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On behalf of Aluminiumindustriens Miljøsekretariat (AMS), NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research reviewed existing data on ambient air quality around aluminium smelters from the period 1992 – 2020. Changes in production technologies and treatment technologies have been implemented in this time period. Emissions to air and ambient concentrations of most compounds typically measured (PAHs, fluorides, sulphur dioxide, particulate matter, heavy metals) have decreased since the beginning of the 1990s as a result of improvement of the production technology.
NILU
2022
Status report of air quality in Europe for year 2021, using validated and up-to-date data
This report presents summarised information on the status of air quality in Europe in 2021, based on Up-To-Date (i.e. prior to final quality control) and validated air quality monitoring data reported by the member and cooperating countries of the EEA. It aims at giving more timely and preliminary information on the status of ambient air quality in Europe in 2021 for five key air pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, O3, NO2 and SO2). The report also gives a preliminary assessment of the progress towards meeting the European air quality standards for the protection of health and the new World Health Organization air quality guidelines, and compares the air quality status in 2021 with the previous three years. The preliminary data reported for 2021 shows that more than 11% and 9% of the monitoring stations exceeded the EU standards for PM10 and O3, respectively. The WHO AQG for PM2.5, PM10, O3 and SO2 were exceeded by 94%, 66%, 92% and 4%, respectively. Exceedances of the NO2 limit value still occur in 8 reporting countries and WHO AQG still occur in 35 reporting countries.
ETC/HE
2022
Status report of air quality in Europe for year 2020, using validated data
This report presents summarised information on the status of air quality in Europe in 2020, based on validated air quality monitoring data officially reported by the member and cooperating countries of the EEA. It aims at informing on the status of ambient air quality in Europe in 2019 and on the progress towards meeting the European air quality standards for the protection of health, as well as the new WHO air quality guidelines. The report also compares the air quality status in 2020 with the previous three years. The pollutants covered in this report are particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), O3, NO2, benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), SO2, CO, benzene and toxic metals (As, Cd, Ni, Pb). Measured concentrations above the European air quality standards for PM10, PM2.5, O3, NO2 were reported by 20, 6, 21, and 8 European countries for 2020, respectively. Exceedances of the air quality standards for BaP, SO2, CO, and benzene were measured in, respectively, 11, 19, 2, and 0 European countries in 2020. Exceedances of European standards for toxic metals were reported by 7 stations for As, 0 for PB, 1 for Cd and 2 for Ni.
ETC/HE
2022
Monitoring of greenhouse gases and aerosols at Svalbard and Birkenes in 2021. Annual report.
This annual report for 2021 summarizes the activities and results of the greenhouse gas monitoring at the Zeppelin Observatory, situated on Svalbard, during the period 2001-2021, and the greenhouse gas monitoring and aerosol observations from Birkenes for 2009-2021.
NILU
2022
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
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
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
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
This scoping study proposes a methodology to develop indicator(s) on the risk of chemicals on various types of ecosystems, habitats and species. This indicator is designed to answer the very different needs coming from environmental policy and strategies. Its aim is to reflect the consequences of human activities (e.g., farming) on ecosystems taking into account different protection goals that can cover specific or protected habitats (or the relevant communities or species in these habitats) or intensively used areas such as agricultural landscapes, which are very relevant in terms of representativity.
In order to develop such an indicator, the methodological approach retained to calculate maps showing a specific risk, illustrated as different degrees of exceedance of tolerable effect thresholds, is to combine different layers of information on which areas/habitats/ecosystems, contain which species, that are exposed to which amounts of chemicals. Information on the sensitivity of the species towards different toxicological effects, and how sensitive the species are to the applied chemicals, is used as ‘connectors’ between the different layers of spatial information.
The report highlights the data required for the development of such an indicator and their availability through a review of existing databases. A case study illustrates the applicability of the indicator and the need for further development.
ETC/HE
2022
Epidemiological studies have increasingly shown that ambient air pollution is not only associated with mortality but also with the occurrence of a number of long and short-term diseases. Further, the Global Burden of Disease study clearly indicated, that e. g. particulate matter pollution is also associated with a considerable burden of disease related to morbidity effects.
In addition to the most recent EEA’s health risk assessments, this report estimates the morbidity related health burden associated with exposure to the same three key air pollutants: fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3). Years lived with disability (YLDs) or attributable hospitalisation cases are assessed for the year 2019 for numerous European countries, depending on the respective data availability. Besides, the methodological approach as well as reviews on evidence-based health outcomes, health data and concentration-response functions are provided.
For the ten considered risk-outcome pairs, the results showed the highest morbidity related burden of disease in Europe for PM2.5 associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with 51.6 YLDs per 100 000 inhabitants ≥25 years. For NO2 the highest morbidity burden resulted from diabetes mellitus (DM) with 54.6 YLDs per 100 000 inhabitants ≥35 years. For short-term O3 exposure hospital admissions due to respiratory diseases were estimated at 18 attributable cases per 100 000 inhabitants ≥65 years.
In addition to the estimates, the report contains suggestions for further sensitivity analyses. These would allow a better assessment of the effects resulting from different input data on the results.
The estimations presented in this report are the first of its kind that are carried out for a wide range of morbidity health outcomes associated with different outdoor air pollutants in Europe, using a consistent methodology and data from European health databases.
ETC/HE
2022