Sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) are an important tool for the assessment of contamination in marine and estuarine sediments. Although such guidelines are not definitive indicators of toxicity, they can have a high predictive ability and are a vital tool for identifying areas with potentially adverse biological effects. In the present study, 15 sets of common SQGs have been compared, including values for Australia/New Zealand, Canada, Hong Kong, Norway, the Netherlands, the USA and regions within the USA (Puget Sound/Washington, New York and Florida). The majority of these SQGs are based on the weight-of-evidence approach. In particular, the sub-group of TEL/PEL-based values have a very high degree of comparability; values not belonging to this uniform group show substantial variations.

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Despite the repeated calls to stop, most notably in a technical publication of the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the use of the term 'heavy metal' appears not to have declined in the scientific literature and there is little evidence that the IUPAC instructions and those of other publications have had any measurable impact on this widespread usage. Indeed, the use of the term is increasing rather than declining. Four options are presented to solve this dilemma.

The kinetics of the base-catalyzed hydrolysis of 2-(octadecylthio)ethyl ethanoate have been examined at the air-liquid interface. The rate of reaction was found to be independent of the area/molecule in the monolayer, in accordance with the notion that reactions occurring at a single center are insensitive to area/ molecule variation.

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