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Ireland’s Environment 2012
36
Short acute ozone pollution episodes
are infrequent in Ireland; however,
they have happened in the past
and will happen in the future. They
are most likely to occur in summer
months when there is a stable
anti-cyclone over Ireland bringing
settled, warm weather combined
with transmission of polluted
air masses from other European
countries. Reducing ozone requires
limiting emissions of its precursors
locally, regionally and globally. The
objectives of both the CLRTAP and
NEC Directive include addressing
ground-level ozone. Figure 3.3 shows
ozone concentrations across Europe
in 2011.
Other Pollutants
The other health-relevant pollutants
measured are SO
2
, CO, benzene,
lead, arsenic, cadmium, nickel and
mercury. Levels of all these pollutants
are low in Ireland and below all
relevant limit and target values
(EPA, 2011).
Emissions of Transboundary
Pollutants
The four main contributory gases
to transboundary pollution in
Europe are SO
2
, NO
X
, VOCs and
NH
3
. This transboundary pollution
usually manifests itself in the form
of acidification, eutrophication and
ground-level ozone formation. The
emissions of these main acidifying air
pollutants and ozone precursors have
been declining in general throughout
Europe since the 1990s. Substantial
progress on emissions reduction in
recent years has been driven by the
1999 UNECE Gothenburg Protocol
under the Convention on Long-
Range Transboundary Air Pollution
(CLRTAP) and the EU National
Emissions Ceiling (NEC) Directive
(EP and CEU, 2001a).
The NEC Directive sets emissions
ceilings for SO
2
, NO
X
, VOCs and NH
3
to be achieved in 2010. The current
position in Ireland is shown
in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1
Emissions of the Four NEC Pollutants 1990–2010 (Source: EPA)
1990
(kt)
1995
(kt)
2000
(kt)
2005
(kt)
2006
(kt)
2007
(kt)
2008
(kt)
2009
(kt)
2010
(kt)
2010
Emissions
ceiling (kt)
Ceiling
achieved?
SO
2
182.5 161.1 139.7 71.2 60.7 55.1 45.3 32.7 26
42.0
Yes
NO
X
129.2 129.5 125.1 116.6 113.4 113.0 106.2 88.8 72.6
65.0
No
VOCs
88.0 81.1 73.4 59.7 58.4 56.9 55.2 52.2 44.9
55.0
Yes
NH
3
105.5 112.9 120.9 113.3 112.4 107.6 107.4 107.8 106.2
116.0
Yes
Figure 3.3
Number of Days on which Ozone Concentrations Exceeded the
Long-Term Objective for the Protection of Human Health during the Summer
of 2011 (Source: European Environment Agency)
Canary Is.
60°
50°
40°
30°
30°
20°
20°
10°
10°
0°
0°
-10°
-20°
-30°
60°
60°
50°
50°
40°
40°
30°
30°
0
500
1000
1500 km
-30°
40°
Madeira is.
Azores Is.
-20°
30°
Canary Is.
20°
10°
80°
Svalbard Is.
Number of days
< 1
≥ 1 and ≤ 15
> 15 and ≤ 25
> 25
Type of station
Rural and background rural
Urban and suburban
Type of country
EEA member countries
reporting data
EEA member countries
with no data reported
Non-EEA member countries