Chemical composition of burnt smell caused by accidental fires: environmental contaminants.

The chemical composition of the odors typical of fires has recently been deciphered. Basically the constituents are mixtures of acetophenone, benzyl alcohol, hydroxylated derivatives of benzaldehyde, methoxylated and/or alkylated phenols and naphthalene. This finding makes it possible to develop objective, practical analytic measurement methods for the burnt smell as a contribution to improving fire damage assessment and remediation monitoring. With the aid of an artificially produced burnt smell and a panel of testers the odor detection threshold of a test mixture was determined olfactometrically to 2 µg m⁻³. Using a defined burnt-smell atmosphere in a test chamber, analytical methods with active sampling, the adsorbents XAD 7 and TENAX TA, and GC/MS measurement were then optimized and tested with a view to being able to carry out sensitive quantitative measurement of burnt smells. A further practical method with particular application to the qualitative characterization of this odor is based on the use of a new SPME (solid-phase microextraction) field sampler with DVB/CAR/PDMS (divinylbenzene/Carboxen™/polydimethylsiloxane) fibers.

Surface-catalysed reactions on pollutant-removing building products for indoor use.

In order to evaluate the potential for emission of secondary reaction products from building materials designed to remove pollutants from indoor air, four samples of ceiling tiles--three commercially available and one custom-made--were investigated in chamber experiments. The chambers were irradiated with artificial light simulating indoor conditions and formaldehyde as well as several VOCs (2-butanone, n-butanol, toluene, hexanal, n- butylacetate, 2-butoxyethanol, alpha-pinene, benzaldehyde, n-decane, limonene and 1,2-dichlorobenzene) were added. Depending on the individual substrate-substance combination, it was possible to identify secondary emissions, e.g. formaldehyde, furfural, acetophenone, n-butylbutyrate, n-butyl-i-butyrate, n-butylpropionate, 4-heptanone, acetic acid, i-butyraldehyde and crotonaldehyde. These were generated by cleavage, hydrolysis, rearrangement or radical reactions. Some of these reactions also occurred with samples not containing photocatalysts. All these secondary emissions have to be taken seriously into account when evaluating the performance of materials designed to remove pollutants from indoor air, as they can prove detrimental to human health.

[Pseudomalignant primary renal actinomycosis after ureterosigmoidostomy. A case report]. / Nierenaktinomykose nach Ureterosigmoidostomie. Ein Fallbericht.

Actinomycosis is a chronic infectious disease caused by a gram-positive anaerobe. The bacterial disease is known to predominantly affect the oropharyngeal mucosa and soft tissues as well as the gastrointestinal tract. However, renal involvement by actinomycosis is exceedingly rare. Thus, renal actinomycosis is usually diagnosed by means of histopathological assessment of nephrectomy specimens because affected patients seek medical care due to (peri-) renal mass lesion clinically mimicking cancer. To best of our knowledge, we present the first case worldwide reporting on a 65-year-old man diagnosed with renal actinomycosis following ureterosigmoidostomy in whom nephrectomy was performed due the clinical suspicion of renal cancer (stage cT4). Subsequently, calculated antibiotic therapeutic regimens were initiated after the diagnosis was suspected by the pathologist. During the entire postsurgical follow-up comprising a total of 6 months, the patient did not experience any local or systemic recurrence. In summary, detailed information concerning the etiology, the clinical symptoms as well as diagnostic and therapeutic options are discussed in our case report.