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The establishment of medical environmental centres at public health offices is hardly questioned any longer even though it means a crucial shift regarding the points of emphasis in human ecology in general as well as the extension of the fields of activity in public health services. It is doubtful whether the individual-orientated approach of environmental medicine can meet the complexity of medical problems due to environmental factors or which rating preventive medicine can have in this context. Environmental medicine could well not only overtax the personnel resources of public health offices, as previous experience shows, but also change the fields of activity of public health services qualitatively. At present the lack of knowledge and experience in environmental medicine enables only research-orientated institutions to perform appropriate work in this field.

New legal provisions set a limiting value of 0.1 mg TCE/m3 air in flats. Follow-up examinations by the Public Health Office Bremen show again that so far this limit can not be complied with in flats adjacent to dry cleaners. Interviews with affected residents give no hint for a change in utilisation habits. The Upper House of the German Federal Parliament has taken the legislative initiative for a complete prohibition of TCE in consequence of the fundamental problem of limiting values.

The paper describes the concentration of tetrachlorethen (TCE) in the air of flats in Bremen adjacent to drycleaners and the resulting TCE concentration in the food and blood of the residents. The results indicate that--regardless of the cleaning system--a high TCE pollution must be expected with nearly everybody living next to a TCE dry cleaning shop. The currently propagated guiding value of 0.1 mg TCE per m3 of air or 0.1 mg TCE per kg of food can hardly be complied with--even after reorganisation in the drycleaning shop. The problem of guiding and limit values of TCE and possible alternatives to dry cleaning with TCE are discussed. The paper shows that Public Health Offices--in cooperation with other institutions--can make relevant contributions to investigations in the field of environmental health.