Impacts on industry of Europe's emerging chemicals policy REACh

For Europe, a new regime in chemicals regulation is about to start. After the proposal of the European Commission concerning the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACh) passed its readings in the European Parliament and some differences with the European Council of Ministers were resolved, the regulation will come into force in June 2007. This paper is focused on the question how serious the cost burdens for industry induced by REACh will be, and whether the New European Member States (NMS) which joined the European Union in May 2004 will be able to cope with the regulation. This evaluation has been done by assessing the legislative, administrative and economic framework in New Member States and by analysing real business cases in companies. The empirical showcase business impact studies are at the same time of interest for companies of EU-15 states, other European countries who may implement the regulation, and even for exporters of raw materials and chemicals outside Europe, who will also have to comply with REACh if they market in the European Community. The results give no indications that REACh adoption will bring significant drawbacks to companies in the NMS. The emerging regulation will bring challenges for individual companies, especially for small and medium-sized ones, but for the European chemical industry as a whole, there is no question that it will be able to cope with REACh burdens without losing its global competitiveness.     

Long-term trends of continental-scale PCB patterns studied using a global atmosphere–ocean general circulation model

Continental-scale distribution and inter-continental transport of four polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners (28, 101, 153, 180) from 1950 to 2010 were studied using the global multicompartment chemistry transport model MPI-MCTM. Following identical primary emissions for all PCB congeners into air, most of the burden is stored in terrestrial (soil and vegetation) compartments. Thereby, PCB-28, PCB-101 and PCB-153 show a shift of the soil burden maxima from source to remote regions. This shift is downwind with regard to the westerlies for Eurasia and upwind for North America and more prominent for the lighter PCBs than for PCB-153 or PCB-180. In meridional direction, all congeners' distributions underwent a northward migration in Eurasia and North America since the 1950s. Inter-continental transport from Eurasian sources accounts largely for contamination of Alaska and British Columbia and determines the migration of the PCB distribution in soil in North America. Trans-Pacific transport occurs mainly in the gas phase in boreal winter (December-January-February) at 3-4 km altitude and is on a multi-year time scale strongly linked to the atmospheric pressure systems over the Pacific. Inter-continental transport of the lighter, more volatile PCBs is more efficient than for the heavier PCBs.     

Effect of Plantings on Radiation of Highway Noise

The body of information presented in this paper is directed to those individuals concerned with the location of highways relative to either existing or planned residential communities. The paper treats in depth the expected attenuation of automobile and particularly diesel tractor-trailer generated hoise by the interposition of extensive and dense planting of trees and shrubs between the highway and the community. The results of research, by the author and others cited in the paper, gives clear indication that a belt of dense man-made growth of tall trees and underbrush can give as much as 5 to 8 dB truck/car noise reduction per 100 ft of planting depth. Natural growth of deep forests were measured to give from 3 to 5 dB attenuation per 100 ft of planting depth. Planting depth of at least 100 ft is required to give reliable results, with tree heights of 40-50 ft desirable and densities of 50-70 ft visibility needed for good effect.

The paper provides considerable experimental verification by an analysis of the current literature. The types of noise sources in cars and trucks are briefly treated as are community reactions to noise from such sources. The dBA is used as the accepted measure for characterizing truck and automobile noise. Both spherical and cylindrical radiation of sound are discussed for low density and high density traffic, respectively.

The paper concludes with an example of attenuation of a typical truck noise by spherical and cylindrical radiation for low- and high-density traffic and a 200-ft deep planting of dense, mature forest. It is concluded that a mature belt of either coniferous or deciduous forest with underbrush can produce barely acceptable noise levels in the community which is separated by such a noise barrier from a heavily traveled highway.     

Greenhouse effect of NOX

Through various processes the nitrogen oxides (NO_X) interact with trace gases in the troposphere and stratosphere which do absorb in the spectral range relevant to the greenhouse effect (infrared wavelengths). The net effect is an enhancement of the greenhouse effect. The catalytic role of NO_X in the production of tropospheric ozone provides the most prominent contribution. The global waming potential is estimated as GWP (NO_X = 30 – 33 and 7 – 10 for the respective time horizons of 20 and 100 years, and is thereby comparable to that of methane. NO_X emissions in rural areas of anthropogenically influenced regions, or those in the vicinity of the txopopause caused by air traffic, cause the greenhouse effectivity to be substantially more intense. We estimate an additional 5–23 % for Germany’s contribution to the anthropogenic greenhouse effect as a result of the indirect greenhouse effects stemming from NO_X. Furthermore, a small and still inaccurately defined amount of the deposited NO_X which has primarily been converted into nitrates is again released from the soil into the atmosphere in the form of the long-lived greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N₂O). Thus, anthropogenically induced NO_X emissions contribute to enhanced greenhouse effect and to stratospheric ozone depletion in the time scale of more than a century.     

Organic residue decomposition: The minicontainer-system a multifunctional tool in decomposition studies

The Minicontainer-test, first described by Eisenbeis (1993), was designed to study the kinetics of organic residue decomposition at a microsite level. It is derived from the litterbag technique and consists of polyethylene minicontainers (volume about 1.5 cm³) filled with a test substrate (litter, straw, cellulose, etc.). The minicontainers (MCs) are closed at either end with plastic gauze discs of variable mesh size (e.g. 20 μm, 250 μm, 500 μm or 2 mm). A definite number of such units are inserted into PVC-bars, which can be implanted into the soil horizontally or vertically, or be exposed on the soil surface horizontally. The bars are very stable and can be exposed in different environments for months to years. If required, the bars can be removed temporarily and stored, e.g. during soil cultivation. Should fresh litter be used, two phases of decomposition can be distinguished: a fast initial phase, which can be mainly related to the effect of leaching, and a second slow phase depending mainly on the activity of soil organisms and litter quality. Several questions can be addressed to investigations using MCs, e.g. 1) parts of the soil fauna which are involved in decomposition (nematodes, microarthropods, and smaller specimens of the macrofauna, e.g. enchytraeidae, diplopods and dipteran larvae) can be extracted from the litter substrate using a miniscale high gradient extractor, 2) the organic mass loss of litter can be determined, 3) microbial biomass (C_mic, N_mic) can be assessed by fumigation extraction and 4) microbial activity (respiration) in the test substrate can also be assessed by use of standardised methods. Compared to litterbag studies, the larger number of small replicate units improves the statistical evaluation. Until today the Minicontainer-test has been applied in forestry and agriculture, e.g. studying the effects of liming, soil restoration and the application of insecticides, e.g. Diflubenzuron (Dimilin) and Btk (Bacillus thuringiensis var.kurstaki).     

Exemplifying whole-plant ozone uptake in adult forest trees of contrasting species and site conditions

Whole-tree O3 uptake was exemplified for Picea abies, Fagus sylvatica and Larix decidua in stands at high and low altitude and contrasting water availability through sap flow measurement in tree trunks, intrinsically accounting for drought and boundary layer effects on O3 flux. O3 uptake of evergreen spruce per unit foliage area was enhanced by 100% at high relative to low elevation, whereas deciduous beech and larch showed similar uptake regardless of altitude. The responsiveness of the canopy conductance to water vapor and, as a consequence, O3 uptake to soil moisture and air humidity did not differ between species. Unifying findings at the whole-tree level will promote cause-effect based O3 risk assessment and modeling.     

Exencephaly in autosomal dominant brachydactyly syndrome

Exencephaly was diagnosed at 17 weeks in a 27-year-old primigravida with abnormalities of the hands and a family history suggestive of autosomal dominant brachydactyly and clinodactyly. In this family there was also a history of ‘anencephaly’. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the association of exencephaly and autosomal dominant brachydactyly. As the relationship between hand and cranial anomalies is well established, we suggest that this association in our case could be due to a defect in the same gene.     

Fetal cholecystomegaly: A prenatal marker of aneuploidy

The fetal gall bladder can now be easily identified during the second and third trimesters using high-resolution ultrasonography. In this report we present eight fetuses with an enlarged gall bladder detected on prenatal ultrasonography at a mean gestational age of 24.6 weeks (range 19–31 weeks). Additional ultrasonographic findings were present in four cases: fetal anomalies and intrauterine growth retardation in three and polyhydramnios in one. Of those cases associated with fetal anomalies, one woman underwent amniocentesis at 21 weeks revealing trisomy 18. The other two declined prenatal karyotyping; neonatal karyotyping revealed trisomy 13 in one and trisomy 18 in the other. Although an enlarged fetal gall bladder can be a normal variant in the second and third trimesters, the prenatal detection of cholecystomegaly should prompt a search for associated anomalies and other markers of aneuploidy. If found, prenatal karyotyping should be considered.     

An investigation of methods for enriching trophoblast from maternal blood

Trophoblast deportation is known to occur in normal human pregnancy, but it is not yet clear whether these cells routinely enter the maternal peripheral circulation and are available as a source of fetal DNA for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis of genetic disorders. To resolve this issue requires an efficient method of enriching trophoblast from maternal blood combined with a means to confirm its identity. Five different techniques were tested on ten retroplacental blood samples to determine the most sensitive and operator-efficient method. Lysis of red cells alone gave the best recovery of trophoblast but had to be discounted, together with Ficoll density gradient centrifugation, due to the very low purity and the excessive time required. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) of pre-enriched trophoblast resulted in the lowest recovery rate (8 per cent) despite a 3250-fold enrichment and a very high purity. Immunomagnetic beads (Dynabeads) coated with anti-CD 16 antibody proved to be the best method for the subsequent immunocytochemical characterization of deported trophoblast. However, IO beads coated with anti-CD45 antibody may be more useful for isolating trophoblast for prenatal diagnosis due to the high purity, enrichment (32-fold), and recovery rate (78 per cent) obtained with this method.     

Innovative aspects of environmental chemistry and technology regarding air,water, and soil pollution

Environmental Science and Pollution Research -