Import, use, and emissions of PCBs in Switzerland from 1930 to 2100.

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are persistent organic compounds that are ubiquitously found in the environment. Their use and manufacture were restricted or banned in many countries in the 1970-1980s, however, they still persist in the antroposphere, the environment and in biota worldwide today. Conventions like the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution encourage or bind the member parties to annually submit emission inventories of regulated air pollutants.

Patients with environment-related disorders: comprehensive results of interdisciplinary diagnostics.

Background: Researchers dealing with environmental illnesses face complex diagnostic and methodological difficulties. Poor objective findings contrast with high subjective suffering and a firm belief that environmental exposure is the only source of complaints. The Basel pilot research project established a multi-modal assessment procedure and assessed complaints attributed to the environment.

Interactional behaviour as a marker for screening patients with environment-related complaints.

Background: Adequate assessment of symptoms of patients suffering from environmental illnesses requires appropriate procedures such as psychological and psychiatric diagnostics, medical screening and a thorough analysis of noxious environmental factors. The Basel pilot research project established a multi-methodological assessment procedure that meets these criteria. However, an exhaustive three-fold analysis is very costly in terms of both equipment and personnel, and hence the need for a heuristic approach and pre-screening persists.

Joint sealants: an overlooked diffuse source of polychlorinated biphenyls in buildings.

In October 2000, joint sealants containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) were discovered in various public buildings in Switzerland. Triggered by this event, a nationwide comprehensive study was initiated by the Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests, and Landscape, and 1348 samples of joint sealants as well as 160 indoor air samples from concrete buildings erected between 1950 and 1980 were analyzed. Out of 1348 samples, 646 (48%) contained PCB.

[Psychiatric, medical and environmental factors in patients suffering from environment-related disorders].

Background: A multidisciplinary approach and a multi-modal methodology are needed to assess idiopathic environmental illnesses.

Sample: 61 patients took part in all diagnostic steps.

Method: In the Basel pilot research project on environmental illness, a threefold diagnostic approach was established: patients had a medical and allergological examination, a psychiatric and psychological exploration and an environmental analysis of their homes.

[Quantitative and qualitative analyses in patients with environmentally related disorders].

Background: Diagnostics and therapy of environmentally related disorders are hampered by one-sided assumptions and by discrepancies between therapists' and patients' assessments of the disease cause.

Objectives: Discrepancies between patient and expert opinions are examined as to (1) whether the sample can be classified in subgroups according to the convergence or divergence between self and expert rating, (2) which features and (3) which disorder-related behaviour and concepts characterize these groups.

Methods: Medical, psychopathological and environmental symptoms were assessed and their relative influence evaluated.

Symptoms attributed to the environment--a systematic, interdisciplinary assessment.

Problem: To assess symptoms attributed to the environment from an interdisciplinary perspective and to evaluate the plausibility of the participants' individual theory of a causal relationship between exposure and health impairment.

Method: We assessed the medical, psychiatric and environmental background in every participant in an environmental medicine project and discussed the explanatory value of our findings for each reported symptom.

Results: Every second participant had at least one symptom that could be plausibly explained by simultaneously occurring medical, psychological or environmental findings.