NEWTON, MASS. — Safety Week 2003 has changed its convention location from Toronto to Miami Beach in response to concerns over cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Toronto.

While the World Health Organization has lifted its travel advisory on Toronto as an area affected by the spread of SARS, the city remains a hot button for upcoming conferences and events.

Despite the venue change, the Safety Week show dates of July 26–29 remain the same, and all the seminars and programs will go on as scheduled. The new host hotel is the Sheraton Bal Harbour. At this printing, marketing material and press releases were being sent out to attendees, detailing the new conference information. For more information, visit www.safetycentral.org.

Staying up North, the 2003 NIBA–The Belting Assn. annual convention is still on track for its Sept. 13–16 visit to Toronto. The event's planners are keeping a close eye on the heath-related news from the city, but have no plans at this time to change the venue.

"To us, the SARS hysteria has been vastly over hyped, and our conference is still happening in Toronto," says Randy Rakow, executive vice president and CEO of NIBA–The Belting Assn. "We're dealing with some great people in some great places, and have no plans to change that."

For more information, call (800) 488-4845 or visit www.niba.org.