Long-range transport and fate of POPs on global scale and within the EMEP region

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UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air
Pollution
Long-range transport and fate of POPs on global
scale and within the EMEP region
Alexey Gusev, Victor Shatalov, Olga Rozovskaya
Meteorological Synthesizing Centre East of EMEP
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Co-operative Programme for Monitoring and
Evaluation of the Long-range Transmission of Air
Pollutants in Europe (EMEP)
EMEP is scientifically based and policy driven
instrument for international cooperation to solve
transboundary air pollution problems
EMEP domain

• Main activities of EMEP/MSC-E
• Assessment of HM and POP pollution levels and
  transboundary transport in the EMEP domain
• Estimation of intercontinental transport and
  global levels of pollution
• Evaluation of long-term changes in the pollution
  levels
• Integrated analysis and assessment of pollution
  levels using monitoring, emissions and modelling

EMEP
Global
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Integrated approach to study POP pollution
Integrated approach combined analysis of
measurements, emissions and modelling results to
evaluate spatial and temporal variations of POP
polluition
Emissions for modelling

• Official emissions of EMEP countries
• Expert estimates of emissions for PCBs, PCDD/Fs,
  HCB

PCDD/F emissions to air
Measurements

• EMEP database
• UNEP SC GMP data warehouse

Modelling

• Global EMEP Multi-media Modelling System (GLEMOS)

Measurement sites (GMP Data Warehouse)
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Global EMEP Multi-media Modelling System (GLEMOS)
GLEMOS general scheme

• GLEMOS features
• Eulerian 3D chemistry transport model
• Multi-pollutant (heavy metals, POPs, aerosol, )
• Multi-media formulation (atmosphere, soil,
  seawater, vegetation, )
• Multi-scale consistent approach (from global to
  local)
• POPs considered PCDD/Fs, PAHs, PCBs, HCB

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Global distribution of PCB pollution
Analysis of modelled and measured PCB-153 air
concentrations (UNEP GMP passive sampling data
for 2005-2013)
Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)
Western Europe and others (WEOG)
F2
F5
Modelled and observed PCB-153 in air (2012)
Africa
Asia-Pacific
Latin America and Caribbean (GRULAC)
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Global distribution of PCB pollution
Analysis of modelled and measured PCB-153 air
concentrations (UNEP GMP passive sampling data
for 2005-2013)
Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)
Western Europe and others (WEOG)
F2
F5
Modelled and observed PCB-153 in air (2012)
Africa
Asia-Pacific
Latin America and Caribbean (GRULAC)
Underestimation in Africa can be due to
unaccounted PCB emission sources like e.g.
e-waste disposal (Gioia et al., 2008,2011
Breivik et al., 2014)
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Long-term changes of PCB pollution levels
Decline of mean PCB-153 air concentrations in
different regions from 1990 to 2012 (based on
modelling results)
UN regional groups
Absolute values
Western Europe
North America
Relative values
CEE
Lowest decline CEE (70)
North America
Largest decline North America (85)
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Long-term changes of PCB pollution levels
Modelled and observed mean PCB-153 air
concentrations at monitoring sites in Europe
(1994-2012)
Pallas (Finland)
UN regional groups
Aspvreten (Sweden)
Rorvik/Rao (Sweden)
PCB-153 in air, pg/m3
Kosetice (Czech Rep.)
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Evaluation of global PCDD/F pollution levels

• Construction of experimental emission scenario
  based on the data of the UNEP SC
• Model evaluation of pollution and comparison with
  measurements (UNEP GMP and other data)

Modelled and observed PCDD/F air concentrations
(2012)
Annual PCDD/F emission to air
Experimental modelling with global emissions
based on the UNEP SC inventory of PCDD/F releases
provided reasonable agreement between model
predictions and measurements
(Schuster et al., 2015,. EST Gusev et al.,
2014, Org. Comp.)
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Concluding remarks

• Integrated approach, combining emissions
  inventories, models and measurement data, is a
  valuable framework for quantifying environmental
  contamination by POPs
• EMEP is now expanding its scope to the global
  scale to correspond global distribution of POP
  contamination, and to communicate with research
  community
• Closer cooperation between UNEP SC, AMAP, and
  EMEP will help to refine understanding and
  evaluation of POP transport and fate