[Consumer safety, public heath, and environment : Scientific advice at the European level].

The European Commission aims at basing its policy decisions on sound scientific evidence. To ensure access to the best scientific expertise, it has created a committee-based advisory structure. The three scientific committees on Consumer Safety, on Health and Environmental Risks, and on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks develop opinions in the area of public health, environment, and consumer protection.

Whole-body MR vascular screening detects unsuspected concomitant vascular disease in coronary heart disease patients.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) patients often show atherosclerotic vascular disease in other vascular territories. We evaluated how often whole-body MR imaging detects concomitant arterial pathologies in CHD patients, and how often these pathologies were not known to the patients previously. Of 4,814 participants in the population-based Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study, 327 reported CHD (i.

Assessing contamination paths of the German adult population with gold and platinum. The German Environmental Survey 1998 (GerES III).

Background: Even though increased environmental platinum levels were found since the introduction of automobile catalytic converters, little is known about the pathways of corporal uptake and the bioavailability of platinum in the general adult population. The aim of this study is to identify and quantify the main exposure pathways of gold and platinum in the general adult population.

Methods: The German Environmental Survey 1998 (GerES III) collected population-based data on the corporal gold and platinum burden from a large sample of 1080 persons, 18-69 years of age.

Carpenters, cabinetmakers, and risk of testicular germ cell cancer.

Objective: A recent cohort study showed an increased risk of testicular cancer among members of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. We explored our data of a German population-based case-control study on the etiology of testicular cancer with regard to this association.

Methods: The case-control study included 269 testicular cancer cases and 797 controls.