Health impacts of PM originating from residential wood combustion in four nordic cities.

Background: Residential wood combustion (RWC) is one of the largest sources of fine particles (PM) in the Nordic cities. The current study aims to calculate the related health effects in four studied city areas in Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark.

Methods: Health impact assessment (HIA) was employed as the methodology to quantify the health burden.

Atmospheric transport is a major pathway of microplastics to remote regions.

In recent years, marine, freshwater and terrestrial pollution with microplastics has been discussed extensively, whereas atmospheric microplastic transport has been largely overlooked. Here, we present global simulations of atmospheric transport of microplastic particles produced by road traffic (TWPs - tire wear particles and BWPs - brake wear particles), a major source that can be quantified relatively well. We find a high transport efficiencies of these particles to remote regions.

Costs and benefits of implementing an Environmental Speed Limit in a Nordic city.

We present a comprehensive study on the impacts and associated changes in costs resulting from the implementation of Environmental Speed Limits (ESLs), as a measure to reduce PM and associated health effects. We present detailed modelled emissions (i.e.

Supporting the improvement of air quality management practices: The "FAIRMODE pilot" activity.

This paper presents the first outcomes of the "FAIRMODE pilot" activity, aiming at improving the way in which air quality models are used in the frame of the European "Air Quality Directive". Member States may use modelling, combined with measurements, to "assess" current levels of air quality and estimate future air quality under different scenarios. In case of current and potential exceedances of the Directive limit values, it is also requested that they "plan" and implement emission reductions measures to avoid future exceedances.

Webcrawling and machine learning as a new approach for the spatial distribution of atmospheric emissions.

In this study we apply two methods for data collection that are relatively new in the field of atmospheric science. The two developed methods are designed to collect essential geo-localized information to be used as input data for a high resolution emission inventory for residential wood combustion (RWC). The first method is a webcrawler that extracts openly online available real estate data in a systematic way, and thereafter structures them for analysis.

Public participation GIS for improving wood burning emissions from residential heating and urban environmental management.

A crowdsourcing study supported by a public participation GIS tool was designed and carried out in two Norwegian regions. The aim was to improve the knowledge about emissions from wood burning for residential heating in urban areas based on the collection of citizens' localized insights. We focus on three main issues: 1) type of dwelling and residential heating source; 2) wood consumption and type of wood appliances; and 3) citizens' perception of the urban environment.

Impact of bioethanol fuel implementation in transport based on modelled acetaldehyde concentration in the urban environment.

This study shows the results obtained from emission and air dispersion modelling of acetaldehyde in the city of Oslo and associated with the circulation of bioethanol vehicles. Two scenarios of bioethanol implementation, both realistic and hypothetical, have been considered under winter conditions; 1) realistic baseline scenario, which corresponds to the current situation in Oslo where one bus line is running with bioethanol (E95; 95% ethanol-5% petrol) among petrol and diesel vehicles; and 2) a hypothetical scenario characterized by a full implementation of high-blend bioethanol (i.e.

Evaluation of the use of bioethanol fuelled buses based on ambient air pollution screening and on-road measurements.

Mitigation measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions may have adverse effects on urban air quality and human exposure to harmful pollutants. The use of bioethanol fuelled vehicles is increasing worldwide and may create new undesired pollution effects. Different measurement campaigns were performed in a pilot study to contribute to the understanding of the consequences associated with the use of bioethanol blended fuel (E95) on a series of pollutants.

The role of organic and inorganic indoor pollutants in museum environments in the degradation of dammar varnish.

This paper investigates the effects of inorganic (NO(2) and O(3)) and volatile organic acid (acetic acid) pollutants on the degradation of dammar varnish in museum environments. Model paint varnish samples based on dammar resin were investigated by Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Dammar is a natural triterpenoid resin, commonly used as a paint varnish.