THE EUROPEAN CONGRESS ON COBALT AND HARD METAL DISEASE - CONCLUSIONS,HIGHLIGHTS AND NEED OF FUTUE STUDIES

This article summarizes the present state of the art and some recommen dations for solutions to problems identified by the European Congress on Cobalt and Hard Metal Disease on the basis of the papers and poster s presented, as well as a round table discussion(a) which produced sev eral dominant questions and revealed areas of weakness and uncertainty . The round table discussion (chairman, Professor E. Capodaglio) focus sed on the following aspects: (i) Monitoring (opinion leaders: R. Lauw erys, E. Sabbioni). (ii) Mechanisms of toxicity (opinion leaders: B. N emery, N.L. Sprince, G. Scansetti). (iii) Health effects (opinion lead ers: G. Nordberg, I.B. Andersen). (iv) Diagnosis/health surveillance ( opinion leaders: G. Chiappino, S. Hernberg, S. Brown).