European intercomparison workshops on air quality monitoring. Vol. 2 Measuring of CO, NO, NO_2 and O_3

This report presents the results of three European Intercomparison Workshops on Air Quality Monitoring (CO, NO, NO_2, and O_3) conducted in April 1995 and in April and September 1996 by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Air Quality Management and Air Pollution Control in co-operation with the central laboaratory of UBA Pilotstation in Offenbach/Main, Germany. These Workshops were a contribution to ongoing quality assurance and quality control activities in air quality monitoring within the WHO European Region. Fifteen institutes used the opportunity to compare their measurement methods (4 manual methods and 26 automatic methods) and analytical standards for ambient air monitoring of carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen and ozone. Calibrations were done by using certified reference materials (CRM) and by carrying through suitable independent calibrations. The results were expressed as concentrations over 30 minutes. The main result of altogether 122 intercomparison runs at the three Workshops is that agreement within +/-10% of the given concentration was reached by all laboratories. 93% of the participating laboratories were even able to achieve a result within +/-5% of the given concentrations. Additionally, one sampling period of 24 hours was performed for NO_2 during the Workshop in September 1996. Except one deviation of 5.5% all averages of the 24 hours run were within a tolerance of +/-5% from the target value. All applied methods could be recommended as suitable methods for future air quality measurements in the WHO European Region. (orig.)Available from FIZ Karlsruhe / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

European intercomparison workshop on air quality monitoring. Vol. 5 Measuring of NO, NO_2, SO_2 and O_3

This report presents the results of a WHO Europen Intercomparison Workshop on Air Quality Monitoring (NO, NO_2, SO_2 and O_3) conducted in May 2002 by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Air Quality Management and Air Pollution Control in co-operation with the national reference laboratory of UBA Pilotstation in Langen, Germany. The Workshop was a contribution to on-going quality assurance and control activities on air quality measurements for Member States of the WHO Europen Region. Eleven laboratories mainly from Central and Eastern Europe used the opportunity to compare their measurement methods (14 manual methods and 20 monitors) and standards. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RR 838(15) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

Status report on quality assurance and quality control in air monitoring networks Central and Eastern countries of the WHO European region

SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Survey of national, regional and local air monitoring networks of the WHO European region

The main aim of this WHO Survey was to initiate a collection of information on national, regional and local air monitoring networks of the WHO European Region which has been expanded up to 50 Member States in the last few years. To realize this intention we had to elaborate appropriate instrumentation to compile all relevant information on policies and legislation on air pollution prevention and the scope of each network, with its details on sampling strategies, methods, devices, etc., in a most effective way. We therefore designed special questionnaires and started our investigation in a pilot phase with 13 selected countries. This overview presents the collection of all 70 air monitoring networks of the following 11 countries: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. (orig./SR)Available from TIB Hannover: RR 838(8) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

European intercomparisation workshops on air quality monitoring. Vol. 3 Measuring of CO, NO, NO_2, and BTX

This report presents the results of two European Intercomparison Workshops on Air Quality Monitoring (CO, NO, NO_2 and BTX) conducted in May 1998 by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Air Quality Management and Air Pollution Control in co-operation with the national reference laboratory of UBA Pilotstation in Offenbach/Main, Germany. The Workshops were to be a contribution to continuing quality assurance and control activities on air quality monitoring in the WHO European Region. Fourteen institutes used the opportunity to compare their measurement methods (12 manual methods and 31 monitors) and standards for ambient air monitoring of carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, benzene, toluene, and xylene. Summing up the laboratory measurements (automatic and manual methods) of NO, NO_2 and CO during both intercomparison Workshops more than 80% of all results agrees with the target value within a tolerance of #+-#10%, and 60 to 80% of all results were within a tolerance of #+-#5%. Best results were obtained for CO measurements (measured by monitors only): 92% agreed with a tolerance of #+-#10% and 76% agreed within #+-#5%. For the comparisons of different analytical methods during the measurements of nitrogen oxides the results showed very good agreement for NO_2. On the other hand, the results for NO were not as good and they indicated some problems with manual methods. Summing up the BTX laboratory measurements (automatic and manual methods) of both intercomparison Workshops, 44 to 60% of all results were within a tolerance of #+-#10%, and between 23 and 35% of all results were within tolerance of #+-#5% from the target value. The comparisons of calibration standards showed very good agreement between the primary calibration standard of UBA Pilotstation and the national transfer standards of the participating laboratories. Some unsystematical differences were identified for manual methods at low NO and NO_2 concentrations in ambient air. Furthermore, some measurement phenomena were identified of automatic and manual methods. Thus, there seems to be a need for further intercomparisons to check and to veryify the causes. Most of the applied methods are reliable and suitable for obtaining air quality data appropriate to evaluate and estimate environmental health risks in the WHO European Region. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RR 838(11) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

European intercomparison workshops on air quality monitoring. Vol. 4 Measuring NO, NO_2, O_3 and SO_2

This report presents the results of two European Intercomparison Workshops on Air Quality Monitoring (NO, NO_2, O_3, and SO_2). The Workshops were a contribution to continuing quality assurance and quality control activities on air quality monitoring for Member States of the WHO European Region. Fourteen institutes mainly from Central and Eastern Europe used the opportunity to compare their measurement methods (15 manual methods and 24 monitors) and standards. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RR 838(13) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman