Short term monitoring, field studies

In order to apply approaches and criteria of the kind described above, it is essential to have ready access to all the relevant information. This means that it is necessary to develop centralized data banks integrating data from environmental field studies with infcsmation from the literature in readily retrievable form to facilitate its use. It is also necessary to develop state and local registries of morbid events, especially in relation to sentinel diseases which are relatively rare and may be associated with exposure to potentially toxic chemicals in the environment. In addition, it is necessary to develop exposure-specific and site-specific registries of exposed populations and suitable control populations with provision for short-term monitoring and long-term follow up. This should be part of the general development of computerized data systems of births, deaths and... 

Plants grown for longer periods in solid supports such as sand or soil repre-.sent the next level of complexity and, although other techniques are available, carbon flow is most frequently estimated using C labeling experiments. In the laboratory, COt can be supplied to shoots either as a short pulse or continuously, and the carbon flow can be monitored. In the field, due to technical limitations, only COi pulse labeling procedures are possible. A final approach, termed crop studies, involves the measurement of components of crop growth from which... 

To complete this chapter, we would like to mention that recent monographs have reviewed the use of in-situ spectroscopies for monitoring heterogeneously catalysed reaction under supercritical conditions, although very few studies in this field has been devoted to the study of the fluid-solid interface.182 The use of a multi-technique approach in order to maximise information under real, in-situ conditions has also been reviewed recently.183 The combined use of powerful spectroscopies with simultaneous on-line analysis of the catalytic activity of the sample will become more widespread in application allowing an interpretation of catalytic behaviour in terms of the physico-chemical properties of the solid. The next frontier in spectroscopic characterisation of metal catalysts will consist of time-dependent analysis of the gas/liquid-solid interface, particularly with a view to analyse short-lived intermediates during catalysed reactions and with the aim to determine the response of the catalyst surface and relate these responses to the physico-chemical properties of the solid. 

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