CCall--healthy and successful work in call centres.

Call centre workplaces are in many ways a challenge to occupational health and safety. The occupation itself can be described as an IT information technology-supported, communication-intensive form of work with often unusual working hours and a high rate of part-time employment. Data on the employee turnover as well as absenteeism related to occupational disability is quite contradictory. Occupational safety and its proponents still have to find new ways into the corporate structures and cultures of this relatively new and rapidly growing branch of industry. In a 2-year research and development project, using a holistic approach and under consideration of all the relevant disciplines, call centre workplaces were studied, and organisational measures were developed and field tested by putting them into practice. Practical help was developed for a sustainable strategy for successful and healthy work in call centres.     

Validation of a European standard for the determination of hexavalent chromium in solid material

A European standard for the determination of Cr(vi) in solid material has been elaborated in the framework of an international co-operation and finally validated in the course of an interlaboratory comparison. The procedure is based on the alkaline digestion prescribed by EPA method 3060A followed by ion chromatography and determines an operationally defined content of Cr(vi), including water-soluble and insoluble chromates. A preliminary robustness study was carried out in order to compare different extraction methodologies and to study the equivalency of different analytical methods for the determination of Cr(vi) in alkaline extracts of soil and waste materials. During an interlaboratory validation trial with 19 European laboratories a set of 4 samples (2 soil and 2 waste samples) was analysed to determine performance characteristics for different combinations of digestion and detection methods. With the procedures prescribed by the new European standard (EN 15192) acceptable results were obtained for both soil samples and one of the waste samples (sludge). However, for the second waste sample (fly ash) a large deviation in analytical results was observed. This indicates that particularly for waste materials a possible occurrence of strong matrix effects has to be considered and supplementary quality control data are needed in order to assess the validity of analytical results. The accuracy of the determination of Cr(vi) in solid matrices remains a challenging field in terms of maximum extraction efficiency and minimum species interconversion.     

Growth and nutritive quality of Poa pratensis as influenced by ozone and competition

Interspecific plant competition has been hypothesized to alter effects of early-season ozone (O3) stress. A phytometer-based approach was utilized to investigate O3 effects on growth and nutritive quality of Poa pratensis grown in monoculture and in mixed cultures with four competitor-plant species (Anthoxanthum odoratum, Achillea millefolium, Rumex acetosa and Veronica chamaedrys). Mesocosms were exposed during April/May 2000-2002 to charcoal-filtered air+25 ppb O3 (control) or non-filtered air+50 ppb O3 (elevated O3). Biomass production was not affected by O3, but foliar injury symptoms were observed in May 2002. Early-season O3 exposure decreased relative food value of P. pratensis by an average of 8%, which is sufficient to have nutritional implications for its utilization by herbivores. However, forage quality response to O3 was not changed by interspecific competition. Lack of injury and nutritive quality response in P. pratensis harvested in September may reflect recovery from early-season O3 exposure.