Abstract
Pollution of the environment by heavy metals is the subject of concern of a number of national and international bodies. In 1998 a number of Parties to the Convention on Long-Range Trans-boundary Air Pollution (hereinafter the Convention) signed the Protocol on Heavy Metals (Protocol). The aim of the Protocol was to control atmospheric emissions of toxic metals (lead, cadmium and mercury). In accordance with the Protocol the Co-operative Program for Monitoring and Evaluation of Long-Range Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe (EMEP) provides assessments of pollution levels of heavy metals in the European region. Measurements of heavy metal concentrations in the air and precipitation are carried out at the EMEP monitoring network. Along with that the Meteorological Synthesizing Centre-East (MSC-E) performs model assessments of depositions and air concentrations of heavy metals throughout the European region as well as trans-boundary fluxes between the European countries (http://www.msceast.org/reps). In 2003 the Protocol on Heavy Metals came into force, and at present the second priority metals (As, Ni, Cr, Zn, Cu) are under pollution assessment. In order to correlate the existing pollution levels with the environment risk to human and ecosystem health, they are compared with scientifically sound critical loads, developed by the Working Group on Effects (WGE). The environmental risk of heavy metals is related to various sources, and the trans-boundary pollution plays a very important role for the European region.
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© 2006 Springer
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Bashkin, V.N. (2006). TRANS-BOUNDARY HM AIR POLLUTION. In: MODERN BIOGEOCHEMISTRY: SECOND EDITION. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4586-7_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4586-7_18
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-4182-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-4586-8
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