Tag: ozone

The State of Acid Deposition in East Asia – from data to policy

Posted on by Aurélia Lemoine

29 June 2022 – Bangkok, Thailand

The EANET Awareness Workshop in 2022 “The State of Acid Deposition in East Asia – from data to policy” was organized virtually on Monday, 20 June 2022. It gathered participants from 17 different countries, scientists, and policymakers who discussed the biggest challenges and successes in acid deposition management in East Asia in the last 20 years.

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Opening Session

Dr. Isabelle Louis, Deputy Regional Director of UNEP Asia Pacific office, opened the EANET Awareness Workshop in 2022 by delivering the opening remarks, followed by welcome remarks from Mr. Kenichiro Fukunaga, Deputy Director General in charge of Administrative Management at the Asia Center for Air Pollution Research (ACAP).

Key messages conveyed in the remarks celebrated the imminent release of the Fourth Periodic Report on the State of Acid Deposition in East Asia (PRSAD4) and the opportunities ahead for the EANET, in line with the expansion of its scope to air pollution, including the launch of the EANET Project Fund.

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General Lecture – Key Findings from the Fourth Periodic Report on the State of Acid Deposition in East Asia (PRSAD4)

Since 2006, the EANET has been developing Periodic Reports on the State of Acid Deposition in East Asia (PRSADs), published every five years, and aiming at providing high-quality data to be used for research, formulation of policies, and measures to reduce the impacts of acid deposition and related air pollutants on the environment. In 2022, the Fourth Periodic Report on the State of Acid Deposition in East Asia (PRSAD4), will be released.

Prof. Meng Fan, Former Chairperson of the PRSAD4 Drafting Committee and Deputy Director General in charge of the Network Center for EANET, Asia Center for Air Pollution Research (ACAP), presented the General Lecture: Key Findings from the Fourth Periodic Report on the State of Acid Deposition in East Asia (PRSAD4). Findings and recommendations from the PRSAD4 highlighted the improvement of sulfur dioxide-related air pollution mostly in North-East Asia, while nitrogen deposition, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and ozone-related pollution were detected at a high level in the EANET region. The importance to continue deploying more monitoring sites was expressed.

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Panel Discussion – From data to policy, good practices for evidence-based and data-driven policies in East Asia

The Panel Discussion gathered renowned scientists and key policymakers from the EANET Participating Countries. Discussions focused on the importance of regional cooperation and multilateralism to address global environmental problems including acid deposition and air pollution. Findings from the PRSAD4 were also discussed, in the specific context of Malaysia, Mongolia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Most panelists highlighted the incredible capacity-building efforts led by the EANET in the past twenty years, on emission inventories, acid deposition regulations, and monitoring support which have indirectly contributed to the development of regional policies. Finally, the panel also shared thoughts on the role EANET may play by helping fill the gap of the right to information on air pollution, as the right to a clean environment and clean air was recently included as a human right by the United Nations.

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Useful Resources

Read a more detailed summary of the Workshop’s content in the EANET Awareness Workshop in 2022 Event Report.

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View all Workshop’s recordings on the Secretariat for the EANET’s YouTube channel and the Workshop’s photos on Flickr.

 

 

 

 

 

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Photo credits: All rights reserved to EANET.

Workshop on the Relationship between the Atmospheric Environment, Human Health and Ecosystems

Posted on by Aurélia Lemoine

10 November 2022 – Niigata, Japan

The Network Center for the EANET organized the Workshop « Relationships between the Atmospheric Environment, Human Health, and Ecosystems » virtually, on 31 October 2022. It gathered renowned East Asian and European researchers and experts from academia (Hokkaido University, Japan, and Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, China), international organizations (CLRTAP-UNECE, WHO, IIASA), and the Network Center for the EANET, who shared scientific findings on the effects of atmospheric deposition on human health and ecosystems as well as best science-based practices for policymakers. About 50 participants joined the Workshop.

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Scientific knowledge of the atmospheric environment and related effects in East Asia

Prof. Kayo Ueda, from the Graduate School of Medicine of Hokkaido University, analyzed the effects of air pollution on human health in Japan, Thailand and beyond, and showed how exposure to specific air pollutants could cause various health outcomes aside from respiratory diseases. She also explained how to estimate the mortality using epidemiological evidence and emphasized improving air quality could prevent millions of pollution-related deaths per year.

Prof. Zhaozhong Feng, from the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, explained the results of his research on the effects of ozone on crop production in Asia. After presenting the trends of surface ozone concentrations at the global scale, he highlighted the impacts of ozone on crops and yield loss in China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. Results from his work demonstrated that China showed the highest relative yield loss compared to Japan and the Republic of Korea. It also estimated the total ozone-induced annual loss of crop production at US$63 billion, revealing the need to take necessary mitigation actions for ozone emission control and adaptive agronomic measures against the rising surface ozone levels across East Asia.

Dr. Hiroyuki Sase is the Head of the Ecological Impact Research Department of the Asia Center for Air Pollution Research (ACAP), Network Center (NC) for the EANET. His presentation focused on the effects of atmospheric deposition on forest ecosystems. Dr. Sase presented the changes in atmospheric deposition in the EANET joint research sites including Thailand, Japan, and Russia, and explained the different responses of forest ecosystems in various climatic zones. Key findings from the EANET sites showed that although atmospheric deposition had decreased, recovery from acidification and/or from nitrate saturation had not been necessarily observed in forest ecosystems.

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Science-based policy experiences from Europe and beyond

Ms. Anna Kaplina, Secretariat, Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP), United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), presented the history and successes of the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution over the last 40 years. Among these achievements, she highlighted the decrease in emissions from 40% to 80% since 1990 in the UNECE region, resulting from the expertise, policy guidance, and capacity building among the 51 Parties.

Dr. Dorota Jarosinska, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, European Centre for Environment and Health, presented the Work of the Task Force on Health under the CLRTAP and the relevant work of WHO beyond this cooperation. She highlighted, among other points, the key role of the WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines, which form robust public health recommendations, support informed decision-making worldwide, and include a comprehensive assessment of the evidence on air pollution.

Dr. Zbigniew Klimont, a scientist from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), shared his presentation on the Integrated assessment modeling contribution to Air Convention protocols by taking the example of the Gothenburg Protocol (1999), introducing also scientific tools such as the Greenhouse gas Air pollution Interactions and Synergies (GAINS) model aiming at seeking win-win solutions in policy-oriented cooperation.

Find out more about this Workshop in the Useful Resources section.

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Useful Resources

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Photo credits: featured photo of Schronisko PTTK Hala Kondratowa, Zakopane, Poland (2018) by Marcin Szmigiel on Unsplash.

EANET kicks-off its first Project Fund Activity on Volatile Organic Compounds

Posted on by Aurélia Lemoine

16 February 2023 – Niigata, Japan

Under the leadership of the Ministry of Environment of Japan and with the technical support of the Network Center for the EANET, the first EANET Project Activity launched its online kick-off meeting on 15 February. It gathered over 40 participants mainly from Japan, Mongolia, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, and Thailand, involved in sharing or receiving technical assistance related to Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) monitoring.

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Why Volatile Organic Compounds?

Since the recent expansion of the scope of the EANET from acid deposition monitoring to wider air pollution action, the Network has started to carry out activities related to additional chemical species, including Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).

VOCs are “compounds that have a high vapor pressure and low water solubility. Many VOCs are human-made chemicals that are used and produced in the manufacture of paints, pharmaceuticals, and refrigerants” according to the US-EPA. In addition, several emission sources such as biogenic emissions, forest fires, waste burning including plastic, automobile exhaust, fossil fuel burning, and stock farming can produce VOCs. Exposure to VOCs may have various dangerous health effects from eyes, throat, and nose irritation to more serious conditions such as liver, kidney, or central nervous system damage, sometimes leading to cancer.

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Representation of PM2.5 and Ozone Co-contrail, by Prof. Hajime Akimoto (all rights reserved).

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VOCs are also precursors of particulate matter and ozone. It is important to measure VOCs to better understand how to mitigate air pollutants emissions.

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Learning more about VOCs emissions in East Asia

VOCs monitoring is complex due to its complicated source characteristics and costly measuring technology. For this reason, its monitoring is still at an early stage in Asia.

The “Feasibility for Promoting VOCs related Capacity Building in the EANET” project is part of the first batch of EANET Projects funded by the EANET Project Fund. Supported by the Ministry of the Environment, Japan, the project is coordinated by the Network Center for the EANET.

Through this project, experts in VOCs from the Center for Environmental Science in Saitama (CESS), in Japan will share their knowledge and assist the government officials from Mongolia and from the Philippines to develop their 3-year national implementation plan. During the kick-off meeting, Government representatives from the Philippines and Mongolia shared their plans and priorities for tackling VOCs.

Screenshot from participants during the kick-off meeting

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In addition, a VOC Advisory Group composed of experts from the NC and EANET countries has been brought together and will also give guidance on feasible measurement methods, data analysis, identification of the target species to measure VOCs, and feasible reduction measures.

At this stage, the implementation partners are environmentalists from Mongolia and from the Philippines. However, the project’s goal is to serve all the EANET countries and be further replicated.

The next meeting will take place in person in Manila in May 2023 to continue discussions on the feasibility and methodology of VOCs management.

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Interested in finding out more about the EANET Project Fund? Read more on how to fund or submit an EANET Project.

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Photo credits: featured photo by Anton Eprev on Unsplash (2019); other photos: all rights reserved to EANET.

EANET Research Fellowship Programme – Study on the impacts of air pollution transport and its effects to human health in Cambodia

Posted on by Aurélia Lemoine

17 February 2021 – Niigata, Japan

The Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET)’s fellowship programme aims at funding researchers from the EANET’s Participating Countries to carry out research pertaining to acid deposition at the Network Center in Japan. Kong Savuth, from Cambodia, was awarded the EANET fellowship in 2018. Mr. Savuth’s research described human health effects of exposure to air pollutants, namely, ozone (O3) and particulate matter (PM2.5) in reference to the WHO Air quality guidelines (2005).

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Impacts of air pollutants on human health

PM2.5 can penetrate deep inside the lungs and contribute to increasing the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases including lung cancer. According to recent epidemiological studies, reducing the annual average PM2.5 concentrations of 10 μg m-3 could result in a significant reduction of premature mortality.

Ground-level O3 can cause respiratory problems leading to asthma, cough, inflammation of the respiratory tract, chronic bronchitis, and lung damage. A high-level concentration of O3 also causes premature mortality.

WHO estimates that in 2016, some 58% of outdoor air pollution-related premature deaths were due to ischaemic heart disease and strokes, while 18% of deaths were due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and acute lower respiratory infections respectively, and 6% of deaths were due to lung cancer.

 

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Estimating premature mortality caused by PM2.5 and O3 in Cambodia

The researchers (Savuth and Yamashita) estimated premature mortality caused by the exposure to PM2.5 and O3 in Cambodia by using PM2.5 and O3 data simulated by CMAQ (Community Multiscale Air Quality – a chemical transport model) and Concentration-Response (C-R) functions.

 

Read the full study and its results, published in the EANET Science Bulletin, Vol 5.

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Under the EANET Research Fellowship programme 2018, this study was conducted at the Asia Center for Air Pollution (ACAP), Niigata, Japan. The researcher, Kong Savuth, acknowledged the support and facilities provide by ACAP and by the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan, for performing the research.

Photo credits: Cambodia by Daniel Kirsch, free of the copyright license.