Worldwide European level

In the future, European and worldwide refining should evolve toward the production of relatively high cetane number diesel fuels either by more or less deeper hydrotreating or by judicious choice of base stocks. However, it is not planned to achieve levels of 60 for the near future as sometimes required by the automotive manufacturers. 

Systematic worldwide studies of PCB accumulation in humans is limited. The average PCB level in adipose tissue of Europeans is ca. 1 ppm (range 0.3 9 ppm), with occasional reports in the hundreds of ppm. In spite of efforts to control PCB contamination it appears that PCB... 

Most legal regulations in force worldwide are based on overall levels of elements in food products only a few concern particular forms of elements. Organisations such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), World Health Organisation (WHO), European Environmental Commission (EEC) and US Eood and Drug Administration (USEDA) have recognised the importance of speciation analysis and proposed limits to contamination by various forms of elements (e.g. As, Hg and Sn) [8, 172]. 

Compared with data of the worldwide use in 1992, the demand for flame retardants in the USA in 1993 was extremely high. However, only a small fraction of this consisted of brominated compounds. The use of brominated compounds as flame retardants in Japan in 1993 was higher, both relatively and in absolute amounts. The 1998 USA consumption of brominated compounds (in absolute amounts) was expected to reach the same level as Japan in 1994. Unfortunately more accurate data on flame retardants demands in Europe are not available. The European consumption of brominated compounds is estimated to be at a similar level as in Japan and the USA. 

After 1950 there was an enormous worldwide increase in the number of laparoscopic examinations. Statistics from H. Lindner et al. (1976) reflect this with 141,981 laparoscopies in European countries. (259) The highest level of laparoscopic examinations (between 1970 and 1980) was estimated as being in excess of one million ... 

Due to the demand for reliable and comparable methods, performance requirements have been established at a national and international level for implementation of official methods, e.g. by European legislation, by the CEN or the Association of the Analytical Communities (AOAC) International, and worldwide by Codex Alimen-tarius (CAC). Thus any method proposed to be used for official purposes must be validated in a collaborative trial study, resulting in defined method performance characteristics [4], The framework for the design and conduct of such collaborative trial studies, as well as the statistical evaluation, are also defined in appropriate protocols [5]. Any method that has been successfully validated according to these protocols can be recognised as an official method for use in legal cases or for international trade control purposes. 

Worldwide resource life projections of this kind show a similar trend from a value of 29.7 years in 1970, 25.2 years in 1978, and leveling off at 42.5 and 38.8 years in 1992 and 2000. Large-scale consumers like the U.S., Canada, and the European Union, and more recently China have consumptions that are large fractions of their reserves, which has depressed the world petroleum life projections. Conventional petroleum production rates for Canada peaked in 1973, and for the U.S. in 1970 (Fig. 17.4). 

The development of vehicle electrical systems operating at a nominal 42 V and its standardization with ISO is underway. A working group of the European Vehicle Electric System Architecture Forum has prepared a draft standard for this new voltage level [58]. The 42-V level was chosen as a compromise between the demand for an increased voltage to achieve higher efficiency in electrical and electronic components and the exclusion of safety hazards, even under extreme operational conditions like load dump, etc. The term 42-V PowerNet , or simply PowerNet , is now established worldwide [9,11,59]. 

Worldwide, all developed countries have lead-pollution problems similar to those of the United States.11 In Australia, for example, a blood lead survey in 1996 found that 7.3 percent of preschoolers had levels greater than 10 units—certainly enough to cause brain damage. In 2004, a European survey reported some countries with as much as 30 percent of the population with BLL greater than 10 units. 

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