Mercury Measurement and Its Control: What We Know, Have Learned, and Need to Further Investigate.

Based on the available evidence of health effects, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been evaluating the need to regulate mercury releases to the environment. In response to the congressional mandates in The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA), the EPA has issued the Mercury Study Report and the Study of Hazardous Air Pollutant Emissions from Electric Utility Steam Generating Units Report. In spite of the enormous effort represented by these reports, as well as the efforts of both the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), in conducting the field measurement programs that form the basis for these reports, a definitive answer on the need for mercury regulation has not been found. However, the EPA, as well as other regulatory agencies and health researchers, have suggested a "plausible link" between anthropogenic sources emitting mercury and the methylation, bioaccumulation in the food chain, and adverse health effects in humans and wildlife.

Mercury Measurement and Its Control: What We Know, Have Learned, and Need to Further Investigate.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), through the Federal Energy Technology Center (FETC), manages the largest funded program in the country for developing (1) an understanding of mercury emissions, (2) measurement of these emissions, and (3) control technology (-ies) for these emissions for the U.S. coal-fired electric generating industry. DOE has initiated, or has collaborated with other government and industrial organizations in, these and other efforts relating to mercury and other hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), also known as air toxics. One of DOE's first reports on trace elements in coal was conducted from 1976 through 1978 by researchers at DOE's Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center (PETC, now FETC) and the Pittsburgh Mining Operations of the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Mines. The report was completed less than two years after DOE was formed, and 13 years before Title III of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments was enacted (Cavallaro et al., March 1978).

Evaluation report: defibrillators.

As part of the continuing evaluation programme of medical equipment sponsored by the UK Health Departments, the evaluation of defibrillators is being carried out within the Sheffield and Rotherham District Health Authorities. The following is a version of 'Health Equipment Information' ('HEI') Number 186, published in September 1988, which contains evaluation details on a further five defibrillators. These are the Cardiac Recorders CR26, the Hewlett-Packard HP43120A, the Physico-Control Lifepak 8, the PPG Hellige SCP 852 and the Simonsen & Weel Defi 2. A further model, the Seward Medical 9922 is covered very briefly as it has, as a result of the evaluation, been withdrawn from the market. Earlier summaries of evaluation reports have appeared in 'Journal of Medical Engineering and Technology', together with a review of debrillator design and development.