The legal frameworks that govern fetal surgery in the United Kingdom,European Union,and the United States

The specialty of fetal surgery or fetal intervention is one of the most exciting emerging fields of modern medicine. It is made possible by decades of major developments in antenatal imaging, obstetric anaesthesia, fetal medicine, paediatric surgery, and of course by the bold and novel practitioners willing to take new steps to advance the field. Beginning in the 1970s, it has now reached a stage of maturity where there are several established in utero procedures and countless clinical trials and studies to develop more. But what is the legal situation that fetal surgeons find themselves in? What are the rights and legal protections for the fetus and the mother, both of which are arguably the patient? This article will address this question, discussing and summarising the current legal frameworks governing fetal surgery in the jurisdictions of the United Kingdom, European Court of Human Rights, and the United States of America as well as discuss what the future may hold and how researchers and physicians in the specialty can best navigate the legal environment.     

Transformation and adsorption of Fenamiphos, f. sulfoxide and f. sulfone in molokai soil and simulated movement with irrigation

The ban of commonly used soil fumigants, DBCP and EDB, for control of nematodes in pineapple fields has prompted investigations into a non-fumigant nematicide, fenamiphos (Nemacur^®). The transformation and adsorption in soil of fenamiphos and its transformation products, f. sulfoxide and f. sulfone were studied in the laboratory. Fenamiphos adsorption on soil exceeded that of f. sulfoxide and f. sulfone. F. sulfoxide, however, was the most persistent. A one-dimensional simulation model was used to assess the impact of transformation and adsorption on the mobility and distribution of fenamiphos and f. sulfoxide in soil. Simulated results showed that fenamiphos stayed in the topsoil and transformed rapidly to f. sulfoxide. Because of the persistence and mobility of f. sulfoxide, this metabolite leached rapidly and significant amounts remained in the soil. This suggests that for times exceeding three weeks, f. sulfoxide may be the dominant compound providing nematode control in drip-irrigated pineapple.     

Neurotoxicology of ortho-substituted polychlorinated biphenyls

Ortho-substituted, non-planar PCBs reduce dopamine content in both nonhuman primate brain and pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells. Planar, dioxin-like, congeners have no effect on dopamine content in PC12 cells. Additional in-vitro results indicate that dopamine reduction by PCBs is due to inhibition of tyrosine hydroxylase activity.     

Prediction of particulate loading in exhaust from fabric filter baghouses with one or more failed bags

Loss of filtration efficiency in a fabric filter baghouse is typically caused by bag failure, in one form or another. The degree of such failure can be as minor as a pinhole leak or as major as a fully involved baghouse fire. In some cases, local air pollution regulations or federal hazardous waste laws may require estimation of the total quantity of particulate matter released to the environment as a result of such failures. In this paper, a technique is presented for computing the dust loading in the baghouse exhaust when one or more bags have failed. The algorithm developed is shown to be an improvement over a previously published result, which requires empirical knowledge of the variation in baghouse pressure differential with bag failures. An example calculation is presented for a baghouse equipped with 200 bags. The prediction shows that a small percentage of failed bags can cause a relatively large proportion of the gas flow to bypass the active bags, which, in turn, leads to high outlet dust loading and low overall collection efficiency from the baghouse.     

Quality assured measurements of animal building emissions: gas concentrations

Comprehensive field studies were initiated in 2002 to measure emissions of ammonia (NH3), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHC), particulate matter <10 microm in diameter, and total suspended particulate from swine and poultry production buildings in the United States. This paper focuses on the quasicontinuous gas concentration measurement at multiple locations among paired barns in seven states. Documented principles, used in air pollution monitoring at industrial sources, were applied in developing quality assurance (QA) project plans for these studies. Air was sampled from multiple locations with each gas analyzed with one high quality commercial gas analyzer that was located in an environmentally controlled on-farm instrument shelter. A nominal 4 L/min gas sampling system was designed and constructed with Teflon wetted surfaces, bypass pumping, and sample line flow and pressure sensors. Three-way solenoids were used to automatically switch between multiple gas sampling lines with > or =10 min sampling intervals. Inside and outside gas sampling probes were between 10 and 115 m away from the analyzers. Analyzers used chemiluminescence, fluorescence, photoacoustic infrared, and photoionization detectors for NH3, H2S, CO2, CH4, and NMHC, respectively. Data were collected using personal computer-based data acquisition hardware and software. This paper discusses the methodology of gas concentration measurements and the unique challenges that livestock barns pose for achieving desired accuracy and precision, data representativeness, comparability and completeness, and instrument calibration and maintenance.     

Effect of pH control at the anode for the electrokinetic removal of phenanthrene from kaolin soil

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-contaminated soils exist at numerous sites, and these sites may threaten public health and the environment because many PAH compounds are toxic, mutagenic, and/or carcinogenic. PAHs are also hydrophobic and persistent, so conventional remediation methods are often costly or inefficient, especially when the contaminants are present in low permeability and/or organic soils. An innovative technique, electrokinetically enhanced in situ flushing, has the potential to increase soil-solution-contaminant interaction and PAH removal efficiency for low permeability soils; however, the electrolysis reaction at the anode may adversely affect the remediation of low acid buffering capacity soils, such as kaolin. Therefore, the objective of this study was to improve the remediation of low acid buffering soils by controlling the pH at the anode to counteract the electrolysis reaction. Six bench-scale electrokinetic experiments were conducted, where each test employed one of three different flushing solutions, deionized water, a surfactant, or a cosolvent. For each of these solutions, tests were performed with and without a 0.01 M NaOH solution at the anode to control the pH. The test using deionized water with pH control generated a higher electroosmotic flow than the equivalent test performed without pH control, but the electroosmotic flow difference between the surfactant and cosolvent tests with and without pH control was minor compared to that observed with the deionized water tests. Controlling the pH was beneficial for increasing contaminant solubilization and migration from the soil region adjacent to the anode, but the high contaminant concentrations that resulted in the middle or cathode soil regions indicates that subsequent changes in the soil and/or solution chemistry caused contaminant deposition and low overall contaminant removal efficiency.     

High-level arsenite removal from groundwater by zero-valent iron

The objectives of this study were to conduct batch and column studies to (i) assess the effectiveness of zero-valent iron for arsenic remediation in groundwater, (ii) determine removal mechanisms of arsenic, and (iii) evaluate implications of these processes with regard to the stability of arsenic and long-term remedial performance of the permeable reactive barrier (PRB) technology. A high concentration arsenic solution (50 mg l(-1)) was prepared by using sodium arsenite (arsenic (III)) to simulate groundwater at a heavily contaminated Superfund site in the USA. Batch studies indicate that the removal of arsenic is a two-step reaction with fast initial disappearance of arsenite followed by a slow subsequent removal process. Flow-through columns were conducted at a flow rate of 17 ml h(-1) under reducing conditions for 6.6 mo. Kinetic analysis suggested that arsenic removal behaves as a zero-order reaction at high arsenic concentrations. Arsenic removal rate constants decreased with time and arsenic breakthrough was observed in the column study. Arsenic removal capacity of zero-valent iron was determined to be approximately 7.5 mg As/g Fe. Carbonate green rust was identified from the analysis of surface precipitates; arsenite uptake by green rust may be a major mechanism responsible for arsenic remediation by zero-valent iron. Analysis of HCl-extractable arsenic from iron samples indicated that approximately 28% of arsenic was in the form of arsenate suggesting that a surface oxidation process was involved in the arsenic removal with zero-valent iron.