Report

Monitoring of greenhouse gases and aerosols at Svalbard and Birkenes in 2021. Annual report.

Myhre, Cathrine Lund; Svendby, Tove Marit; Hermansen, Ove; Lunder, Chris Rene; Platt, Stephen Matthew; Fiebig, Markus; Fjæraa, Ann Mari; Hansen, Georg H.; Schmidbauer, Norbert; Stebel, Kerstin

This annual report for 2021 summarizes the activities and results of the greenhouse gas monitoring at the Zeppelin Observatory, situated on Svalbard, during the period 2001-2021, and the greenhouse gas monitoring and aerosol observations from Birkenes for 2009-2021.

NILU

Screening of Chlorinated Paraffins, Dechloranes and UV-filters in Nordic Countries

Schlabach, Martin; Borgen, Anders; Bæk, Kine; Kringstad, Alfhild

In 2019, the Nordic screening group decided to perform a Nordic screening on chlorinated paraffins, dechloranes and UV-filters. These compounds are used in a wide range of applications. They all have long range transport characteristics and can potentially be regulated under the Stockholm POP convention. However, there are still huge data gaps, which need to be addressed in order to fulfill regulation requests. Several topics and questions were in focus for more measurements and a deeper understanding: (1) importance of long-range atmospheric transport and deposition, (2) differences/similarities in terrestrial versus marine food chains, and (3) variations between the Nordic countries and between urban and remote areas. Based on these priorities, availability of samples, and other practical reasons, samples from different Nordic countries, different environments, and both urban and remote places were selected. This study includes analysis of the compounds in air, marine and freshwater fish and marine mammals and bird eggs, but as the chlorinated paraffins also have been found to accumulate in the terrestrial food web, terrestrial mammals and bird eggs were included as well. Additionally, samples of pine needles were analysed both to look at the possibility for long range transport and to investigate it as a possible source of chlorinated paraffins for the terrestrial mammals.

Nordic Council of Ministers

Health Risk Assessment of Air Pollution and the Impact of the New WHO Guidelines

Soares, Joana; Ortiz, Alberto González; Gsella, Artur; Horálek, Jan; Plass, Dietrich; Kienzler, Sarah

Air pollution is a major cause of premature death and disease and is the single largest environmental health risk in Europe. Heart disease and stroke are the most common reasons for premature deaths attributable to air pollution, followed by lung diseases and lung cancer.

The health risk assessment methodology assumptions have been recently adapted to follow the recommendations by the World Health Organisation (WHO), released in 2021. The new global air quality guidelines by WHO provide up-to-date health-based guideline levels for major health-damaging air pollutants and new recommendations for assessing the risk of exposure to air pollution.
This report estimates the health risk related to air pollution in 2020 based on the latest methodology. The estimates consider the number of premature deaths and years of life lost related to exposure to fine particulate matter, ozone and nitrogen dioxide, both for the 27 Member States of the European Union and for additional 14 European countries (Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, San Marino, Serbia, Switzerland, and Türkiye).

A sensitivity analysis to the changes in concentration-response functions and counterfactual concentrations is performed to understand the impact of such changes on the mortality outcome estimates. The sensitivity analysis included both old and new health risk methodology assumptions but also the recommendation from the ELAPSE study on the concentration response functions. The ELAPSE project includes some of the most recent studies on the health effects at low air pollution levels by examining associations between exposures to relatively low levels of air pollution across Europe, including levels below the current EU standards.

The results for 2020 show that the largest health risks are estimated for the countries with the largest populations. However, in relative terms, when considering e.g., years of life lost per 100 000 inhabitants, the largest relative risks are observed in central and eastern European countries for PM2.5, in central and southern European countries for NO2, and south and eastern European for O3. The lowest impact is found for the northern and north-western parts of Europe, where the concentrations are lowest. The number of premature deaths attributed to air pollution in 2020 compared to 2019, increased for PM2.5 and decreased for NO2 and O3. Apart from the changes in concentrations and demographics, the COVID-19 pandemics seems to also have an influence on these changes. For PM2.5, the reduction in concentrations were counteracted by the excess of deaths due to the pandemics. In the case of NO2, the reduction in concentrations was more pronounced as a result of the lockdown measures and the drastic reduction in traffic and its impact in reducing mortality was bigger than the increasing impact of excess of deaths due to COVID-19.

Changing assumptions on concentration-response functions and counterfactual concentrations have implications for estimating mortality health outcomes. The sensitivity analysis shows that it is not straightforward to assess which assumptions estimates the highest health impacts when both factors change. In this case, the final outcome will depend on the concentration at the grid-cell level. The latest assumptions are expected to reduce the health outcomes for PM2.5 and increase for NO2 and O3, when compared to the previous one. When aggregated to all countries, the health outcomes are reduced by over 40 % for PM2.5 and increased by 50 % and 30 % for NO2 and O3, respectively, in 2020. However, this change varies across countries depending on the concentration level the population in the individual countries is exposed to.

ETC/HE

Estimating the morbidity related environmental burden of disease due to exposure to PM2.5, NO2 and O3 in outdoor ambient air

Kienzler, Sarah; Soares, Joana; Ortiz, Alberto González; Plass, Dietrich

Epidemiological studies have increasingly shown that ambient air pollution is not only associated with mortality but also with the occurrence of a number of long and short-term diseases. Further, the Global Burden of Disease study clearly indicated, that e. g. particulate matter pollution is also associated with a considerable burden of disease related to morbidity effects.

In addition to the most recent EEA’s health risk assessments, this report estimates the morbidity related health burden associated with exposure to the same three key air pollutants: fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3). Years lived with disability (YLDs) or attributable hospitalisation cases are assessed for the year 2019 for numerous European countries, depending on the respective data availability. Besides, the methodological approach as well as reviews on evidence-based health outcomes, health data and concentration-response functions are provided.

For the ten considered risk-outcome pairs, the results showed the highest morbidity related burden of disease in Europe for PM2.5 associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with 51.6 YLDs per 100 000 inhabitants ≥25 years. For NO2 the highest morbidity burden resulted from diabetes mellitus (DM) with 54.6 YLDs per 100 000 inhabitants ≥35 years. For short-term O3 exposure hospital admissions due to respiratory diseases were estimated at 18 attributable cases per 100 000 inhabitants ≥65 years.

In addition to the estimates, the report contains suggestions for further sensitivity analyses. These would allow a better assessment of the effects resulting from different input data on the results.

The estimations presented in this report are the first of its kind that are carried out for a wide range of morbidity health outcomes associated with different outdoor air pollutants in Europe, using a consistent methodology and data from European health databases.

ETC/HE

Beregning av korrosjonsklasse fra miljøparametere i Fitjar. Lokasjon (59°56’11.5″N 5°19’58.4″Ø)

Grøntoft, Terje

Korrosjonsklasse ble beregnet på lokasjon (59°56'11.5"N 5°19'58.4"Ø) i Fitjar, Vestland, Norge, fra årsgjennomsnitt for miljøparametere etter ISO 9223 og ISO 12944-2. Det ble funnet at korrosjonsklassen med høy sannsynlighet er C3 og at dette i hovedsak er bestemt av våt-tiden på omtrent 4500 timer/år, som gjennomsnitt i perioden 2007-2022. Dette er godt innenfor grensene for C3 når saltavsetningen er < 60 mg Cl-/m2døgn og SO2 konsentrasjonen i luft < 30 µg/m3. Disse betingelsene synes med stor sannsynlighet oppfylt på lokasjonen i Fitjar som årsgjennomsnitt i normalår.

NILU