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4. Air Quality Limit Values

Guidelines and limit values for air quality have been set by EU in various Council Directives, by the World Health Organization (WHO) and also by many of the national states.

The table below lists the Limit and Guide values of EU, and the Guideline values of WHO, for the following components:

- SO2 (with associated values for black smoke/suspended particles)

- Black smoke (BS)

- Suspended Particles

- Lead

- NO2

- O3

- CO

More details around the values are given in the section on each component in chapter 6.

Table .1: Overview of EU Limit and Guide Values and WHO Guideline Values (WHO, 1987) for the listed compounds (µg/m3).
Reference to EU Directives are given in chapter 6.

Compound

Type of value

Median value 98 percentile

value

Maximum value
Year Winter 24h 8h 1h
SO2
EU Limit Values 80-1201) 130-1801) 250-3501,3)      
EU Guide Values 40-60
(mean value)
    100-150    
WHO Guidelines 502)
(mean value)
    1252)   350
Black smoke
EU Limit Values 80 130 2503)      
EU Guide Values 40-60
(mean value)
    100-150    
WHO 502) (mean value)     1252)    
Suspended particles
EU Limit Values 150 (mean value)   300 (95 percentile)      
WHO       120 (TSP)2,4)    
        70 (TP)4)    
Nitrogen Dioxide
EU Limit Values     2005)      
EU Guide Lines 50   1355)      
WHO       150   400
Carbon Monoxide
WHO         10 000 30 000
             
Lead
EU Limit Values 2          
WHO 0,5-1          
Ozone
EU Threshold Values            
- Health protection         1106)  
- Vegetation "       65   200
- Population info.           180
- Population warning           360
WHO         100-120 150-200

1) Dependent upon the associated black smoke/suspended particle concentrations.

2) Assuming approx. equal concentrations of SO2and black smoke/suspended part.

3) Not to be exceeded for more than 3 consecutive days.

4) Values of total suspended particles (TSP) and thoracic particles (TP ~PM10), to be considered tentative.

5) Based upon 1 h averages. (All other 98-percentile values are based upon 24 h averages)

6) This value is a mean value over 8 hours and is a non-overlapping moving average; it is calculated four times a day from eight hourly values between 0 and 9.00, 8.00 and 17.00, 16.00 and 1.00, 12.00 and 21.00.

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