Sophisticated Clean Air Strategies Required to Mitigate Against Particulate Organic Pollution

Since the 1980's, measures mitigating the impact of transboundary air pollution have been implemented successfully as evidenced in the 1980-2014 record of atmospheric sulphur pollution over the NE-Atlantic, a key region for monitoring background northern-hemisphere pollution levels. The record reveals a 72-79% reduction in annual-average airborne sulphur pollution (SO4 and SO2, respectively) over the 35-year period. The NE-Atlantic, as observed from the Mace Head research station on the Irish coast, can be considered clean for 64% of the time during which sulphate dominates PM1 levels, contributing 42% of the mass, and for the remainder of the time, under polluted conditions, a carbonaceous (organic matter and Black Carbon) aerosol prevails, contributing 60% to 90% of the PM1 mass and exhibiting a trend whereby its contribution increases with increasing pollution levels. The carbonaceous aerosol is known to be diverse in source and nature and requires sophisticated air pollution policies underpinned by sophisticated characterisation and source apportionment capabilities to inform selective emissions-reduction strategies. Inauspiciously, however, this carbonaceous concoction is not measured in regulatory Air Quality networks.

Evaluation of the impact of long-range transport and aerosol concentration temporal variations at the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea

Ambient particles vary greatly in their ability to affect visibility, climate and human health. The fine fraction of aerosol is responsible for greater and wider effects on human health; thus, investigation of this fraction is very important. Continuous measurements of PM2.5 (particulate matter below 2.5 microm in size) concentrations at the Preila monitoring station started in 2003. During a period of 2 years, the episodes of high daily and semi-hourly concentrations of PM2.5 were measured. These episodes did not depend on the season or time of day. The substantial role of long-range transport of pollutants to these increases in concentration was shown using chemical and statistical analysis. It was found that most of the severe episodes occurred when air masses came from a specific site besides it was established that air masses of different origin were characterized by different mixing layer depth. Lower mixing depth was observed in air masses characterized by higher observed concentrations at the measuring site and vice versa. PM2.5 concentrations showed diurnal and seasonal variations whose pattern reflected the regional origin of the aerosol. The regional pollution level was evaluated by the statistical analysis of PM2.5 concentrations. The background annual average of PM2.5 mass concentration for the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea was 15.1 +/- 0.8 microg m(-3).

2002 summer fires in Lithuania: impact on the Vilnius city air quality and the inhabitants health

The episodes with highly elevated concentrations of particulate matter (PM10), NOx, and CO were detected in the city of Vilnius between August and September 2002 and possible reasons were analysed. This increase was attributed to emissions from fires in the vicinity of the city of Vilnius when data on fire location and start, wind direction and concentrations of pollutants were analysed. The correlation coefficient between PM10 and CO, NO, NO2, NOx increased during the fire period in comparison with the same correlation after the fire period. During the fire episodes, there was an increase in concentration of ozone precursors, and meteorological conditions were favourable for photochemical reactions. Therefore, the hourly values for ozone exceeded the values common for Vilnius. Generally, during the episodes, the maximum of NO2 concentrations was 2 times higher than the limit value for NO2 laid down in the Council Directives 1999/30/EC [Council Directive 1999/30/EC of 22 April 1999 relating to limit values for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and oxides of nitrogen, particulate matter and lead in ambient air. Official Journal L 163, 29/06/1999: 0041-0060], and that of PM10 was even 5.5 times higher than the limit value for PM10. Human health effects study in Vilnius indicated that the incidents of documented respiratory diseases and exacerbation of the bronchial asthma during the fire period were up to 20 times higher in comparison to periods with no fires.