Adult lung function and long-term air pollution exposure. ESCAPE: a multicentre cohort study and meta-analysis.

The chronic impact of ambient air pollutants on lung function in adults is not fully understood. The objective of this study was to investigate the association of long-term exposure to ambient air pollution with lung function in adult participants from five cohorts in the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE). Residential exposure to nitrogen oxides (NO\u2082, NOx) and particulate matter (PM) was modelled and traffic indicators were assessed in a standardised manner. The spirometric parameters forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV\u2081) and forced vital capacity (FVC) from 7613 subjects were considered as outcomes. Cohort-specific results were combined using meta-analysis. We did not observe an association of air pollution with longitudinal change in lung function, but we observed that a 10 \u3bcg\ub7m(-3) increase in NO\u2082 exposure was associated with lower levels of FEV\u2081 (-14.0 mL, 95% CI -25.8 to -2.1) and FVC (-14.9 mL, 95% CI -28.7 to -1.1). An increase of 10 \u3bcg\ub7m(-3) in PM10, but not other PM metrics (PM2.5, coarse fraction of PM, PM absorbance), was associated with a lower level of FEV\u2081 (-44.6 mL, 95% CI -85.4 to -3.8) and FVC (-59.0 mL, 95% CI -112.3 to -5.6). The associations were particularly strong in obese persons. This study adds to the evidence for an adverse association of ambient air pollution with lung function in adults at very low levels in Europe

Spatial variation of PM2.5, PM10, PM2.5 absorbance and PMcoarse concentrations between and within 20 European study areas and the relationship with NO2 - Results of the ESCAPE project

n/

Variation of NO2 and NOx concentrations between and within 36 European study areas: Results from the ESCAPE study

n/

A new methodology to assess the performance and uncertainty of source apportionment models II: The results of two European intercomparison exercises

The performance and the uncertainty of receptor models (RMs) were assessed in intercomparison exercises employing real-world and synthetic input datasets. To that end, the results obtained by different practitioners using ten different RMs were compared with a reference. In order to explain the differences in the performances and uncertainties of the different approaches, the apportioned mass, the number of sources, the chemical profiles, the contribution-to-species and the time trends of the sources were all evaluated using the methodology described in Belis et al. (2015). In this study, 87% of the 344 source contribution estimates (SCEs) reported by participants in 47 different source apportionment model results met the 50% standard uncertainty quality objective established for the performance test. In addition, 68% of the SCE uncertainties reported in the results were coherent with the analytical uncertainties in the input data. The most used models, EPA-PMF v.3, PMF2 and EPA-CMB 8.2, presented quite satisfactory performances in the estimation of SCEs while unconstrained models, that do not account for the uncertainty in the input data (e.g. APCS and FA-MLRA), showed below average performance. Sources with well-defined chemical profiles and seasonal time trends, that make appreciable contributions (>10%), were those better quantified by the models while those with contributions to the PM mass close to 1% represented a challenge. The results of the assessment indicate that RMs are capable of estimating the contribution of the major pollution source categories over a given time window with a level of accuracy that is in line with the needs of air quality management

Application of the emission inventory model TEAM: Uncertainties in dioxin emission estimates for central Europe

This study uses an improved emission inventory model to assess the uncertainties in emissions of dioxins and furans associated with both knowledge on the exact technologies and processes used, and with the uncertainties of both activity data and emission factors. The annual total emissions for the year 2000 in 13 countries in central and eastern Europe can be estimated with 90% confidence within a range that is about a factor of 2-3 lower to a factor of 3-5 higher than a point value obtained from a more classical approach. It is also shown that the contribution of small residential sources and larger industrial installations and processes are of the same order of magnitude in these countries. It is argued that, despite these uncertainties, policy options can be evaluated and policy decisions on abatement of dioxin and furan emissions can be made. Dioxins and furans belong to the persistent organic pollutants (POPs), an important group of air pollutants that can have long-term effects on ecosystems and human health. Emission estimates for these pollutants all suffer from high uncertainties. This study shows that policy conclusions can still be derived despite these high uncertainties. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The European Dioxin Emission Inventory. Stage II Final report

For Stage II of the European Dioxin Project the following objectives were set: - Amendment of existing emission data collected for most relevant emission sources in order to reduce uncertainties of emission estimates. Collecting first emission data from countries not yet performing dioxin emission measurement programs. Extending the inventory of dioxin emissions to ambient air produced in Stage I by a complementary study on emissions to land and water. Extending the regional scope of data collection to countries in Central Europe. The report of Stage II of the European Dioxin Project is presented in 3 Volumes. Volume 1 contains an overview on the background and approach of different activities carried out and on the results obtained. These results are put into a broader view regarding the dioxin reduction measures in Europe leading to conclusions and recommendation for future work. Volume 2 of the report contains a detailed presentation of the sub-projects carried out. The chapters of Volume 2 are structured in a similar manner and start with a short summary in order to allow for a fast cross-reading. In the case of the desk-top studies an overview of the main results or statements is given. Regarding emission measurements details on the experimental set-up and the facilities being investigated are presented. Volume 3 contains a re-evaluation of the dioxin emission inventory presented for the most relevant sources types in the Stage I report. New data gathered from the projects of Stage II as well as from independent activities in the European countries are considered for a revision of the 1995 emission estimates. Additionally, based on current trends and activities the PCDD/F emissions for the years 2000 and 2005 are estimated. Finally, an attempt is made to evaluate the PCDD/F emission reduction rates which might be possible to achieve by the year 2005 compared to 1985. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekCommission of the European Communities, Brussels (Belgium). DG EnvironmentDEGerman

Identification of relevant industrial sources of dioxins and furans in Europe (The European Dioxin Inventory) Final report

This report is the result of two year research program carried out by the North Rhine-Westphalia State Environment Agency on behalf of the European Commission, DG XI. The program aimed at collection of information available in the Western European countries (the 15 EU members, including Norway and Switzerland) concerning emission sources of polychlorinated dioxins and furans (PCDD/Fs) for the reference period 1993-1995. The results of the project are presented in two volumes: Volume 1 contains - on the basis of data presented in Volume 2 - a selection of the most important air emission sources by applying different criteria (e.g. typical and maximal annual emission, likely local impact). The selected sources are assumed to cover about 90% of the annual PCDD/F air emissions in Europe. To get an emission estimate for those countries which did not provide corresponding national data a re-evaluation was made according to the following procedure: - Definition of default standard emission factors from the available measurement data as provided by the national basic documents - calculation of emission estimates for all 17 countries using corresponding activity data (e.g. production statistics). Volume 2 comprises a detailed summary of available data in the countries of interest; the information is arranged according to the Selected Nomenclature for Atmospheric Pollutants (SNAP) as established by the CORINAIR (European air emission data base) inventory system. The data are presented corresponding to a common substructure for each source category comprising information on measurement results, emission factors, activity rates and annual emission freights derived therefrom. In order to get an indication for data gaps the uncertainty of the estimated emissions is roughly assessed. Besides emission into the atmosphere PCDD/F releases through waste water and residual matter have been considered. (orig.)Dieser Bericht praesentiert die Ergebnisse eines 2-jaehrigen Projekts, das vom Landesumweltamt NRW im Auftrag der EU-Kommission (DG XI) unter dem Titel 'Identification of Relevant Industrial Sources of Dioxins and Furans (The European Dioxin Inventory)' durchgefuehrt wurde. Das Arbeitsprogramm des Vorhabens war darauf ausgerichtet, vorhandene bzw. erreichbare Informationen ueber Dioxin- und Furan-Emissionsquellen in den Westeuropaeischen Staaten (d.h., die 15 Mitglieder der EU einschliesslich Norwegen und der Schweiz) fuer den betrachteten Zeitraum 1993 bis 1995 zu erfassen. Die Ergebnisse dieses Projekts werden in diesem Band der 'LUA Materialien' Reihe vorgestellt. Der 1. Teil (Auswertungsteil) enthaelt auf Grundlage der im Materialienteil zusammengestellten Daten und unter Anwendung verschiedener Kriterien eine Auswahl der wichtigsten Emissionsquellen (z.B. typische und maximale jaehrliche Emissionen, moegliche lokale Auswirkungen). Diese ausgewaehlten Quellen sind vermutlich zu ungefaehr 90% fuer die jaehrlichen Dioxin-Frachten in die Atmosphaere Westeuropas verantwortlich. Um auch Emissionswerte fuer die Laender zu erhalten, die keine nationalen Daten zur Verfuegung stellten, wurde eine Abschaetzung gemaess folgender Methode vorgenommen: - Zunaechst wurden Standard-Emissionsfaktoren definiert und zwar aus den Daten der verfuegbaren nationalen Inventare - danach wurden Emissionsabschaetzungen fuer alle 17 Laender vorgenommen unter Verwendung der entsprechenden Aktivitaetsdaten (z.B. aus Produktionsstatistiken). Der 2. Teil (Materialienteil) enthaelt eine detaillierte Zusammenfassung der verfuegbaren Daten aus den 17 hier betrachteten Laendern. Die Informationen wurden Anlagenkategorien zugeordnet gemaess der 'Selected Nomenclature for Atmospheric Pollutants' (SNAP), die fuer CORINAIR (Europaeische Datenbank fuer Luftemissionen) erstellt worden waren. Die Daten enthalten Informationen zu Messergebnissen, Emissionsfaktoren Aktivitaetsraten und die davon abgeleiteten jaehrlichen Emissionsfrachten. Um einen Hinweis auf Datenluecken zu erhalten, wurden die Unsicherheiten der Emissionsabschaetzungen grob geschaetzt. Neben Emissionen in die Atmosphaere wurden auch Dioxin-Emissionen durch Wasser und Rueckstaende betrachtet. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RR 5570(43) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekCommission of the European Communities (CEC), Brussels (Belgium). Directorate General 11DEGerman

Anthropogenic Vanadium emissions to air and ambient air concentrations in North-West Europe

An inventory of Vanadium emissions for North-West Europe for the year 2005 was made based on an identification of the major sources. The inventory covers Belgium, Germany, Denmark, France, United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Netherlands and the OSPAR region of the North Sea. Vanadium emission were calculated bottom-up using energy use activity data and collected fuel and sector-specific emissions factors, taking into account various emission control measures. The NW European emissions were dominated by combustion of heavy fuel oil and petroleum cokes. Total emissions for 2005 amounted to 1569 tons/yr. The major sources are sea going ships (39%), petroleum refineries (35%) and industry (19%). Emission is strongly concentrated at the densely populated cities with major sea ports. The location of sources at or near the major port cities was confirmed by observational data, as was the downward trend in emissions due to emission control, fuel switches in industry and fuel quality improvement. The results show the positive impact of lower sulphur fuels on other possible health relevant air pollutants such as particle bound Vanadium. The emission inventory can be expanded to the full European domain and can be used to for air quality modeling and particularly for the tracing of source contributions from certain types of fossil fuels (petroleum coke and residual fuel oil). Moreover, it will allow the monitoring of changes in fuel use over time

AirMontech Newsletter

8 páginasThis Newsletter aims to highlight developments of Airmontech project. Ambient Air Quality (AQ) is still a major issue of concern in Europe, particularly in urbanised environments where most of the European population lives. Measurements are therefore important for Member States to demonstrate compliance with air quality limits set by the respective EU directives, in some cases to demonstrate the reduction of pollutant levels, and to assess the effect of mitigation measures. The AQ monitoring networks operated by the member states are challenged with continuously increasing quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) demands on the one hand and on-going innovations and novel monitoring technologies on the other. Moreover, toxicological and epidemiological studies reveal that additional pollutants or characteristics of known pollutants may also be of importance for public health and thus should be included into a comprehensive AQ monitoring strategy. The EU project AirMonTech, funded by DG Research, was specifi cally initiated to tackle and to give advice to the above tasks. Airmontech Consortium includes the following researchers: J. Moeltgen (UDE), U. Quass (IUTA), K. Torseth (NILU), K. Katsouyanni (NKUA), B. Vogel (UDE), R. Otjes (ECN), E. Weijers (ECN), P. Woods (NPL), T. Kuhlbusch (IUTA, Coordinator), P. Quincey (NPL), M. Viana (CSIC), R. Gehrig (EMPA), X. Querol(CSIC,) A. Borowiak (JRC), C. Hueglin (EMPA).AirMontech (Air Pollution Monitoring Technology for Urban Areas) Newsletter is funded under the 7th Framework Programme of the European CommissionPeer reviewe

Firewood residential heating - local versus regional influence on the aerosol burden

As a particular form of biomass burning (BB), domesticheating with firewood is a major source of fine dust inthe cold season. Understanding its impact on air qualityrequires reliable aerosol source apportionment andassessment of prevailing loss processes. Further, to establisheffective mitigation policies, it is necessary toaccurately quantify the contribution of local vs. remotesources to the aerosol burden. To this end, source-receptormodelling is employed, such as chemical massbalance or Lagrangian techniques, to calculate concentrationsof the BB specific tracer in aerosol, levoglucosan(Fine et al. 2002, Chunmao et al. 2019). In the lastdecades, it has been shown that combining stable isotoperatios with concentration measurements allows forseparating the impact of chemical degradation fromchanges linked to source strength or atmospherictransport. Based on that, Gensch et al. (2018) developeda numerical approach, comparing stable carbonisotopic ratio and concentration measurements withback trajectory analyses by the Lagrangian particle dispersionmodel FLEXPART (https://www.flexpart.eu/) toinvestigate chemical aging processes in BB aerosol.In the present study, stable carbon isotopes were implementedin the full dispersed output of FLEXPART byexplicitly tracking of the levoglucosan fraction containing13C. Further, sensitivity studies were carried out toexamine the simulation responses to the uncertaintiesof the governing atmospheric processes described inFLEXPART and thus, to determine the model performancefor given conditions. Finally, the set of selectedmodelling routines were applied in a case study with thegoal to assess the contribution of local vs. remotesources of biomass burning emissions from residentialheating to the particulate matter sampled at twomeasurement stations of the North Rhine-WestphaliaEnvironmental Agency, LANUV. Thereby, the measuredlevoglucosan concentration and isotopic composition in50 selected aerosol samples taken at an urbanbackground station in Mülheim-Styrum and at a ruralbackground station in the Eifel, in the cold seasons of2015 - 2017 were compared with the model results.The simulations indicate that the biggest fraction of thesampled aerosol is 1 to 2 days old. Chemical aging, alsolimited by low mean OH concentrations in the cold season,has thus a minor influence on the observedlevoglucosan concentration and δ13C (Fig. 1). Theexperimental data, interpreted as a two end-membermixing series between low-concentration/isotopicallyheavyback-ground and high-concentration/isotopicallylightfresh emissions, support the model outcome,showing similar isotopic ratios for the two constituents.The high variability in the observed δ13C implies that thelocal levoglucosan emissions are characterized by verydifferent isotopic ratios in the range of -25.3 to -21.4 %(Fig. 1 in Pdf). These values are in good agreement withprevious studies on levoglucosan source specificisotopic composition in BB aerosol (Sang et al. 2012).These findings demonstrate that the aerosol burdenfrom residential heating in living areas is of local originand thus, mitigation is possible through reduction oflocal emissions. In this work we show that combiningLagrangian modelling with isotope ratios is valuable toobtain additional insight in source apportionment.There is, though, a need for a better isotopic descriptionof sources. Moreover, studies investigating long rangetransport of BB aerosol from large-scale fires in the dryseason are essential to examine the role of aging amongother loss processes.Fine, P.M., Cass, G.R. and Simoneit, B.R.T. (2002) J. Geophys.Res., [Atmos.], doi 10.1029/2001jd000661Chunmao, Z., Yugo, K., et al. (2019) Environ. Pollut., doi10.1016/j.envpol.2019.01.003Gensch, I., Sang, X.F., et al. (2018) Environ. Sci.&Tech.,doi 10.1021/acs.est.8b03054Sang, X.F., Gensch, I., et al. (2012) Environ. Sci.&Tech.,doi 10.1021/ es204094