Closed venereology wards in postwar Hamburg.

BACKGROUND: A number of research results on closed venereology facilities in the Soviet Occupation Zone (SOZ) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) have been presented in recent years. However, little is known about similar facilities in the Western Occupation Zones (WOZ) and in the early Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). METHOD: We have researched the records of the State Archive in Hamburg. Subsequently, the analysed sources were evaluated using the historically critical method. RESULTS: Three closed venereology wards existed in Hamburg. Compulsory commitments were conducted according to a three-stage procedure. In the immediate postwar period, the wards had barred windows and the doors were locked. Everyday life in the wards was initially determined by the postwar situation - poor facilities, poor hygiene, overcrowding. In the early 1950s, the number of beds was drastically reduced. The function of the wards consisted of isolation and medical care for the compulsorily committed persons. Medical care was in accordance with professional medical standards. DISCUSSION: Closed venereology wards in Hamburg followed the tradition established during the period of the Weimar Republic. This becomes apparent both in terms of the legal framework and in terms of the structure and functions of the wards. Thus, they clearly differ from the closed venereology facilities in the SOZ and in the GDR. These facilities were established in the tradition of Soviet prophylactics institutions. The wards in Hamburg served as isolation and treatment centres, the facilities in the SOZ and in the GDR also had a disciplinary function.

Preliminary risk assessment of the wet landscape option for reclamation of oil sands mine tailings: bioassays with mature fine tailings pore water.

Chemical and biological assays have been carried out on the "pore water" that results from the settling of the tailings that accompany bitumen recovery from the Athabasca oil sands. Examination of the nonacidic extracts of pore water by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy allowed the identification of numerous two- to three-ring polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs), to a total concentration of 2.6 micrograms/L of pore water. The PACs were biodegraded by microflora naturally present in the pore water. Acute toxicity was associated principally with the acidic fraction (naphthenic acids) of pore water extracts according to the Microtox assay; other work has shown that acute toxicity dissipates fairly rapidly. Both individual PACs and concentrated pore water extracts showed minimal levels of binding to the rat Ah receptor and induced minimal ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase activity in primary rat hepatocytes, showing an insignificant risk of inducing monooxygenase activity. Taken together with previous work showing negligible mutagenic activity of these extracts, we conclude that it should be possible to develop tailing slurries into biologically productive artificial lakes.