Found 10456 publications. Showing page 419 of 419:
Fluoropolymers are widely used across sectors, but their production is associated with emissions of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), which are mobile, persistent, and toxic. In this work, we compiled a global inventory of fluoropolymer production plants (FPPs) and assembled PFAS concentration measurements for various media in their vicinity. We identified 52 currently operating FPPs across 11 countries and 41 cities. For 12 FPPs, in 12 different cities, there are peer-reviewed site-specific PFAS measurements specifically attributed to the FPP. At these 12 sites, at least 236 individual PFASs have been detected across multiple environmental media, including surface water, groundwater, air, dust, soils, sediments, plants, animals, and humans, with reported detections at distances of up to approximately 150 km from FPPs. Perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) and perfluoroalkyl ether carboxylic acids (PFECAs) were most frequently measured, often at concentrations two to three orders of magnitude higher than those measured in regions without nearby FPPs. Using high-resolution population data, we estimate that approximately 14 ± 2 million people (uncertainty reflecting ± 10 km uncertainty in facility locations) live within 10 km of an FPP. These people are potentially affected by FPP-associated contamination, with the largest population shares in China (≈52%), Japan (≈24%), Europe (≈13%), and the United States (≈9%). These regional proportions largely mirror differences in population density and the number of identified production facilities. This inventory reveals the large and complex global scale of PFAS contamination from fluoropolymer production, underscoring the need for expanded systematic monitoring and risk management efforts, including regulation.
2026
2026
Bioaerosols interact with society and environment in a multi-faceted way. Information about biological aerosols in the atmosphere is at high demand for medical practitioners and allergy sufferers, climate change researchers, agriculture and forestry industries, air quality forecasters, a variety of information added-value businesses, and many other stakeholders. However, the monitoring practices established over 70 years ago and barely changed since then are country-specific, with varying data availability and usage policy. These roadblocks slow down cross-disciplinary research and development of measures to understand and, upon necessity, control societal and environmental impacts of bioaerosols.A series of technological breakthroughs during last 10 years introduced a variety of automatic particle counters capable of bioaerosol monitoring in real time. They paved the way to the volunteering consolidation of European aerobiologists to establish the EUMETNET AutoPollen Programme (www.autopollen.net), laid down the foundation for the bioaerosol monitoring infrastructure with the EU Horizon SYLVA project (A SYstem for reaL-time obserVation of Aeroallergens, https://sylva.bioaerosol.eu), initiated developments of European standards and guidelines for the automatic bioaerosol measurements with the EURAMET project BioAirMet, and started the European standardization effort with CEN WG 39.The new technologies allow to observe bioaerosol concentration in real time, analyze vertical concentration profiles via remote-sensing, perform metagenomic analysis of bioaerosols with the 3rd generation DNA sequencing technique, and combine these observations with atmospheric composition models. Newly established regional networks have been connected to regional atmospheric composition models, which assimilate the real-time regional data to improve the forecasts. It changes the existing paradigm of bioaerosol observations as the new monitoring networks involve large-scale data handling infrastructure, which also includes numerical models as an interface between the different technologies and a bridge to users of information.The new observations heavily rely on sophisticated technologies, such as high-resolution image analysis, holography, multi-band scatterometry and fluorescence spectrometry, lidar-based remote sensing, and nanotechnology for DNA sequencing. A particle recognition task, the key challenge for the new devices, is solved via machine learning approaches. Technological complexity of the new instruments and large amounts of raw data they produce have been recognized, and a European-scale solution has been proposed by AutoPollen/SYLVA. AutoPollen is being converted into a EUMETNET operational programme with the SYLVA infrastructure as its technological backbone. The programme, with support of Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu), ACTRIS aerosol monitoring network, and other stakeholders, will become operational from 2027. The central processing system will be hosted by Finnish Meteorological Institute with support of MeteoSwiss, Technical University of Munich, and all SYLVA partners. The pre-operational work of AutoPollen/SYLVA started already in 2025, owing to the efforts of the SYLVA consortium, its sister projects and collaborators. The programme is open for all European (and from outside Europe) groups performing automatic bioaerosol monitoring. AutoPollen offers technological and organizational support, community-developed bioaerosol monitoring solutions, and a motivated team of experts advancing the relevant research and applications.
2026
Monitoring of long range transported air pollutants in Norway. Annual Report 2025
This report presents results from the monitoring of atmospheric composition and deposition of air pollution in 2025, and focuses on main components in air and precipitation, particulate and gaseous phase of inorganic constituents, particulate carbonaceous matter, ground level ozone and particulate matter.
NILU
2026
For the first time, we present long-term, ongoing atmospheric measurements of 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE, CH2ClCH2Cl) from the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) global monitoring networks. DCE is an industrially produced, very short-lived chlorinated substance (Cl-VSLS) that has the potential to contribute chlorine to the stratosphere and cause ozone depletion. Compared to other Cl-VSLS, DCE is produced in higher volumes for its primary use as a feedstock in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) manufacture. This production has sustained annual mean mole fractions at the Earth's surface of between 5 and 10 ppt during 2017–2023, making it the third most abundant Cl-VSLS after dichloromethane and chloroform. In this study we estimate mean global emissions for 2017–2023 of 453 ± 185 Gg yr−1 using the AGAGE observations, and 525 ± 209 Gg yr−1 using the NOAA observations. We also use AGAGE measurements to estimate regional emissions for northwest Europe (2.06 [1.31, 2.65] Gg yr−1) and California (0.23 [0, 0.37] Gg yr−1), two domains with sufficient observational coverage to enable this approach. Our global emissions estimates are consistent (within uncertainties) with the only previously published estimate by Hossaini et al. (2024), whereas our regional emissions estimates are at least an order of magnitude smaller than those in that study. This suggests global total emissions may be well constrained, but their spatial distribution remains uncertain.
2026