World Health Organization Technical Report Series

This report presents the conclusions of a Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee convened to evaluate the safety of various food additives and contaminants, with a view to recommending acceptable daily intakes for humans, and to prepare specifications for the identity and purity of food additives. The first part of the report contains a general discussion of principles governing the toxicological evaluation of food additives and contaminants, including flavouring agents, and the establishment and revision of specifications, with comments concerning limits for arsenic, lead and heavy metals...

Possibilities for treating--or, ideally, avoiding--hereditary diseases have increased enormously with the rapid and radical developments in the field of molecular biology. This report of a WHO Scientific Group deals first with the human genome and the genetic basis of disease, then continues with a review of the epidemiology of genetic disorders and the role of genetic predisposition in various common conditions, including coronary heart disease, cancer, asthma, diabetes and mental disorders. In discussing prevention, the report considers both genetic family studies and population screening...

Hypertension is the commonest cardiovascular disorder, affecting about 20% of the adult population in many countries. It is linked with coronary heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure and renal dysfunction and is one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular mortality, which accounts for 20-50% of all deaths. Raised awareness of the public health and economic implications of hypertension is now directing attention to the need for long-term control programmes that focus on primary prevention, early detection and adequate treatment...

WHO defines health by use of the term "well-being". Many people have a more limited view, however, seeing health as no more than the absence of illness. This limited view is reflected in the various "vertical" programmes that aim to combat a specific disease or carry out a particular medical intervention. The achievements of vertical programmes have been tremendous in eradicating or reducing disease. But there remains the obvious but very important problem that a programme that deals with one disease has but limited effect when health is influenced by a range of different factors...

This report presents the conclusions of a Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee convened to evaluate the safety of residues of certain veterinary drugs in food and to recommend maximum levels for such residues in foods. The first part of the report considers the evaluation of veterinary drugs with a long history of use and the implications of veterinary drug use in aquaculture, and discusses the need for adequate data. A summary follows of the Committee's evaluations of toxicological and residue data on a variety of veterinary drugs: a beta-adrenoceptor-blocking agent (carazolol), seven antimicrobial agents (dihydrostreptomycin and streptomycin, enrofloxacin, gentamicin, neomycin, oxolinic acid and spiramycin) a glucocorticosteroid (dexamethasone), and a tranquilizing agent (azaperone)...

Since the Ministerial Conference on Malaria in 1992, which acknowledged the urgent need for worldwide commitment to malaria control, efforts have been directed to implementation of a Global Malaria Control Strategy. Vector control, an essential component of malaria control, has become less effective in recent years, partly as a result of poor use of alternative control tools, inappropriate use of insecticides, lack of an epidemiological basis for interventions, inadequate resources and infrastructure, and weak management...

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