Measurement of Elemental and Organic Carbon in Europe

The new Air Quality Directive 2008/50/EC is asking in Annex IX that elemental (EC) and organic (OC) carbon as well as soluble ions should be measured at selected background sites in each Member State. Several methods (thermal, optical or photo-acoustic methods) to determine elemental and organic carbon exist which do not always deliver comparable results. European experts in EC/OC measurements met at the JRC in Ispra on 10th and 11th February 2009 to discuss during a workshop the best suitable European method. The main tasks of this workshop were to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different methods for the determination of OC and EC, to get information from the Member States on existing methods or even standards being applied, to initiate discussions on a preferred basic method to be standardised by CEN within the scope of Directive 2008/50/EC. The conclusions of this workshop will directly feed into CEN and the corresponding Working Group to clearly define their task for European wide standardisation and hence harmonisation.JRC.H.4-Transport and air qualit

Comparison of methods for measuring atmospheric deposition of arsenic, cadmium, nickel and lead

International audienc

Different collector types for sampling deposition of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons - comparison of measurement results and their uncertainty

International audienceDifferent collector types, sample workup procedures and analysis methods to measure the deposition of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) were tested and compared. Whilst sample workup and analysis methods did not influence the results of PAH deposition measurements, using different collector types changed the measured deposition rates of PAH significantly. The results obtained with a funnel-bottle collector showed the highest deposition rates and a low measurement uncertainty. The deposition rates obtained with the wet-only collectors were the lowest at industrial sites and under dry weather conditions. For the open-jar collectors the measurement uncertainty was high. Only at an industrial site with extremely high PAH deposition rates the results of open-jar collectors were comparable to those obtained with funnel-bottle collectors. Thus, if bulk deposition of PAH has to be measured, funnel-bottle combinations are proved to be the collectors of choice. These collectors were the only ones always fulfilling the requirements of European legislation