resulting in exposure to humans and animals.
Trends
The emissions of all these pollutants have strongly increased in Europe since the beginning of this century, although the increase has been much more dramatic for NOx and SO2 than for ammonia (see Figure 4.3). During this century, the 'hot spots' of SO2 emissions have moved from West to East and South: from the Black Country in England to the Ruhr area and thence to the 'Black Triangle' the border area between Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic (Mylona, 1993). Due to the growing industrialisation of Southern Europe, emissions in this area are expected to become relatively more important. The largest NOx emission densities have until now been mostly located in Western Europe (UK, Germany, Benelux); these are expected to shift eastwards in the immediate future. For ammonia, the largest emission densities are in The Netherlands and Denmark as a result of intensive cattle and pig farming.
Figure 4.3 - Temporal evolution of European emissions of acidifying compounds since the beginning of the century
Source: RIVM