European standardization of methods for pesticide residue analysis in foods--current status.

The aim of this paper is to inform all scientists working in pesticide residue analysis on the contents, size and background of European standards (ENs) in this area. These ENs were established by a Technical Committee (TC 275, of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN, and each CEN member country is obliged to implement them as national standards. EN 1528:1996 comprises eight methods for the multiresidue determination of organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in fatty foods. For non-fatty foods such as fruits and vegetables, EN 12 393:1998 provides five multi-residue methods. In addition, three methods for dithiocarbamate fungicides in EN 12 396: 1998/2000 and two methods for bromide residues in EN 13 191:2000 are already available. In this way, a valuable harmonization of methods across Europe is achieved which is useful for quality control in the food industry as well as in official food inspection.

Disability determinations for adults with mental disorders: Social Security Administration vs independent judgments.

OBJECTIVES: Disability determinations made by the Disability Determination Service for Social Security Administration (SSA) disability claims due to mental impairment were compared with the independent judgments of a team of mental health workers. The decisions of the Service and the team's agreement with those decisions were predicted from a set of explanatory variables. METHODS: One hundred fifty-eight adult applicants for or beneficiaries of SSA benefit programs participated. The team used SSA disability criteria to judge disability based on in-depth interviews. RESULTS: Team members voted yes, no, or maybe regarding approval for disability. Of the cases approved by the team, 89% were actually allowed by the Disability Determination Service. However, the team could not reach a yes or no decision for almost half of the subjects, contributing to a total agreement with the Service on only 40% of the cases. CONCLUSIONS: Sufficient evidence exists to question the reliability of SSA disability determinations for mental disorders. Although the Disability Determination Service decision for mental impairments can be predicted above chance, a direct test of the reliability of such determinations should be conducted, with particular attention to the effect of the quality of the medical information.

Effects of prices, civil and criminal sanctions, and law enforcement on alcohol-related mortality.

Alcohol use has been linked to several causes of death. This study provides an empirical analysis of the effects of various public policies on mortality rates by state and year for the years 1982-88. Causes of death analyzed are: alcohol primary cause; traffic accident; homicides; suicides; falls, fires and other accidents; and contributory cause deaths (cancers of the alimentary tract). We find that increasing the price of alcohol decreases mortality rates for some of the causes, but not for primary cause deaths. Higher excise taxes on cigarettes reduce contributory cause mortality. Dram shop laws have negative and statistically significant effects not only on mortality rates from traffic accidents, but for several of the other causes. There is a need for further analysis to determine how these reductions are achieved. We find no evidence that imposing mandatory minimum jail terms, fines or license revocation for a DUI conviction affects alcohol-related mortality. However, increased police protection decreases mortality rates for several categories, especially homicides and traffic accidents. We find that imposing the death penalty reduces homicide rates. Reductions in alcohol-related mortality may be achieved by implementing a mix of public policies. No single policy is a panacea.