Review and Assessment of Air Pollution Effects and Their Recorded Trends

Copyright: publisher ISBN iv Preface It is a great pleasure to introduce you to the report on "Review and Assessment of Air Pollution Effects and Their Recorded Trends". This report addresses significant elements for the work under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution and is the contribution of the Working Group on Effects to and support for the expected reviews or revisions of protocols to the Convention. At the same time it is a timely contribution to the 25th anniversary of the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution. and the Joint Expert Group on Dynamic Modelling to prepare a substantive report on the effects-related work under the Convention for presentation to the Executive Body in 2004. It agreed that the main purpose of this report should be to present a summary of results of effects research and long-term monitoring. As a consequence we are pleased to present in this report a comprehensive review of the status of air pollution effects with views back to the time when the region-wide monitoring work was initiated and ahead to future scenarios. All ICPs submitted their critical assessments building on long-term time series of monitoring data, taking into account new available scientific knowledge and covering a widened spectrum of pollutants. Links to EMEP supplied related information including deposition trends. Based on the comprehensive databases of the monitoring programmes, the report provides recorded trends of air pollution effects on human health, ecosystems and corrosive materials including information on first signs of recovery in the environment. They demonstrate clearly that the emission reductions of major air pollutants achieved so far have already led to significant improvements in the status of certain receptors. There is significant evidence that further improvements can be achieved by pursuing this strategy as the basis for future strategies of emission reduction in international partnership. To provide such comprehensive and condensed information as a basis for political decisions was only possible due to the broad participation of Parties who generously supported the effects-oriented programmes and their intensive cooperation. The history leading to the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution can be traced back to the 1960s, when the link between sulphur emissions in Europe and the acidification of lakes in Scandinavia was first suspected by scientists. The link became more established in the 1970s, as evidence increasingly showed that pollutants could travel hundreds of kilometres from their point of emission to affect …