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Indicator Specification
POPs, including PAHs, are recognised as being directly toxic to biota. They can progressively accumulate high up the food chain, such that chronic exposure of lower organisms to relatively low concentrations can expose predatory organisms, including humans and wildlife, to potentially harmful concentrations. POPs are also of concern for human health because of their toxicity, potential to cause cancer and ability to cause harmful effects at low concentrations. Their relative toxic/carcinogenic potencies are compound specific. POPs, including PAHs, have also been shown to possess a number of toxicological properties. The major concern is centred around their possible carcinogenic, immunological and reproductive effects, but more recently concern has also been expressed over their possible harmful effects on human development.
The units used in this indicator are the tonne (metric ton).
Targeted European Commission legislation (directives and regulations), coupled with improved control and abatement techniques, have led to good progress being made by the EEA-33 countries towards reducing air emissions of POPs, including the PAH group of chemicals. Such legislation is described below.
In May 2009, additional chemicals were added to the Stockholm Convention:
The EC Communication on a Community Strategy for Dioxins, Furans and PCBs (COM (2001) 593 final) aims to assess the current state of the environment and to reduce human exposure and long-term environmental effects. This communication does not propose legislative measures, but could be the basis for a Community action plan.
The Directive on the Limitation of Emissions of Certain Pollutants into the Air from Large Combustion Plants (2001/80/EC) has had the effect of reducing heavy metal and PAH emissions via dust control and absorption.
Regulation (EC) No 850/2004 on Persistent Organic Pollutants entered into force on 20 May 2004. The main purpose of this regulation is to enable the European Community to ratify the Stockholm Convention and the Aarhus Protocol. The regulation also deals with stockpiles of redundant substances.
Emissions of a number of heavy metals released from certain industrial facilities are also estimated and reported under the requirements of the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register Regulation (E-PRTR) (166/2006/EC).
The EU Directive on Ambient Air Quality and Cleaner Air for Europe (2008/50/EC) and Directive 2004/107/EC relating to heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air contain provisions, and target and limit values for the further control of air pollutants in ambient air.
There are also a number of specific EU environmental quality and emission standards for heavy metals and POPs in coastal and inland waters, drinking waters, etc. These have only indirect relevance to air emissions as they do not directly specify emission or precipitation quality requirements, but rather specify the required quality of receiving waters. Such measures include Directive 84/491/EEC on HCH discharges; Directives 76/464/EC and 86/280/EC on dangerous substances; and the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC).
As noted above, the Aarhus Protocol on POPs to the UNECE LRTAP Convention obliges parties to reduce their emissions of dioxins, furans, PAHs and HCB to below their 1990 levels (or an alternative year between 1985 and 1995 inclusive).
This indicator is based on the national total and sectoral emissions officially reported to the EEA and UNECE/EMEP (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe/Co-operative programme for monitoring and evaluation of the long-range transmission of air pollutants in Europe) LRTAP Convention. For the EU-28 Member States, the data used are consistent with the emissions data reported by the EU in its annual submission to the LRTAP Convention.
Recommended methodologies for emission inventory estimation are compiled in the EMEP/EEA Air Pollutant Emission Inventory Guidebook (EMEP/EEA, 2016). Base data are available from the EEA Data Service and the EMEP web site. If necessary, gaps in reported data are filled by the European Topic Centre for Air and Climate Change using simple interpolation techniques (see below). The final gap-filled data used in this indicator are available from the EEA Data Service .
Base data, reported in the UNECE/EMEP nomenclature for reporting (NFR14) sector format, are aggregated into the following EEA sector codes to obtain a consistent reporting format across all countries and pollutants:
The following table shows the conversion of NFR sector codes used for reporting by countries into EEA sector codes:
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An improved gap-filling methodology was implemented in 2010 that enables a complete time-series trend for the main air pollutants (nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), ammonia (NH3) and carbon monoxide (CO)) to be compiled. In cases in which countries did not report emissions for any year, it meant that gap filling could not be applied. For these pollutants, therefore, the aggregated data are not yet complete and are likely to underestimate true emissions. Further methodological details of the gap-filling procedure are provided in section 'Data gaps and gap-filling' of the European Union emission inventory report 1990–2017 under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP).
The use of gap filling for countries that have not reported emissions for one of more years can potentially lead to artificial trends, but it is considered unavoidable if a comprehensive and comparable set of emission data for European countries is required for policy analysis purposes.
Uncertainties in the emission estimates of PAHs reported by countries are considered to be higher than for other more 'traditional' air pollutants, such as NOx and SO2, because of the relatively high uncertainties that exist with regard to both activity data and emission factors for this group of pollutants. Emission estimates for the other POPs are also considered to have a high degree of uncertainty.
This indicator is regularly updated by the EEA and is used in state of the environment assessments. The uncertainties related to methodology and data sets are therefore important. Any uncertainties involved in the calculation and the data sets must be accurately communicated in the assessment, in order to prevent erroneous messages from influencing policy actions or processes.
Work specified here requires to be completed within 1 year from now.
Work specified here will require more than 1 year (from now) to be completed.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/eea32-persistent-organic-pollutant-pop-emissions-1 or scan the QR code.
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