France, raise the question of whether reporting of a sporadic case should be enough evidence for a more intense epidemiological investigation focusing on the environment; and in a …