Health effects Europe

Europe is still the main market for leather products and leather produced in the developing countries, e.g. Southeast Asia, may therefore end up on the European market and to European consumers. Chemicals that are added during the production, and which stay on/in the product, will hence be transported by the product to the final markets, and there will be a chemical flow around the world through the transport of leather and leather products containing chemicals. Since the tanning industry is a chemically intensive industry, an efficient chemical management in tanneries is necessary in order to minimise the overall use of chemicals and in particular also to reduce the amount of hazardous chemicals used in order to minimise eventual health effects on the consumer. 

Brochures on Safe Handling of Pigments have been published in the USA [6] and in Europe [7] summarizing general health effects, hazard communication, environmental concern and informing on safety data of the most important pigment classes. 

Due to their adverse health effects, several restrictions and bans have been imposed on the usage of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), namely the penta-, octa-, and deca-BDE formulations, in Europe, China, North America, and Japan (http //www. bsef.com). The restricted usage of these PBDEs increased the market demand for substitute brominated flame retardants (BERs) including hexabromocyclododecanes... 

Keuken M, Sanderson E, van Aalst R, Borken J, Schneider J (2005) Contribution of traffic to levels of ambient air pollution in Europe. In Krzyzanowski M et al (eds) Health effects of transport-related air pollution. Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization, Copenhagen. ISBN 92 890 1373 7... 

In summary, notwithstanding the need to always assess PM modelling uncertainties PM air quality models are widely applied in Europe for various purposes, such as to help decision makers on the development of policies and air quality management systems for protection of ecosystems and human health or for air quality forecast, and consequently human exposure and health effects prevention. 

The rate at which PBDE concentrations have increased in the environment and in humans has been of considerable interest. Temporal trend studies from Europe have indicated that PBDE levels in human milk increased markedly from 1972 to 1997, doubling every 5 years [38]. Since 1997, the PBDE levels in human milk have decreased somewhat [39]. These recent ameliorations may be the result of changes in industrial practices in Europe. The European Commission, for example, has phased out the use of the commercial penta-BDE product because of concerns about its potentially adverse human health effects. Now, > 95% of the current global demand for the penta-BDE product... 

This chapter presents a series of case studies to illustrate the VOC profiles and C02 concentration levels in a tropical climate, Singapore. These studies have been conducted over a period of five years with buildings that use different ventilation systems. Emission rates of alkanes, aromatics, alcohols, cyclic alkanes, carbonyls and other VOCs were determined, and compared with similar studies conducted in Europe and North America. The sensory and health effects of these levels of VOCs are briefly described. Cluster analyses were performed yielding plausible sources which are human or building material and building operation related. 

WHO (1982) Indoor air pollutants exposure and health effects. WHO Regional office for Europe. Copenhagen. Denmark, Report No. 78, pp. 1—42. 

As the debate concerning health effects of saturated products and that of trans isomers generated during hydrogenation continues, interesterification may offer a viable alternative to the refiner. Outside the United States interesterification is used to produce hardened fats without trans isomers. These products are available in Canada and continental Europe. This technology has been available for quite some time, as a patent on the product was granted to Unilever in 1961 (22). The ability to tailor the melting point and functional crystallization characteristics without... 

Nevertheless, events during the past 35 years have directed public and government scrutiny on the chemical industry and its unintended impacts on the environment and society. For instance, despite evidence of health effects linked to chemical exposure, a great majority of the chemicals found in our air, water, food, and everyday products lack basic safety data for human and ecosystem health, particularly that of developing organisms. Of the 100,000 chemicals in common use, 30,000 are used in volumes of one ton or more. Of these, 95 percent have little or no environmental or human health data, simply because prior to 1980 no data were required before marketing in the United States or Europe (Thorpe, Chapter 3, Section 3.2 of this volume). 

The EUROCHAMP project integrates the most important environmental reaction chambers in Europe for studying atmospheric processes into a Europe-wide infrastructure. These facilities were created by multinational initiatives to study the impact of atmospheric processes on regional photochemistry, global change, as well as cultural heritage and human health effects under most realistic conditions. 

Enzymes had been used in detergent powders in the U.S. and Europe as early as 1960. They were subsequently withdrawn in the U.S., but not in Europe, when the raw proteinase used at the time proved to have an adverse effect on the health of detergent plant workers. Improvements in the enzymes, specifically encapsulation, eliminated their dustiness and made it possible to use these materials in detergent plants without adverse health effects. 

Diesel emission control has been a major feature in catalyst development in Europe. Growth in sales of diesel cars, which in 1996 reached 22% of car sales across the whole of Europe and around 50% in France, has been a factor in raising concern on the possible health effects of diesel emissions particularly ultra fine partieles. The key areas for research in diesel exhaust control are Lean NOx control, which is covered later, and oxidation catalysts, particulate filters and selective catalytic reduction. 

Adverse health effects of ambient airborne particles are of major concern to environmental health regulators. In recent years a tremendous amoimt of research on health effects of airborne particles has been published and evidence is well established, that even small concentrations of fine particles in air breathed by humans contribute significantly to their morbidity and mortality. These data prompted the European Parliament and Council to strengthen the hmit values for particular matter with their new directive 2008/50/EC of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe. 

Epidemiological and clinical studies have linked particular matter (PM) to the following adverse health effects (WHO-Europe 2005) ... 

Various health effects have been reported from short-term studies. Increased mortality associated with short-term exposure is the most important health outcome in these studies. A multiplicity of studies from various settings in the US, Canada and Europe attest the association of different metrics of particular matter (PMio, PM2.5, PMio 2.5 or ultrafine particles) with general and cause specific human mortality. In the first line are daily time series studies from single cities (e.g. Schwartz 1991). More relevant are analyses that pool data from several locations, using a common protocol for analysis of the within-city data and then combining estimates from various locations in order to gain precision and to evaluate the heterogeneity of the effect of particulate matter across the cities. 

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