The Cardbox/Cardview Database for residues in live animals and their products

The growing interest of the public opinion in environmental problems has re sulted in the establishment of national and international norms and regulat ions. Among others, the protection of human health requires the constant mo nitoring of several groups of potentially toxic substances as well as of th eir residues in live animals and their products. For this reason in recent years the European Commission decided to establish four Community Reference Laboratories (CRLs) for the analysis of residues in products of animal ori gin. The current mandate and operative conditions of the CRLs are described in the Council Directive 96/23/EC of 29 April 1996, which has the goal of promoting and supporting the harmonization of approaches among National Ref erence Laboratories (NRLs). In this context the CRL at the Istituto Superio re di Sanita of Rome is responsible for chemical elements, organochlorine c ompounds (including PCBs), carbamates, pyrethroids and organophosphorus com pounds. The supply of updated information on the literature of relevance to the tasks of the NRLs is one of the duties of the Rome CRL. To this end, t he so-called Cardbox Database has been set up, which for the time being is fully operative for chemical elements and organochlorine compounds. (C) 200 0 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.