The Impact of Weather Conditions on Biocides in Paints.

Weather conditions affect biocides on exposed outer surfaces on constructions. Contact with water causes hydrolysis and leaching of substances. Ultraviolet radiation may induce photolysis.

Biocide leaching during field experiments on treated articles.

Background: Biocidal products can be sources of active substances in surface waters caused by weathering of treated articles. Marketing and use of biocidal products can be limited according to the European Biocidal Products Regulation if unacceptable risks to the environment are expected. Leaching of active substances from treated articles was observed in field experiments to obtain information on leaching processes and investigate the suitability of a proposed test method.

Biocide leaching from CBA treated wood - a mechanistic interpretation.

Treated wood is frequently used for construction. However, there is a need to ensure that biocides used for the treatment are not a threat for people or environment. The paper focused on Pinus sylvestris treated with copper-boron-azole (CBA), containing tebuconazole as organic biocide and monoethanolamine (Mea).

Biodegradation of a biocide (Cu-N-cyclohexyldiazenium dioxide) component of a wood preservative by a defined soil bacterial community.

The wood protection industry has refined their products from chrome-, copper-, and arsenate-based wood preservatives toward solely copper-based preservatives in combination with organic biocides. One of these is Cu-HDO, containing the chelation product of copper and N-cyclohexyldiazenium dioxide (HDO). In this study, the fate of isotope-labeled ((13)C) and nonlabeled ((12)C) Cu-HDO incorporated in wood sawdust mixed with soil was investigated.

Leaching of biocides used in façade coatings under laboratory test conditions.

The European Biocidal Products Directive 98/8/EC requires a risk assessment concerning possible effects of active ingredients on the environment. Biocides can be leached from treated materials exposed to outdoor use. These emissions have to be estimated and evaluated during the authorization procedure.

[Quality assurance in rheumatology].

The German legislation on medicine demands that each person examining or treating patients must prove the quality of their work. That is done by way of "external evidence", by application of qualified studies or, if in default of those, by documentation on results and evaluation of each individual patient ("internal evidence"). Such evidences pertain to diagnostics (methods and their evaluation), treatment (medication and physical therapy) and the organization of work (staff, timeframes, available space etc.

[Guideline for the joint swelling symptom--primary physician problem management and referral indications. German Society of Rheumatology "Quality Assurance" Committee].

The guideline "Joint Swelling" is addressed to primary care physicians--general practitioners, internists or orthopedists without special experience in rheumatology. It provides a framework for interviewing patients, as well as for physical, laboratory and imaging examinations and for selection of treatment appropriate to the level of primary care. Situations which call for urgent evaluation and criteria for referral to rheumatologists are described.

[Expanded anamnesis and psychodiagnostic classification of psychosomatic rheumatic patients. I: Anamnestic indications of psychosomatic correlations with manifestations of the locomotor system].

The author describes the information gained from anamnesis which points to a psychogenetic cause of rheumatic complaints. These symptoms are part of the diagnostically important criteria which must be supplemented still further by means of a personal discussion with the patient. A great deal depends on the skill of the physician in conducting these talks, with regard to obtaining relevant information on personal problems which may be underlying the disease patterns.

[The therapy of pain in rheumatic joint-and spine diseases.].

The therapy of pain caused by rheumatic diseases above all must take into consideration the cause of the pain. In rheumatoid arthritis, especially in the early stages, inflammation is the primary cause of the pain. The pain decreases the inflammation subsides following the administration of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), or corticosteroids, if necessary.

[Expert assessment of psychosomatic disorders in rheumatology].

There are often big problems regarding expert evidences of psychosomatic clinical pictures, because, contrary to the complaints expressed and perceived by the patient, somatic findings are not evident to justify a permanent disablement. Nearly without exception it is a question of chronified cases of psychosomatic complaints up to real psychoneuroses. The diagnosis and delimination from a simulation is difficult and is frequently failed.

[Work disability and the granting of pensions in psychogenic rheumatic diseases].

This paper is the result of a symposium that addressed the problem of disablement and social pension for patients with psychosomatic-rheumatological complaints. This especially concerns patients suffering from psychosomatic manifestation at the locomotor apparatus, who are increasingly disabled and necessitating a pension, without actual somatic findings justifying a vocational disablement. Primarily it is a clinical picture of a generalized tendomyopathy, often underestimated in its importance.

[HLA B27-associated rheumatic diseases from the clinical viewpoint].

On the basis of the description of the possible variable courses and symptoms of ankylosing spondylitis, Reiter's syndrome, and reactive arthritides (spondarthritides) frequently produced by intestinal infections, all of which show HLA B27 as the predisposing hereditary antigen in about 90% of the cases, it is discussed whether these conditions represent a disease entity in which additional unknown factors determine the expression and the tendency of the course of the disease.