Fant 420 publikasjoner. Viser side 3 av 18:
Survey of emissions of volatile organic chemicals from handheld toys for children above 3 years
NILU has, on behalf of the Norwegian Environment Agency, performed a screening study to identify volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) emitted from handheld toys for children. The goal was to identify individual VOCs emitted from toys at room temperature and to evaluate what impact the toys may have on the composition and concentrations of VOCs in indoor air. 12-30 individual VOCs were identified in each toy and 65-143 individual VOCs were detected with a concentration higher than 1 µg/m3. VOCs emitted at high concentrations and/or with hazardous properties were cyclohexanone, aromatic VOCs (xylenes, toluene, ethylbenzene), cyclic siloxanes and 2,2,4-Trimethyl-1,3-pentanediol diisobutyrate (TXIB). A regulated hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC-141 b) was also detected from 5 toys. The toys with high concentrations of cyclohexanone and cyclic siloxanes affected the composition and concentrations of VOCs in indoor air.
NILU
2020
Målinger av miljøgifter i luft ved Franzefoss Eide på Sotra og Husøya ved Kristiansund
NILU har gjennomført måleprogram for konsentrasjoner i luft ved Franzefoss Gjenvinning AS sine anlegg ved Eide på Sotra og ved Husøya ved Kristiansund. Ved Eide ble det tatt prøver i luft og analysert for prioriterte miljøgifter som dekloraner, fenoler, ftalater, PFAS, benzotriazoler, organiske tinnforbindelser, samt VOC inkludert D6, ammoniakk (NH3), gassfase HCl og hydrogensulfid (H2S). For de prioriterte miljøgiftene var de fleste prøvene under deteksjonsgrensen. De høyeste verdiene ble observert ved Lokasjon 11 Vannrenseanlegget. Ved Husøya ble det tatt prøver i luft og analysert for VOC inkludert D6, ammoniakk (NH3) og gassfase HCl. Verdiene ved Husøya var lavere enn ved Eide.
NILU
2022
Air Quality in Ny-Ålesund. Monitoring of Local Air Quality 2019 and 2020.
The concentrations of the measured components are generally low and below national limit values for the protection of
human health and critical levels for the protection of vegetation. Wind from northern sectors gave the highest average concentrations of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, which indicates the power station and the harbour as possible sources. We also see single episodes of long-range transport of sulfur dioxide.
NILU
2021
2021
Screening of Chlorinated Paraffins, Dechloranes and UV-filters in Nordic Countries
In 2019, the Nordic screening group decided to perform a Nordic screening on chlorinated paraffins, dechloranes and UV-filters. These compounds are used in a wide range of applications. They all have long range transport characteristics and can potentially be regulated under the Stockholm POP convention. However, there are still huge data gaps, which need to be addressed in order to fulfill regulation requests. Several topics and questions were in focus for more measurements and a deeper understanding: (1) importance of long-range atmospheric transport and deposition, (2) differences/similarities in terrestrial versus marine food chains, and (3) variations between the Nordic countries and between urban and remote areas. Based on these priorities, availability of samples, and other practical reasons, samples from different Nordic countries, different environments, and both urban and remote places were selected. This study includes analysis of the compounds in air, marine and freshwater fish and marine mammals and bird eggs, but as the chlorinated paraffins also have been found to accumulate in the terrestrial food web, terrestrial mammals and bird eggs were included as well. Additionally, samples of pine needles were analysed both to look at the possibility for long range transport and to investigate it as a possible source of chlorinated paraffins for the terrestrial mammals.
Nordic Council of Ministers
2022
The report provides the annual update of the European air quality concentration maps and population exposure estimates for human health related indicators of pollutants PM10 (annual average, 90.4 percentile of daily means), PM2.5 (annual average), ozone (93.2 percentile of maximum daily 8-hour means, SOMO35, SOMO10) and NO2 (annual average), and vegetation related ozone indicators (AOT40 for vegetation and for forests) for the year 2018. The report contains also Phytotoxic ozone dose (POD) for wheat and potato maps and NOx annual average maps for 2018. The POD maps are presented for the first time in this regular mapping report. The trends in exposure estimates in the period 2005-2018 are summarized. The analysis is based on interpolation of annual statistics of the 2018 observational data reported by the EEA member and cooperating countries and other voluntary reporting countries and stored in the Air Quality e-reporting database. The mapping method is the Regression – Interpolation – Merging Mapping. It combines monitoring data, chemical transport model results and other supplementary data using linear regression model followed by kriging of its residuals (residual kriging). The paper presents the mapping results and gives an uncertainty analysis of the interpolated maps.
ETC/ATNI
2021
This report presents the results of the European Union Action
on Black Carbon in the Arctic (EUA-BCA) initiative’s review of
observation capacities and data availability for black carbon in the Arctic region.
EUA-BCA/AMAP
2019
Chlorinated paraffins in urban air in Nordic countries
In 2022, the Joint Nordic screening group decided to perform a Nordic study on short-, medium- and long-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs, MCCPs, LCCPs) in urban air. A previous study performed on behalf of screening group in 2019 observed higher concentrations of chlorinated paraffins (CPs) in air samples from an urban site than from remote sites (Schlabach et al. 2022). It was then suggested that tire wear particles could be the source for the elevated urban concentrations.
The focus of the study in 2022 was to collect data to improve the understanding of sources for CPs in air by: (1) comparing concentrations measured in wintertime when studded tires are used and in summertime when normal tires are used, (2) comparing data from three capitals in the Nordic countries, and (3) compare urban air concentrations to air concentrations in a car tire testing facility. All the member countries were invited to participate but based on the possibilities to collect active air samples in urban locations, it was decided to collect air samples from Helsinki (Finland), Reykjavik and Reykjanesbær (Iceland) and Oslo (Norway). Samples were collected in February–March 2022 and May–August 2022. The sampling time for each sample was 48 hrs and 3–6 samples were collected per site and season.
Nordic Council of Ministers
2023
Environmental Contaminants in an Urban Fjord, 2021
This report presents data from the first year of a new 5-year period of the Urban Fjord programme. The programme started in 2013 and has since been altered/advanced. In 2021 the programme covers sampling and analyses of stormwater, river water, effluent from a wastewater treatment plant (inputs to the fjord), fjord sediment, blue mussel, cod and (river) trout, all from the Inner Oslofjord area. A total of 260 single compounds/isomers were analysed and frequent detection was found of benzothiazoles in abiotic aqueous phases, UV-compounds in most matrices, metals in all matrices, PBDEs in biota, chlorinated paraffins in all matrices and PCBs in biota and abiotic particle phases. Four
Norsk institutt for vannforskning (NIVA)
2022
Monitoring of environmental contaminants in air and precipitation. Annual report 2022.
This report presents air monitoring data from 2022 for the Norwegian monitoring programme "Atmospheric contaminants". The results cover 260 organic compounds (regulated and non-regulated) and 16 compound groups, 14 heavy metals, and a selection of organic chemicals of concern.
NILU
2023
The ClairCity Horizon2020 project aims to contribute to citizen-inclusive air quality and carbon policy making in middle-sized European cities. It does so by investigating citizens’ current behaviours as well as their preferred future behaviours and policy measures in six European cities1 through an extensive citizen and stakeholder engagement process. The project also models the possible future impacts of citizens’ policy preferences and examines implementation possibilities for these measures in the light of the existing institutional contexts in each city (Figure 0-1). This report summarises the main policy results for Amsterdam (the Netherlands).
ClairCity Project
2020
This report analyses evolution and trends of air quality in Europe, based on a 15-year time series of spatial data fusion maps for the years 2005-2019. The analysis has been performed for PM10 annual average, the ozone indicator SOMO35 and NO2 annual average. For the purpose of the Eionet Report - ETC/ATNI 2021/11 trend analysis, a consistent reconstruction of the full 15-year time series of air quality maps has been performed, based on a consistent mapping methodology and input data. For the reconstruction, the Regression – Interpolation – Merging Mapping (RIMM) methodology as routinely used in the regular European-wide annual mapping has been applied.
The trend analysis has been performed based on time series of the aggregated data for individual countries, for large European regions and for the entire mapping area, both for spatial and population-weighted aggregations. In addition, maps of trends have been constructed based on the trend estimates for all grid cells of a map.
For the European-wide aggregations across the whole mapping area, statistically significant downward trend have been estimated for PM10 and NO2, while no significant trend was detected in the case of ozone.
ETC/ATNI
2021
Skogens helsetilstand i Norge. Resultater fra skogskadeovervåkingen i 2021
Skogens helsetilstand påvirkes i stor grad av klima og værforhold, enten direkte ved tørke, frost og vind, eller indirekte ved at klimaet påvirker omfanget av soppsykdommer og insektangrep. Klimaendringene og den forventede økningen i klimarelaterte skogskader gir store utfordringer for forvaltningen av framtidas skogressurser. Det samme gjør invaderende skadegjørere, både allerede etablerte arter og nye som kan komme til Norge i nær framtid. I denne rapporten presenteres resultater fra skogskadeovervåkingen i Norge i 2021 og trender over tid for følgende temaer:
(i) Landsrepresentativ skogovervåking;
(ii) Skogøkologiske analyser og målinger av luftkjemi på de intensive overvåkingsflatene;
(iii) Overvåking av bjørkemålere i Troms og Finnmark;
(iv) Barkbilleovervåkingen 2021 og mulig overgang til to generasjoner;
(v) Asiatisk askepraktbille – en dørstokkart?
(vi) Overvåking av askeskuddsyke;
(vii) Andre spesielle skogskader i 2021.
NIBIO
2023
The report evaluates current mapping methodology with respect to city- and NUTS3-levels mapping across Europe. It states that the current mapping can be used at the city and the NUTS3 levels, despite a mild smoothing effect at locations of the measurement stations. However, it suggests a post-processing correction based on the mapping residuals.
A potential new approach for the city ranking have been examined, namely the population-weighted concentration based on the mapping results. While the averaged measurement data from the background stations (as used in the current city ranking) provides a superior information for the whole city in general, the population-weighted concentration also well represents the whole city and gives a consistent information for all cities, including those without station measurements.
Next to this, alternative treatments of rural and urban stations has been evaluated. If the urban traffic areas should be better represented in the final maps, an increased map resolution is recommended.
Several possibilities of future development towards the European-wide city level mapping in a fine resolution have been suggested, namely exploitation of a high-resolution model output in the existing methodology, geostatistical downscaling of the existing spatial maps using fine-resolution proxy datasets and exploitation of existing low-cost sensor networks.
ETC/ATNI
2021
The report provides the annual update of the European air quality concentration maps and population exposure estimates for human health related indicators of pollutants PM10 (annual average, 90.4 percentile of daily means), PM2.5 (annual average), ozone (93.2 percentile of maximum daily 8-hour means, SOMO35, SOMO10) and NO2 (annual average), and vegetation related ozone indicators (AOT40 for vegetation and for forests) for the year 2019. The report contains also Phytotoxic ozone dose (POD) for wheat, potato and tomato maps and NOx annual average map for 2019. The POD map for tomato is presented for the first time in this regular mapping report. The trends in exposure estimates in the period 2005–2019 are summarized. The analysis is based on the interpolation of the annual statistics of the 2019 observational data reported by the EEA member and cooperating countries and other voluntary reporting countries and stored in the Air Quality e-reporting database. The mapping method is the Regression – Interpolation – Merging Mapping (RIMM). It combines monitoring data, chemical transport model results and other supplementary data using linear regression model followed by kriging of its residuals (residual kriging). The paper presents the mapping results and gives an uncertainty analysis of the interpolated maps. It also presents concentration change in 2019 in comparison to the five-year average 2014-2018 using the difference maps.
ETC/ATNI
2021
The ClairCity Horizon2020 project aims to contribute to citizen-inclusive air quality and carbon policy making in middle-sized European cities. It does so by investigating citizens’ current behaviours as well as their preferred future behaviours and policy measures in six European cities1 through an extensive citizen and stakeholder engagement process. The project also models the possible future impacts of citizens’ policy preferences and examines implementation possibilities for these measures in the light of the existing institutional contexts in each city (Figure 0-1). This report summarises the main policy results for Ljubljana.
ClairCity Project
2020
ClairCity aims to contribute to citizen-inclusive air quality and carbon policy making in middle-sized European cities. It does so by investigating citizens’ current behaviours, their preferred future behaviours and their preferred future policy measures in six European cities. The project also examines the possible future impacts of citizens’ policy preferences and implementation possibilities for these measures in the light of the existing institutional contexts in each city. With this aim, ClairCity has carried out in all six cities an extensive citizen, stakeholder and policy maker engagement process (Chapter 1). This report summarises the main policy results for the first of the six cities, Bristol (UK). The other ClairCity cities are Amsterdam (NL), Ljubljana (SL), Sosnowiec (PL), CIRA/ Aveiro (PT) and Liguria / Genoa (IT).
ClairCity Project
2019
This report presents the ICP Materials database for the period October 2017 - November 2018. It includes environmental data from the ICP Materials trend exposure programme for 2017 - 2018, and in addition, data for temperature, relative humidity, and precipitation amount back to the end of the previous annual exposure porgramme in October/November 2015. The database consists of meteorological data (T, RH and precipitation amount) and pollution data, as gas concentrations, amounts of ions in precipitation, particle concentrations and amounts of particle deposition.
NILU
2020
Environmental pollutants in the terrestrial and urban environment 2018
Samples from the urban terrestrial environment in the Oslo area were analysed for various inorganic and organic
environmental pollutants. The selected species were earthworm, fieldfare, sparrowhawk, brown rat, red fox and
badger. Air and soil samples were also included in the study to further the understanding on sources and uptake of
pollutants. A foodchain approach was used to investigate trophic magnification of the different compounds.
NILU
2019
2020
Health Risk Assessment of Air Pollution and the Impact of the New WHO Guidelines
Air pollution is a major cause of premature death and disease and is the single largest environmental health risk in Europe. Heart disease and stroke are the most common reasons for premature deaths attributable to air pollution, followed by lung diseases and lung cancer.
The health risk assessment methodology assumptions have been recently adapted to follow the recommendations by the World Health Organisation (WHO), released in 2021. The new global air quality guidelines by WHO provide up-to-date health-based guideline levels for major health-damaging air pollutants and new recommendations for assessing the risk of exposure to air pollution.
This report estimates the health risk related to air pollution in 2020 based on the latest methodology. The estimates consider the number of premature deaths and years of life lost related to exposure to fine particulate matter, ozone and nitrogen dioxide, both for the 27 Member States of the European Union and for additional 14 European countries (Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, San Marino, Serbia, Switzerland, and Türkiye).
A sensitivity analysis to the changes in concentration-response functions and counterfactual concentrations is performed to understand the impact of such changes on the mortality outcome estimates. The sensitivity analysis included both old and new health risk methodology assumptions but also the recommendation from the ELAPSE study on the concentration response functions. The ELAPSE project includes some of the most recent studies on the health effects at low air pollution levels by examining associations between exposures to relatively low levels of air pollution across Europe, including levels below the current EU standards.
The results for 2020 show that the largest health risks are estimated for the countries with the largest populations. However, in relative terms, when considering e.g., years of life lost per 100 000 inhabitants, the largest relative risks are observed in central and eastern European countries for PM2.5, in central and southern European countries for NO2, and south and eastern European for O3. The lowest impact is found for the northern and north-western parts of Europe, where the concentrations are lowest. The number of premature deaths attributed to air pollution in 2020 compared to 2019, increased for PM2.5 and decreased for NO2 and O3. Apart from the changes in concentrations and demographics, the COVID-19 pandemics seems to also have an influence on these changes. For PM2.5, the reduction in concentrations were counteracted by the excess of deaths due to the pandemics. In the case of NO2, the reduction in concentrations was more pronounced as a result of the lockdown measures and the drastic reduction in traffic and its impact in reducing mortality was bigger than the increasing impact of excess of deaths due to COVID-19.
Changing assumptions on concentration-response functions and counterfactual concentrations have implications for estimating mortality health outcomes. The sensitivity analysis shows that it is not straightforward to assess which assumptions estimates the highest health impacts when both factors change. In this case, the final outcome will depend on the concentration at the grid-cell level. The latest assumptions are expected to reduce the health outcomes for PM2.5 and increase for NO2 and O3, when compared to the previous one. When aggregated to all countries, the health outcomes are reduced by over 40 % for PM2.5 and increased by 50 % and 30 % for NO2 and O3, respectively, in 2020. However, this change varies across countries depending on the concentration level the population in the individual countries is exposed to.
ETC/HE
2022
Phosphorus is a building block for all life and therefore plays an essential role in food production. Currently, large amounts of phosphorus enter the Norwegian food system from abroad in the form of mineral fertilizer, feedstuff, food, as well as micro-ingredients for animal feed, mainly in salmon farming. However, only a small fraction of this phosphorus ends up as food for humans, while the largest part accumulates in soil and water systems. This inefficiency entails two challenges:
1. Phosphorus supply is critical. Phosphate rock, the primary source of phosphorus for fertilizer and micro-ingredient production, is a limited resource that is highly concentrated in a few countries. Over 80% of global phosphate rock reserves are found in only 5 countries, and ~70% are located in Morocco and Morocco-occupied Western Sahara. The high concentration renders many countries vulnerable to geopolitical and economic instabilities and threatens food safety. The EU has therefore included phosphate rock on its list of Critical Raw Materials.
2. The accumulation of phosphorus in water systems can lead to eutrophication and dead zones, threatening fish stocks and other aquatic life. The high phosphorus concentration in soils due to overfertilization over long periods of time increases the danger of losses to water systems by runoff, further exacerbating the eutrophication risk.
A more circular use of phosphorus could simultaneously reduce supply and pollution risks. This is particularly relevant in Norway, where the government has an ambition to increase salmon and trout production from currently 1,5 to 5 million tons by 2050.
Achieving a circular phosphorus economy is a complex task: (i) The land- and the sea-based food systems are increasingly interlinked, for example through agricultural production of fish feed or the application of fish sludge on agricultural land. (ii) The Norwegian phosphorus cycle is increasingly interlinked with that of other countries as trade flows along the entire food supply chain are growing. (iii) Phosphorus fertilizers, both primary and recycled, are often contaminated with heavy metals such as cadmium, uranium, and zinc, which tend to accumulate in soils. Cleaning the phosphorus cycle is therefore vital for soil fertility and human health.
This report is based on the MIND-P project, which studied the Norwegian phosphorus cycle for both agriculture and aquaculture at a farm-by-farm basis and explored options for increasing circularity. The project identified farm-level and structural barriers to managing phosphorus resources more effectively.
We propose four fundamental strategies to overcome these barriers:
1. Develop and maintain a national nutrient accounting.
2. Minimize phosphorus losses and accumulations at farm level.
3. Establish infrastructures for capturing, processing, trade, and use of manure and fish sludge to produce high-quality recycled fertilizers that are tailored to the needs of the users in Norway and abroad.
4. Adopt a regulatory framework to promote a market for recycled fertilizer.
The strategies proposed here were developed with the support of an Advisory Panel consisting of representatives from government, industry, industry associations, and NGOs in an online and two physical workshops conducted in 2022.
Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet
2023