Health risk assessment after decontamination of the beaches polluted by the wrecked ERIKA tanker.

Following the wreck of the oil tanker ERIKA off the north-west coast of France in December 1999, cleaning up of the beaches involved considerable work, which in any case could not be perfect. This raised the question of the short- and long-term health risks for the future bathers related to the toxicity of the remaining oil polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). This risk assessment study was conducted to help health authorities plan risk management policies and inform the public.

Environmental benzene exposure assessment for parent-child pairs in Rouen, France.

There is a lack of data on environmental benzene exposure in children. In this study, we compared personal benzene exposure and inhalation uptake in a group of children to those of their parents. We also compared levels of urinary benzene metabolites, trans,trans-muconic acid (MA) and hydroquinone (HQ), for those two groups, and assessed the correlation between personal benzene exposure and urinary MA and HQ concentrations.

Slow-stirring method for determining the n-octanol/water partition coefficient (Pow) for highly hydrophobic chemicals: performance evaluation in a ring test.

The n-octanol/water partition coefficient (Pow) is one of the most important parameters employed for estimating a chemical's environmental fate and toxicity. The currently adopted test guidelines for its determination do not allow for reliable determination of log Pow greater than 5. The slow-stirring experiment, in contrast, has been demonstrated to provide reliable log Pow data up to log Pow of 8.