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In order to investigate the occurrence and tends of mercury in ambient air and precipitation worldwide, the European Commission supported the creation of the Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS), a 5-year project, from 2011 to 2015. GMOS combines monitoring ground stations in different parts of the world, measurements in the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea, and airborne measurements. GMOS aims providing a temporal and spatial distribution of mercury levels in ambient air and precipitation on land and water surfaces at different altitudes and latitudes around the world. This information will provide the data needed to validate and further develop regional and global scale atmospheric mercury models. These models shall predict the temporal variations and spatial distributions of atmospheric mercury, creating a solid basis for the future development of cross border and regional abatement policies and their implementation. The project involves 24 partners around the world; the Joint Research Centre (JRC), in close cooperation with National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change (INECC) and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) , manage the sampling site in Mexico. Terrestrial monitoring data and results for year 2013 at Sisal, Yucatàn, México, are shown in this report., JRC.H.1-Water Resources

This report describes work conducted by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in the contest of GMOS (Global Mercury Observation System). GMOS is an FP VII funded large-scale collaborative project aiming at the establishment of a Global Mercury Observation System including ocean-based, ground-based and atmospheric measurement activities under the umbrella of the GEO/GEOSS and the UNEP’s Mercury program. Within this 5 year project that started in 19 Nov 2010, JRC got the task to set-up a ground based station for measuring total atmospheric Mercury in Yucatán, Mexico. The system is fully automatic and transmits the acquired raw data via internet to the JRC for data analysis and evaluation prior to further reporting to the GMOS coordinator. Moreover, the time series obtained for Hg will be reported in the framework of Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution (LRTAP-Convention) co-chaired by the JRC (Climate change Unit). In order to assist the JRC in the set up and routine maintenance of the Hg monitoring station, cooperation was initiated with the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change - Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (INECC-SEMARNAT) in Mexico City and DUMAC foundation in Yucatán. INECC agreed to assist the JRC in selecting an appropriate site partner, support maintaining the instrumentation, taking care of the wet deposition sampling/dispatch logistics, and supply meteorological data from the selected site. Data regarding the total gaseous mercury concentration in air measured during the year 2012 at Celestún, Yucatán, México are here reported. The annual TGM average obtained from 44537 data was 1.047 ± 0.271 ng/m3. The minimum value (0.50 ng/m3) was registered from February to May; the lowest monthly average (0.752 ng/m3) was recorded in April. The maximum value (2.822 ng/m3) was observed in March, while the highest monthly average TGM value was obtained in June (1.388 ng/m3)., JRC.H.1-Water Resources

This report describes work conducted by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in the context of an Administrative Arrangement between DG Environment and the JRC. This work aimed at the generation, within a limited timeframe, of a large amount of analytical data, with high scientific and statistical value, for a number of compost and digestate types (afterwards referred to as COMDIG samples), to help provide a general overview and estimation of that possible variability within and between different COMDIG materials. The report includes the results of a targeted and independent screening of typical European situations of COMDIG materials with regard to the occurrence and levels of compounds of concern, many of which have never been assessed at a pan-European level. In total, 139 samples, mostly taken as grab samples and originating from 15 countries, were assessed for 22 minor and trace elements and 92 organic compounds including ingredients of personal care products and pharmaceuticals. The underlying analytical methods are carefully documented with regard to their performance characteristics. Where available, the so-called “horizontal” standards were followed. The results obtained are assessed statistically. Although the analysed single samples are insufficient to make any statement on the performance of the treatment processes leading to COMDIG samples, this collective of data provide a glimpse of the pan-European situation as regards the studied compounds., JRC.H.1-Water Resources

This report describes the technical support provided to identify and prioritize among relevant compounds that have to be considered in European regulation dealing with Sewage Sludge. The work includes the results of a screening of typical European situations of sewage sludges with regard to the occurrence and levels of compounds of concern, many of which never assessed in a pan-European dimension. In total, 63 samples originating from 15 countries, were assessed for 22 minor and trace elements and 92 organic compounds including ingredients of personal care products and pharmaceuticals. Obtained results are assessed statistically and where possible compared to other findings. Background information from literature describing the situation before the survey is included. To assess the availability of selected persistent organic pollutants, findings of along-term case study are included, too., JRC.H.1-Water Resources

Indoor air pollution caused by cooking on open fires is a problem of public health with effects in children under 5 years old and women in the reproductive age. In developing countries it has been calculated that about 1,849,000 deaths per year occur associated with exposure to smoke from biomass burning indoors. Apart from the issue of indoor exposure of mainly women and children and the adverse health effects on the spot, open cooking, due to its widespread use, has become an issue what regards the Global emission of POPs. The study presented compares indoor and outdoor air levels in a typical development country environment in Mexico where wood is used for open cooking. It was demonstrated, that under typical cooking scenarios, the indoor exposure with Dioxins and Furans is about twice the exposure outdoors. Due to the low additoinal exposure indoor (when compared to the more dominant exposure through food), it is concluded that the indoor risk are more associated with particulate matter and presumably PAH. Apart from the indoor exposure assessment, emission factors (EFs) for open cooking were obtained. These EFs will be used in the Standardized Toolkit for the quantification of Dioxin and Furan releases, an instrument applied in the compilation of the national Dioxin Inventories in the context of the implementation of the Stockholm Convention of POPs., JRC.H.1-Water Resources

The implementation of the Stockholm Convention implies the generation of national emission inventories for Dioxins and Furans. So far little is known about the emissions from processes typically applied in Developing countries. Among the processes with a high activity and a high pollution potential (since wastes are often co-incinerated) is brick making. In the follow up of emission measurements at brick kilns in Mexico (MX) soil and bottom ashes were collected around these sites and compared to samples from brick making sites in South Africa (SA) and Kenya (KY) . Through the comparison of the impact on the nearby environment we tried to verify, whether the Emission Factors obtained from the measurements in Mexico can be applied to other regions where no measurements are available and where no adequate infrastructure exists to conduct. The levels in soil and ash were low in SA and KY (wood and coal fired kilns) and at a comparable level to the MX sites where virgin wood or LPG was used. The soils around waste derived fuel fired kilns in MX were somewhat higher, but still at levels that can e found in rural environments of the Northern Hemisphere. Apart from the overall confirmation of the applicability of the emission factors obtained from the study in MX, the very low level in the background soils investigated confirms the global North/South gradient of POPs pollution., JRC.H.1-Water Resources

The River Elbe (Czech: Labe ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It originates in the Krkonoše Mountains of northwestern Czech Republic before traversing Bohemia (Czech Republic), then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg. Its total length is 1,094 km. The Elbe’s major tributaries are the Vltava (German: Moldau), Saale, Havel, Mulde, SchwarzeElster, and Ohre rivers. The Elbe River basin, comprising the Elbe and its tributaries, has a catchment area of 148,268 km2, the fourth largest in Europe. The basin spans four countries, with its largest parts in Germany (65.5%) and the Czech Republic (33.7%). Much smaller parts lie in Austria (0.6%) and Poland (0.2%). The basin is inhabited by 24.5 million people (1). Organochlorine pesticides are man-made organics chemicals. Hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) have been extensively used and are therefore found widely distributed in the environment. HCHs are listed under the Stockholm Convention on POPs (persistent organic compound) and are included into the priority list of Water Frame Directive. Here we show the results of HCHs in solids matter of 35 different sites along the River Elbe, selected tributaries, and the North Sea, JRC.H.1-Water Resources

The report combines the results from soil sampling campaigns executed in Mexico, South Africa and Kenya in order to assess the impact of artisanal brick making on local environments. Moreover the study serves indirectly (through the comparison of the impact on soils), whether the emission factors for brick kilns obtained in in a separate study in Mexico can be applied to other developing countries. These emission factors will be introduced into the calculation scheme for the National Emission Inventories of unintentional POP's releases ("dioxin toolkit) which is the reporting tool under the reporting obligations laid down in the Stockholm Convention of POPs. Results revealed, that the soils in Mexico are higher contaminated then in South Africa and Kenya, most probably due to the practice of co-incineration of waste (oils), whereas in Africa coal or virgin biomass are used as fuels. In so far the emission factors obtained in Mexico apparently represent the upper range of emission factors for brick making., JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resources

Lipids are good matrices to accumulate many non-polar persistent organic pollutants (POPs) due to the lipophilic nature of these chemicals. Dairy products are easily accessible and available world-wide and analysis of this matrix supplies estimation of human food chain exposure and, at the same time, reflects the contamination level of the environmental compartment from which they derive.The Stockholm Conventions and the Global Monitoring Plan encourage the production of monitoring data to effectively evaluate the presence of the POPs in all regions, in order to identify changes in levels over time, as well as to provide information on their regional and global environmental transport. Often large sample amounts must be extracted to achieve sufficiently low detection limits of the priority POPs. Consequently, large amounts of lipids can be present in the extracts depending on the lipid content of the sample. The first step of analyzing lipid rich matrices is to extract the pollutants, preferably without extracting the lipids themselves. The presence of lipids, in the form of phospholipids, triglycerides and free fatty acids or cholesterol can disturb the chromatographic capabilities in the further clean up or fractionation steps, as well as suppresses the ionization at the chemical analysis. Dialysis with a semi permeable membrane (SPM) enables a non-destructive separation technique of the analytes from matrix, i.e. it efficiently extracts the smaller non-polar compounds, and retaining the larger compounds in animal or plant fat samples. The membranes are made from low-density polyethylene film with approximately 1-nm pores; and enables permeation of small (analyte) molecules whereas dialysis of molecules of matrix compounds larger than this is not possible. The aim of this study is to develop and evaluate an improved clean-up methodology for large volume lipid rich samples. 5 grams of lipids from butter has been extracted with SPM and with several different solvent compositions to identify the optimal conditions for POP analysis with sufficient recovery. The extract was further cleaned up with alumina (basic) and sulphuric acid SPE columns. The target compounds of this study are PCDD/Fs, PCBs, PBDEs, and OCPs subject to the Stockholm Convention as by 2009. Analyses are executed with high resolution GC/MS and quantifications will be carried out based on labeled surrogate standards., JRC.DDG.H.5-Rural, water and ecosystem resources

Lipids are good matrices to accumulate many persistent organic pollutants (POPs) due to the lipophilic nature of these chemicals. Dairy products are easily accessible and available world-wide and analysis of this matrix reflects the contamination level of the environmental compartment from which they derive.The Stockholm Conventions and the Global Monitoring Plan (GMP) encourage the production of monitoring data to effectively evaluate the presence of the POPs in all regions, in order to identify changes in levels over time, as well as to provide information on their regional and global environmental transport. Suitable sample matrix is needed to measure the temporal and spatial distribution of the priority POPs, which are both intentional and unintentionally released to the environment. Passive sample techniques have been applied to the GMP monitoring activities to assess the global long range transport of POPs. The data produced by passive samplers have been shown to correspond to the more advanced active air sampler. The advantage with passive air sampling is that no advanced equipment demanding electricity is needed. The samplers can therefore be set up everywhere, even at remote areas. But still some education of the personnel is needed to operate the sampler. Aspects such as wind direction, temperature and sampling time are crucial to register and incorporate into the calculations. In this study we demonstrate the feasibility to use another passive sample approach for screening purposes, i.e. animal lipids such as butter. The advantages to use butter as biomonitoring matrix are several; due to the lipophilic and persistent properties of POPs they are bioaccumulated in lipid rich matrix; butter reflects the contamination level of the environmental compartment from which they derive due to well known transfer factors; butter is available in almost all geographic regions and is cheap and easily accessible; moreover, this biomonitor is well buffered against temporal variations. The air-grass-cow transfer factors are available from controlled experiments. Hence it remains to verify the correlation in the field in order to assess ambient air quality. The POP levels of 160 samples from Europe have been analyzed and will be evaluated together with available air data to establish a correlation between air contamination and dairy products (assuming minimal commercial feed contamination influence)., JRC.DDG.H.5-Rural, water and ecosystem resources

Chemical risk assessment always entails an evaluation of expected environmental concentrations of substances; these concentrations may be predicted using mathematical models or may be chosen on the basis of experimental observations and monitoring activities. The work discusses the usefulness and limitations in building compilations of published monitoring data by describing a feasibility study on polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), for which observed concentration data were retrieved from scientific journal articles published between 2000 and 2009. These chemicals are typical POPs and are of constantly high concern for their potential adverse effects on human health and ecosystems. PCBs were mainly used by the power industry in electrical transformers, capacitors, hydraulic equipment, and as lubricants. PCDD/Fs are formed as unintentional by-products of chemical manufacturing and incineration processes, as well as natural processes such as volcanic eruptions, and biomass burning. Emissions from incineration of industrial wastes such as metal reclamation and domestic heating (especially in central Europe) are considered as current sources of PCDD/Fs to the environment. A database of published observed concentrations of PCBs and PCDD/Fs in air, soil sediments and water was built as described in details in the report. As continental scale assessment is aimed more at the evaluation of the regional distribution of contamination, we excluded from the database those measurements taken close to known PCB or PCCD/F pollution sources of exceptional entity such as waste incinerators or contaminated sites. After presenting and interpreting the results of the literature search, we critically examine the completeness and usability of this information, and the usefulness of data compilations in the framework of chemical risk assessment., JRC.H.5-Rural, water and ecosystem resources

The project is a pilot and is aimed at evaluating whether a robust relationship can be established between POPs in commercially available milk products when compared to analytical data on POPs in ambient air. The experimental approach is based on 2 sets of diary product samples: 1. The 2001 milk survey with 88 milk samples from 68 locations in Europe 2. The 2007 organic diary product survey with 85 samples collected directly from farms in Europe. Dioxins, PCB and pesticides are analyzed in all samples and compared to regional air data collected from literature., JRC.DDG.H.5-Rural, water and ecosystem resources

The Stockholm Convention (SC) on POPs obliges its parties to compile national emission inventories for unintentionally reseased POPs. In order to fill existing gaps what regards emission factors (EFs) for development country (DC) specific processes, an experiment on different kind of woodstoves was executed in a co-operattion berween the secretariate of the SC, UNEP, the National institute for Ecology in Mexico and the JRC. The experiment aimed at evaluating POPs emissions from different types of stoves that are being introduced in DCs in order to replace cooking on open fire, thereby reducing the impact on indoor air quality. The EFs were in a range of 120 ug PCDD/F/PCB TEQ per TJ and confirmed the range of 100 ug PCDD/F/PCB TEQ per TJ virgin wood as assumed in the existing toolkit for more sofisticated stoves as applied in developed countries., JRC.DDG.H.5-Rural, water and ecosystem resources