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The hearing is routinely tested in all newborns in most European countries. Thereafter, no hearing test is performed in a systematic way, despite the many conditions that can cause hearing loss in the first years of life. If language acquisition is possible with only one ear, even a unilateral hearing loss can be the cause of learning difficulties at school. In Geneva, a screening program for hearing deficit was introduced in 1955 in all primary schools of the canton. This paper shows the efficiency of the program, which can detect unnoticed deafness, sometimes in children whose neonatal screening had proved normal. Such a program should be applied to all private schools and to schools for disabled children.

A national hearing screening in newborns was introduced in Switzerland in the early 2000s. Since then, the number of maternities which applies has considerably increased. Test results are collected in a national database, giving a good overview of the quality of screening and incidence of deafness in Switzerland. The diagnosis and rehabilitation of deafness is earlier than before. This, combined to modem technologies allows mainstream integration of almost every deaf child.

Bacterial communities that can degrade surfactants have been selected from coastal seawaters contaminated by urban sewages. Only the linear fraction of commercial anionic surfactants was quickly degraded, and a residual fraction representing 10% of the initial concentration always remained. The highest concentrations of surfactant tolerated by these communities depend on the nature of the co-substrate and on the degree of adaptation of the selected bacteria.