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Press Release
NEWS RELEASE
Copenhagen, 26 October 2001
Summer smog levels exceed critical threshold on two days in three
Concentrations of potentially harmful ground-level ozone pollution, the main component of summer smog, exceeded a critical threshold somewhere in Europe on two out of every three days this spring and summer, according to preliminary information compiled by the European Environment Agency.
The report has been submitted to EU environment ministers for their meeting on 29 October.
Ozone can cause serious health problems in humans and damage to ecosystems, agricultural crops and materials. It forms when certain air pollutants emitted by industry and transport react with sunlight. Smog levels tend to be highest during warm, sunny weather, and are generally higher in southern Europe than in the north.
A European Union directive on air pollution by ozone requires governments to inform the public whenever monitoring stations detect ozone concentrations above a critical threshold, set at 180 micrograms of ozone per cubic metre of air (180 microgramme/m3) averaged over one hour.
A preliminary evaluation of the April-August 2001 period conducted for the European Commission shows that the public information threshold was exceeded in 11 of the 15 EU Member States and in five out of 10 other European countries that supplied data at the EEA's request (see table in annex for details). An exceedance occurred in at least one of these 25 countries on 101 of the 153 days covered.
Reflecting more frequent warm and sunny weather in summer 2001, ozone concentrations were slightly higher this year than last. An in-depth analysis of data since 1994, however, shows a mixed trend of falling peak levels but rising average concentrations.
These findings suggest, on the one hand, that reductions since 1990 in emissions of the pollutants that lead to ozone formation -- principally, oxides of nitrogen (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and carbon monoxide -- are feeding through into lower peak concentrations and so reducing the European population's short-term exposure to ozone.
On the other hand, the increasing average concentrations of ozone, for which no unambiguous explanation exists, are increasing the public s long-term exposure to the pollutant.
The average maximum ozone concentration during exceedances of the public information threshold this year was 200 Œg/m3. Exceedances lasted on average between 1.2 hours in April and 3.0 hours in June and August.
Italy recorded the highest number of days with exceedances, 80, followed by France (58) and Spain (48). Of those countries reporting exceedances, Poland had the fewest exceedance days, with two. However, these numbers do not necessarily give a fair comparison because of wide variations in the extent of different countries' ozone monitoring networks. Belgium and France both had the highest proportion of stations reporting exceedances - 73%.
The countries that recorded no exceedances of the public information threshold this year were Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden. For Ireland and Finland, 2001 marks the fourth consecutive year without exceedances.
Governments are also required under the EU directive to issue public warnings if ozone concentrations exceed 360 Œg/m3, averaged over one hour. During the summer period this level was reached, but not exceeded, at one monitoring station in Spain. However, the warning threshold was exceeded in March during an ozone "episode” near the southern French port of Marseilles.
Agreement was reached among the EU institutions this week, pending final approval by the European Parliament, on a new ozone directive that will include, among other things, the introduction of an "alert” threshold at 240 Œg/m3. When ozone concentrations exceed this threshold, governments will have to set in train action plans aimed at achieving an immediate reduction of ozone pollution where feasible.
Of the exceedances of the public information threshold recorded this year, around five per cent also exceeded the future alert threshold.
Notes to editors
About the EEA
The European Environment Agency aims to support sustainable development and to help achieve significant and measurable improvement in Europe's environment through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy making agents and the public. Established by the European Union (EU) in 1990 by Council Regulation 1210/90 (subsequently amended by Council Regulation 933/1999), the Agency is the hub of the European environment information and observation network (EIONET), a network of some 600 environmental bodies and institutes across Europe.
Located in Copenhagen and operational since 1994, the EEA is open to all countries that share its objectives and are able to participate in its activities. The Agency currently has 24 member countries. These are the 15 EU Member States; Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, which are members of the European Economic Area; and, since 1 August 2001, six of the 13 countries in central and eastern Europe and the Mediterranen area that are seeking accession to the EU -- Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic. Their membership makes the EEA the first EU body to take in the candidate countries.
In recent weeks Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania and Romania have also ratified EEA membership agreements and it is anticipated that the remaining three candidate countries -- the Czech Republic, Poland and Turkey -- will do so over the next few months. This will take the Agency's membership to a total of 31 countries.
Annex
Exceedances of the EU threshold for public information on ozone pollution in spring and summer 2001, by country
Click the thumbnail above or here to view an enlarged version of the annex [46 Kb]
Download the full report from this page.
For references, please go to https://eea.europa.eu./media/newsreleases/Ozone_release_261001-en or scan the QR code.
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