Twenty-five years of nationwide ambient metals measurement in the United Kingdom: concentration levels and trends

Abstract

Ambient air quality has been an important issue for humans and the environment for hundreds of years. More recently, definitive links have been identified between pollutants and adverse effects on human health and on environmental sustainability. Of particular concern since the last quarter of the twentieth century has been the presence of toxic 'heavy metals' in ambient air. In order to measure the concentrations of pollutants, including 'heavy metals', in ambient air, to assess human and environmental exposure, comply with developing legislation, and assess newly introduced abatement strategies, the UK government established nationwide air quality measurement networks in the late 1970s. The nationwide measurement of 'heavy metals' in ambient air began in the late 1970s, and in 1980 was developed into several national networks, aimed at different metals and different emissions sources. These networks were rationalised into the current UK Heavy Metals Monitoring Network in 2003. The data produced by the current scientific operator of the Network, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), in 2005, marked 25 years of ambient 'heavy metals' measurement in the UK at a nationwide level. This paper celebrates this milestone and provides a novel and critical examination of Network operations, measured concentration levels, and trends, over the last quarter of a century.

A Simple Approach for Measuring Emission Patterns of Vapor Phase Mercury under Temperature-Controlled Conditions from Soil

“…The increasing evasion of Hg with rising temperature has in fact been demonstrated from both water and soil layers [17]. Indeed Figure 3 shows data from the UK Heavy Metals Monitoring Network Air Quality Network station at Runcorn [18], where historical industrial processes have led to contamination of the soil by mercury [19]. In such case, it can be clearly seen that the mercury vapor levels measured in air correlate well ( R 2 = 0.8) with the average temperature at the monitoring sites (offset by one month to allow for the lag in the ground warming and cooling).…”

Selecting Policy Instruments for Better Environmental Regulation: a Critique and Future Research Agenda

“…Direct regulation has proved an effective mechanism for reducing environmental damage and often presents as a strong, clear signal to the market of government commitment. For example, ambient concentrations in the UK atmosphere of a wide range of metals have fallen over the last 25 years as a result of legislation, alongside abatement strategies and changing fuel use (Brown et al, 2008). Similarly, UK atmospheric concentrations of polychlorinated biphenols have shown a sustained fall over the last 40 years following their ban in production and use, which followed the introduction of voluntary restrictions in the 1960s/early 1970s (Schuster et al, 2010).…”

Using principal component analysis to detect outliers in ambient air monitoring studies

“…In 2006 the UK Heavy Metals Monitoring Network consisted of 17 sites situated around the UK at roadside, industrial, rural and urban background locations [1] (this has since risen to 24 sites following a reorganisation and expansion in 2007-2008 in order to ensure compliance with the EC Fourth Air Quality Daughter Directive [10]). Particulate samples are taken at all sites using Partisol 2000 instruments, fitted with PM 10 (defined as: air pollutants consisting of particles with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 10 micrometers) size selective heads, operating at a calibrated flow rate of approximately 1m 3 h À1 .…”

“…It is very difficult to judge whether any given value in a series of individual measurements of a single pollutant constitutes an outlier, if a detailed study of emissions and meteorological parameters is not carried out. Fortunately several ambient pollutants are usually measured at once at air quality monitoring stations-for instance, this paper will discuss the concentration of various metals in ambient particulate matter, 12 of which are measured at each location on the UK Heavy Metals Monitoring Network [1]. The expectation is that the concentrations of many of these metals will show some correlation with each other because they originate from the same sources.…”