CLP Regulation and REACH Regulation: links, implementation and control in Italy.

In the last years the European policy for the management of chemicals is deeply changed after entering into force of the European Regulations (EC) no. 1907/2006 and (EC) no. 1272/2008. The implementation of the two Regulations requests a strong effort both from the enterprises and from national and regional institutions. The activities already realised or that are planned for the implementation of one of them could support the implementation of the other one. The crucial point is the creation of the surveillance coordination through a network that involves also the professional figures currently present in the border areas in order to check the compliance with the European legislation of substances on their own, in mixtures or in articles before they are put on European market.

[Management and development of the dangerous preparation archive]. / Gestione e sviluppo dell'Archivio preparati pericolosi.

In the year 2000 an archive of dangerous preparations was created at the National Health Institute (Istituto Superiore di Sanità), following a principle included in the Directive 88/379/EEC on dangerous preparations, subsequently modified by the Directive 1999/45/EC, concerning the creation of a data bank on dangerous preparations in each European country. The information stored in the archive is useful for purposes of health consumer's and workers protection and prevention, and particularly in case of acute poisonings. The archive is fully informatised, therefore the companies can send the information using the web and the authorized Poison Centres can find the information on the archive using the web. In each Member State different procedures are in place to comply with the 1999/45/EC Directive; therefore an international coordination could be useful in order to create an European network of national data-banks on dangerous preparations.

Ultrasound and microwave-assisted extraction of metals from sediment: a comparison with the BCR procedure.

In this paper we investigate alternatives to mechanical stirring for the extraction of the mobile fraction of metals from sediment, and analyze whether these techniques can reduce extraction time and improve reproducibility. We compare the quantities of metal extracted from BCR601 and BCR701 certified sediments using ultrasound bath, microwave-assisted extraction and the first step in the certified BCR sequential extraction procedure. Some environmentally important not-certified metals such as As, Mn, Co, Fe and Al have been included in this study. In the case of microwave-assisted extraction, we compare tests in which samples are exposed to constant, low power irradiation with tests using pulsed high power. In the tests using the ultrasound bath, less metal was extracted than with the other extractive techniques and standard deviations were comparable to those obtained with the BCR procedure; in assays using microwaves at constant power, extraction efficiencies were different for different metals and for different reference materials and, in some cases, standard deviations were higher than those for the reference method. In contrast, tests with microwaves and constant temperature produced encouraging results: R.S.D.s lay in the 2-4% range, both for certified and not-certified metals; these values are very low compared to those for the reference method. Extraction efficiencies for certified metals were close to 100% for Cd, Zn, Cu and Ni and around 80% for Pb and Cr.