Publications

The purpose of this document is to summarize the results of an international round of testing and research aimed at developing and optimizing an amphibian-based screening assay for thyroid axis disruption.

Society places a high value on protecting children. For that reason, the demand is repeatedly made that children’s particular vulnerability be given special consideration when evaluating environment-related health risks and deriving limit values. Current regulatory practice often attempts to do this in a relatively schematic way, in the form of safety factors.

This report reviews the EU Directive’s guidelines for a model’s quality assessment, and examines specific model quality criteria, that may be used for model accuracy assessment according to the intentions of the EU directives. Several model accuracy measures are tested utilizing a one-year simulation with the chemical transport model REM-CALGRID (RCG).

Due to the predicted growth rates for air traffic and the intended capacity extensions at many international airports, economic instruments have become more important. This study examines how LTO-charges, which are differentiated according to aircraft-noise emissions, can stimulate incentives for airlines to use less-noisier aircraft.

We are at the beginning of the year 2004 and thus only few weeks away from the enlargement of the European Union to 25 member states. Objective, reliable, and comparative data and information are a prerequisite for European policy to ensure a sound basis for transboundary and harmonised decision making.

Protecting the Baltic Sea from environmental impact remains important even 30 years after foundation of the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM). Every year some one billion kilograms of nitrogen and roughly 40 million kilograms of phosphorous are still being discharged into the Baltic Sea, of which more than half stems from agriculture.

This brochure ‘Environmental Health in Germany’ (German title: “Umwelt und Gesundheit in Deutschland”) is addressing a set of topics related to environmental health – to our health and our environment. It is illustrated by everyday examples.

Due to different directives on the national and the European level it is necessary to analyse the fate of chemicals in the environment using exposure models. By combining the results of these models with ecotoxicity data the risk assessment is performed. Usually, this analysis is performed based on EUSES (EC (1996),EC (2003a)). It calculates the fate of chemicals based on generic scenarios.

Measurement of air pollution emissions and ambient air quality is an essential instrument for air quality evaluation and control. In such measurements, pollutants are registered both at their place of origin (emissions) and at the place where they may affect people and/or the environment (immissions1).

It it generally accepted in the international field of risk assessment research that the effects of transgenic organisms have to be assessed ‘case by case‘ and ‘step by step‘. While most physiological effects can be studied in laboratory and greenhouse, ecological, agronomic and economic effects are partly only assessable in field tests or commercial growing and by modelling.

The emission behaviour with regard to dust, ozone and VOC (TVOC) of nine different hardcopy devices in combination with suitable air sampling and analysis procedures was investigated in different emission test chambers (two different 1 m³ - chambers and one 20 m³ - chamber).

Wspolny raport o jakosci powietrza w trojgranicznym regionie Republiki Czeskiej, Polski i Niemeic w roku 2003 (byly region Czarnego Trojkata)