Monitoring Ambient Air

European Perspective on Particulates and Photo-oxidants

Wednesday 11^th and Thursday 12^th December 2002

Scientific Societies Lecture Theatre, London

This meeting was held in co-operation with

• Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy
• National Physical Laboratory DTI VAM Programme
• NMi, Netherlands
• Health & Safety Executive

Pollutants in rural and urban air include ozone, VOCs, PAHs, dioxins and micro-particulate material. Assessment of the concentration levels and distribution of these pollutants presents an interesting challenge to analysts. Measurement methodologies require an understanding of the sample and sample matrix as well as the careful design and development of methods to obtain robust procedures and quality data. However, confidence levels are variable and the interpretation of results in context is often a challenge.

This conference provides an opportunity to present to both the scientific community and to public authorities information about recent developments in monitoring strategies, requirements and analytical techniques. These papers cover both the monitoring of pollutants and their effect on air quality in the rural and urban environment.

PROGRAMME

The following papers were presented. You can read abstracts (in the form of Word files) by clicking on the links.

• CAFE : Clean Air For Europe - Challenges and Solutions. Marion Wichman-Fiebig, DG Environment, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium. (an abstract of this presentation is not available).

• Regional and Urban Air Quality in the UK - Meeting Requirements of the Directives. Mike Pilling, School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, UK.

• New Directives for Particulates. Marion Wichman-Fiebig, DG Environment, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium. (an abstract of this presentation is not available).

• State of the Art of CEN Methods for Heavy Metals and PAHs. Mike Woodfield, Netcen, AEA Technology, Abingdon, UK.

• Equivalence of Ambient Air Monitoring Methods - Methods for Particulate Matter. Theo Hafkenscheid, NMi van Swinden laboratory, Delft, Netherlands.

• New Indicators for Particulate Matter - Black Smoke to PM1. Robert Gehrig, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research, Dübendorf.

• Monitoring Analysis and Speciation of PAHs. Peter Coleman, Netcen, AEA Technology, Abingdon, UK.

• Monitoring and Analysis of Heavy Metals. Andrea Hanus-Illnar, UBA, Vienna, Austria.

• Implementation of the Ozone Directive - Occurrence and Fate. Martin Lutz, Senate Department of Urban Development, Berlin, Germany.

• Measurement Strategies. Bo Larsen, EU Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy.

• The Performance of VOCs Measurement Methodologies. Hansa D'Souza, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, UK.

• Harmonisation of Ozone Measurements in Europe. Annette Borowiak, EU Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy.

• QA/QC and Uncertainty in Measurements - Case Study Benzene. Rod Robinson, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, UK.

• A New Exposure Chamber for Ambient Air Monitoring Standards. Norbert Gonzalez-Flesca, INERIS, Verneuil en Halatte, France.

• Emissions from Combustion Engines. Andrew Crookell, Sira Ltd, Chislehurst, Kent, UK.

• Recent Developments in Modelling Urban Air Pollution and Interpreting Data. Jenny Stocker, Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants, Cambridge, UK.

• Development of Optical sensors for Monitoring Air Pollution. Ramaier Narayanaswamy, DIAS, UMIST, Manchester, UK.

POSTER SESSION

There was a Poster Session associated with this meeting. The following posters were presented. Abstracts are available in the form of Word files.

• A New Real-time Particle Counter for Measuring Ambient Air Particle Number Distributions. S T G Srimath, T Kuhn, S Tearle, R S Sokhi, P H Kaye and E Hirst, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, UK.

• Measurement of Aliphatic and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Associated with PM₁₀, PM_2.5and PM₁. M Piñeiro-Iglesias, P López-Mahia, S Muniategui-Lorenzo, D Prada-Rodriguez and E Fernández-Fernández, Department of Analytical Chemistry-Institute of Environment, University of A Coruña, E-15701, Spain.

• Measurement of Volatile Organic Compounds in Urban Air from A Coruña (Galicia-NW Spain). V Fernández-Villarenaga, P López-Mahia, S Muniategui-Lorenzo, D Prada-Rodriguez and E Fernández-Fernández, Department of Analytical Chemistry-Institute of Environment, University of A Coruña, E-15701, Spain.

• Changing Spatial and Temporal Behaviour of the NO₂-NO_x-O₃ System Visualised through a Principal Component Model. Carolyn Kirby, Malcolm Fox, Tim Drye and John Waterhouse.

• ARTEMIDE: a European Project for High Temporal Resolution Monitoring of VOCs by Diffusive Sampling. Vincenzo Cocheo and Laura Zaratin, Fonzazione Salvatore Maugeri-IRCCS, Environmental Research Centre, via Svizzera, 16- I 35127, Padova, Italy.

• Ozone in the UK.Mhairi Coyle and Neil Cape, CEH Edinburgh, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian, EH26 0QB.

• Monitoring Ozone Precursors by Two Complementary Techniques. Armelle Frezier, Nathalie Francois, Jean-Claude Pinard and Norbert Gonzales-Flesca, Institut National de l'Environment Industriel et des Risques (INERIS), Parc Technologique ALATA, BP 2, 60550 Verneuil en Halatte, France.

• Comparison between a Gravimetric PM₁₀ Measurement Method and an Automatic Nephelometer Monitor. Barbara O'Leary, John Finnan and Ciaron O'Donnell, Environmental Protection Agency, Richview, Clonskeagh Road, Dublin 14, Ireland.

• Studies using the Sorbent Carbopack X for Measuring Environmental Levels of Benzene and 1,3-butadiene with Perkin-Elmer Type Pumped and Diffusive Samplers. Nicholas A Martin, David J Marlow, Philippa Duckworth, Malcolm H Henderson, Brian A Goody and Paul G Quincey, Environmental Standards Team, Centre for Optical and Analytical Measurement, National Physical Laboratory, Queens Road, Teddington, Middlesex, TW11 0LW.

• Metals in Ambient Air: Proposed New Sample Type for the WASP Quality Assurance Scheme. Owen T Butler and Barry Tylee, Health and Safety Laboratory, Broad Lane, Sheffield, UK.

This page last updated on 10 July 2003