3. Eu exchange of data requirements

3. EU exchange of data requirements

The 1982 decision of the Commission on Exchange of Information (EoI) from air pollution monitoring (82/459/"EØF") requires reporting of measurements as described below:

• Compounds: SO2 (or acidity), suspended particles (or black smoke), NO2 (and NOx or NO), CO, O3.

• Stations: Selection of sites, preferably sites with more than one compound measured, and such that they represent different types of urban areas and the variations in air pollution levels occurring in each state.

• Reporting should be sent to the Commission within 6 months in the new year.

• Additionally, the Member States shall inform the Commission of studies of comparison of methods.

• The Commission publish annual reports.

The activity under this EoI decision has dwindled over the years, and thus a new Draft EoI Decision has been formulated (94/C281/07). Relative to the 1982 decision, the new one requires some additions:

• Compounds: Those covered by Directives (as above), and in addition 31 compounds to the extent Member States measure them, incl. e.g. 7 heavy metals, VOC and benzene, formaldehyde, PAN and 7 specific organic compounds, PAH and BaP, and S and N deposition. The averaging time is 1 h for some compounds (e.g. O3, NOx, CO, PAN), 24 h for most of them, and 1 month for deposition.

• Stations: A selection of sites operated under the compound-specific Directives, sites operated under the 1982 EoI Decision, and additional sites established for the additional compounds. The selected sites should be distributed over the national territory, to represent different pollution categories and levels.

• The sites should be described very detailed regarding local environment and influences from sources according to a predescribed set of parameters and format.

• The data statistics to be reported should be:
  - Conc. in air: average, median, P98, Maximum (on an annual basis).
  - For ozone: in addition, 8-hour statistics.
  - Deposition: monthly averages.

• Reporting should be sent to the Commission within 1 October in the new year.