The aim of the work was to manufacture, using a laboratory-scale film production pilot plant, nanocomposite polylactic acid (PLA) films added with Cloisite 30B clay-derived nanofiller having one nanometric dimension, and to characterize and to assess the migration of the obtained systems, in view of food packaging applications. The study demonstrated that it is possible to obtain nanocomposite PLA films with intercalated/exfoliated morphology of the dispersed layered nanofiller using conventional film production technologies. With increasing the silicate content in the film, the developed systems show a marked improvement of the mechanical performance, with a rise in the modulus and in the elongation at break with respect to the unfilled PLA, a significant lowering in the oxygen permeability and a slight increase in the surface wettability, without given significant alteration of film transparency and chromatic perception. Compared with the unfilled PLA, no significant changes can be observed about the migration behaviour of the nanocomposite PLA systems. In fact, both the overall migration and the specific migration, measured as lactic acid, remain always well below the applicable generic specific migration limit of 60 mg/kg food (10 mg/dm 2 ) of the Regulation EU 10/2011.

The migration of formaldehyde and melamine monomers has been measured on 90 samples of plastic tableware in three different situations - new articles, already used articles and artificially aged articles - by using simulant, contact times and temperatures prescribed by Commission Regulation (EU) No. 10/2011. Formaldehyde was determined by ultraviolet spectroscopy analysis of the coloured complex obtained by reaction with chromotropic acid. Melamine was measured by an ultra high performance liquid chromatography method. Fourier Transformed - Infrared Analysis was applied to characterise the plastic. The results highlighted the presence of different amino resins based on formaldehyde-melamine, urea-formaldehyde or melamine-urea-formaldehyde with different migration behaviour. The migration of monomers was related to progressive degradation of the resins. Ageing studies demonstrated that the potential degradation of the resins and the consequent migration of the monomers may continue throughout the service life of the product. The specific migration limit (SML) of melamine was exceeded after ageing.

Introduction. The Indoor Air Quality is a topic that in recent years is obtaining great attention in\ud healthcare facilities. Several studies are reporting a growing number of data and research works that allow\ud to know all the possible indoor levels and the development of management procedures (such as materials’\ud choice, products for cleaning and disinfection, improvement of HVAC system, etc.) in order to improve\ud the healing environments and health of medical and technical staffs, patients, ambulatory users and\ud visitors. Ensuring a good IAQ in hospitals is fundamentally because there are the most vulnerable category\ud of the population for their health conditions; although the assessment of IAQ results arduous.State of the Art. Currently in several countries are carried out air quality monitoring in those professional\ud workplaces in which chemicals are used (i.e. operating rooms, sterilization, anticancer preparation, etc.),\ud but also in some typically indoor spaces for the building hygiene evaluations. Therefore it determinated the\ud definition and adoption of limits (occupational exposure limit values, threshold limit value of the Scientific\ud Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits-VLEP or American Conference of Governmental Industrial\ud Hygienists-TLV to be used exclusively in workplaces) or values and guidelines (such as in the case of\ud indoor assessments, in particular the WHO’ indoor air quality guidelines).\ud Methodology. Starting from these considerations, Istituto Superiore di Sanità and Politecnico di Milano\ud have launched a research work for the evaluation and detection of air quality in inpatients rooms. The\ud survey is examining formaldehyde and VOCs, and the relative influence of thermo-hygrometric,\ud ventilation and concentration of pollutants’ parameters.\ud Discussion. This paper reports the results obtained from the indoor air monitoring in inpatient rooms. Each\ud survey, done every month, lasted between 5 and 7 days in relation to the real function use of the rooms.\ud Conclusion. The analysis is continuing on the inpatient rooms for controlling the indoor air values even in\ud summer season, and, in parallel, it is expanding to more health facilities in Lombardy and Latium regions

Giuffre et al.: O061: Impact of process control (PC) implementation and strategies to improve hand hygiene adherence (HHA), in device-associated infections (DAI) in an intensive care unit of adults (AICU). Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control 2013 2(Suppl 1):O61.