Exposure-complaint relationships of various environmental odor sources in Styria,Austria

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - In the planning and authorization process of industrial plants or agricultural buildings, it needs to be ensured that odor emissions do not annoy...     

Mikrobielle Kurzzeitteste zur Bestimmung der mutagenen Potenz chemischer Substanzen

During the last 20 years it became much more interesting to test new chemicals as fast as possible for their carcinogenic potency. Therefore new test models were developed. Mutagenicity seems to be one sign for carcinogenicity. Therefore test systems using microorganisms were studied which are influenced by mutagenic substances. These systems are described, first of all the Ames-Test, using revertants of Salmonella typhimurium, secondly the Escherichia coli system deficient of DNA-polymerase A (DNA-Pol A-). The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was introduced some years ago and finally the Neurospora crassa system serves as an additional test to define exactly the localisation of mutations. The tests and their problems are discussed.     

Head injuries in child pedestrian accidents--in-depth case analysis and reconstructions

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate head injuries, injury risks, and corresponding tolerance levels of children in car-to--child pedestrian collisions. METHODS: An in-depth accident analysis was carried out based on 23 accident cases involving child pedestrians. These cases were collected with detailed information about pedestrians, cars, and road environments. All 23 accidents were reconstructed using the MADYMO program with mathematical models of passenger cars and child pedestrians developed at Chalmers University of Technology. The contact properties of the car models were derived from the European New Car Assessment Program (EuroNCAP) subsystem tests. RESULTS: The accident analysis demonstrated that the head was the most frequently and severely injured body part of child pedestrians. Most accidents occurred at impact speeds lower than 40 km/h and 98% of the child pedestrians were impacted from the lateral direction. The initial postures of children at the moment of impact were identified. Nearly half (47%) of the children were running, which was remarkable compared with the situation of adult pedestrians. From accident reconstructions it was found that head impact conditions and injury severities were dependent on the shape and stiffness of the car front, impact velocity, and stature of the child pedestrian. Head injury criteria and corresponding tolerance levels were analyzed and discussed by correlating the calculated injury parameters with the injury outcomes in the accidents. CONCLUSIONS: Reducing head injuries should be set as a priority in the protection of child pedestrians. HIC is an important injury criterion for predicting the risks of head injuries in child pedestrian accidents. The tolerance level of head injuries can have a considerable variation due to individual differences of the child pedestrians. By setting a suitable speed limit and improving the design of car front, the head injury severities of child pedestrians can be reduced.     

Intra-cultivar variability of the soil-to-grain transfer of fallout 137Cs and 90Sr for winter wheat

Differences between the root uptake of fallout radionuclides by different cultivars ('inter-cultivar' variability) growing on the same field may be influenced not only by genetic differences of the cultivars, but also by the spatial variability of the soil-to-grain transfer within the cultivation area of each cultivar. This 'intra-cultivar' variability was investigated in 2001 and 2002 for 137Cs and 90Sr using three winter wheat cultivars with four replicates for each cultivar at three different sites in Bavaria, Germany. The intra-cultivar variability proved to be in the same range as the inter-cultivar variability which was determined earlier at the same sites for both radionuclides. An ANOVA of the 137Cs data set revealed that the variability of the 137Cs soil-to-grain transfer was caused by the soil and climate (year) at the field sites and the interaction of cultivar and field. A significant contribution of the factor 'cultivar' alone to the variability could not be detected. This may be due to the complex environmental conditions to which plants are exposed in field experiments. To find wheat cultivars with minimal uptake of fallout radionuclides it may be better to examine the molecular mechanisms of their root uptake in order to identify targets for breeding "safer" plants.     

Performance of methods for measurement of exposure to inorganic acids in workplace air

BGIA has organised round robins for the analysis of samples of inorganic acids in workplace air for a number of years. Test samples of the volatile acids HCl and HNO(3) are collected from a standard atmosphere and samples of the non-volatile acids H(3)PO(4) and H(2)SO(4) are prepared by spiking filters with acid solution. The last two round robins have also covered the sampling of volatile acids, with up to 15 "active" participants able to visit the test facility in Dresden and take samples themselves. For other "passive" participants, BGIA takes samples from the same atmosphere. The acid concentrations generated lie between 0,1 and 1 times the German limit values for HCl and HNO(3). The results for the last round robin showed no significant difference between the performance of the "active" and "passive" participants. The participant means were in good agreement with the theoretical concentrations and the quality control measurements. For "active" participants RSDs were between 7% and 14% and for all participants between 8% and 16%. The round robin for the non-volatile acids showed similar results. The participant means were again in excellent agreement with the quality control measurements and RSDs were between 12% and 15%. The BGIA round robins have demonstrated the proficiency of laboratories measuring exposure to inorganic acids in air. However, concerns remain about the performance of published methods. It has shown that the sampling efficiency of sorbent tubes falls off with increasing particle size and hence silica gel tube methods may give low results for acid mists. Another issue with silica gel tubes is that a substantial proportion of the sample can be collected on the glass wool plugs that retain the sorbent. This can be up to 50% for HCl and 100% for HNO(3). Hence, low results may be obtained if the glass wool plugs are discarded. Similarly, methods for volatile inorganic acids that use a pre-filter to remove particulates usually overlook the fact that the acids can react with co-particulate matter on the pre-filter. Low recoveries in the range 30%-50% have been found when sampling HCl through filters loaded with potential interferents. Finally, particulate salts interfere with filter sampling methods for non-volatile inorganic acids. A two-part International Standard is in preparation for inorganic acids by ion chromatography and the issues discussed above are being taken into consideration during its development.