Increases in the supply of outdoor air did not appear to affect workers' perceptions of their office environment or their reporting of symptoms considered typical of the sick building syndrome.

No abstract

ABSTRACT. 128 fresh (current) and 18 preserved (museum) polar bear hair samples were subjected to mercury analysis. Mercury levels ranging from <0.5-44.3 ppm were observed in the fresh samples with a geographic distribution showing higher levels in the western Arctic and substantially lower levels in the eastern Arctic and in Hudson's Bay. A similar geographic range and distribution was found in the museum specimens. No correlation can be demonstrated between observed levels and industrial releases of mercury. There is no real indication of increase in general levels over time. The source of observed high levels of mercury in arctic marine fauna appears to be geologic rather than industrial.

An improved technique for the determination of inorganic and total mercury in human blood, hair, urine and tissue samples by the Magos methods, based on the use of a new reaction vessel, is described. With this vessel, the sample throughput is tripled, the amount of sample and concomitant reagents required are reduced by a factor of five, the precision, accuracy and sensitivity are measurably improved and the technique in amenable to automation.

The occupational or environmental exposure of selected populations to lead, either alone or in combination with other metals, was monitored using ratios of the activity of the erythrocytic enzyme delta-aminolevulinate dehydratase. The results obtained have reaffirmed earlier findings that this test affords several significant advantages over the use of the enzyme's activity value measured at a set pH value and other types of activity ratios to assess lead exposure. Furthermore, the activity ratios' proven sensitivity, reliability, reproducibility, specificity and stability warrant that they be considered as viable alternatives to the more widely accepted diagnostic criteria of lead intoxication namely zinc protoporphyrin and lead levels in blood.