Helcom : Heavy metal emissions to air

Atmospheric emissions of heavy metals in the Baltic Sea region

Editor(s): Alexey Gusev, EMEP MSC-E

Key message

Annual emissions of heavy metals from HELCOM countries have decreased during the period from 1990 to 2005 by 45% for cadmium, 46% for mercury, and 86% for lead.

Results and Assessment

Relevance of the indicator for describing the developments in the environment

This indicator shows the levels and trends in cadmium, mercury, and lead emissions from anthropogenic sources of HELCOM countries to the atmosphere. The emissions of heavy metals represent the pressure of emission sources on the atmosphere of the Baltic Sea region and subsequently on the Baltic Sea aquatic environment.

Policy relevance and policy reference

HELCOM adopted a Recommendation in May 2001 for the cessation of hazardous substance discharges/emissions by 2020, with the ultimate aim of achieving concentrations in the environment near to background values for naturally occurring substances and close to zero for man-made synthetic substances.

On the European level the relevant policy to the control of emissions of heavy metals to the atmosphere is being taken in the framework of UN ECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP). The Executive Body of CLRTAP adopted the Protocol on Heavy Metals on 24 June 1998 in Aarhus (Denmark). It targets three particularly harmful metals: cadmium, lead and mercury. According to one of the basic obligations, Parties will have to reduce their emissions for these three metals below their levels in 1990. The Protocols has been signed by 36 and ratified by 22 countries and has been entered into force in 2003.

Assessment

Annual emissions of heavy metals from HELCOM countries have decreased during the period 1990-2005 by 45% for cadmium, 46% for mercury, and 86% for lead (Figure 1). For individual countries, the most significant drop of cadmium emissions can be noted for Lithuania (90%) and Estonia (87%). In case of lead emission, the most significant decrease can be seen for Denmark and Sweden where the emissions in 2005 were more than 20 times lower than in 1990. Mercury emission most significantly decreased in Germany (86%) and Sweden (80%). Essential reduction of annual lead emission of HELCOM countries from 2003 to 2004 is mostly caused by the change of emission in Russia.

The reduction in heavy metal emission to the atmosphere is a consequence of increased use of lead-free fuels, use of cleaner production technologies as well as of economic contraction and industrial restructuring in Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Russia in early 1990s.

In 2005 total annual emissions of HELCOM countries amounted to 112 tonnes of cadmium, 41 tonnes of mercury, and 1103 tonnes of lead. Among the HELCOM countries the largest contributions to cadmium total emissions of HELCOM countries belong to Russia (54%) and Poland (41%), for lead – to Poland (48%) and Russia (32%), and for mercury – to Poland (50%) and Russia (34%).

Maps of the Baltic Sea Region and time-series of annual total Cd, Hg, Pb emissions of HELCOM countries are shown on Figures 2-4. The diagrams on the maps also show the fractions of emissions deposited to the Baltic Sea. The highest fractions belong to Denmark and Sweden (about 20% for lead and cadmium and 10% for mercury), and the lowest one to Russia (about 0.5%).

HMs emis 1990-2005.gif

Figure 1. Total annual emissions of cadmium, mercury, and lead to air from HELCOM countries in period 1990-2005 (% of 1990).

Figure 2: Map of cadmium emissions of HELCOM Contracting Parties (CP) to air as totals in tonnes/year for the period 1990-2005. Red sections of the bars identify the fraction of emission deposited to the Baltic Sea. (The emission data of the CP refer to the total area of the CP except for Russian Federation, for which emissions from the territory of Russian Federation within the EMEP domain is used).

Note: different scales have been used for different countries! Click image to enlarge!

Figure 3: Map of mercury emissions of HELCOM Contracting Parties (CP) to air as totals in tonnes/year for the period 1990-2005. Red sections of the bars identify the fraction of emission deposited to the Baltic Sea. (The emission data of the CP refer to the total area of the CP except for Russian Federation, for which emissions from the territory of Russian Federation within the EMEP domain is used).

Note: different scales have been used for different countries! Click image to enlarge!

Figure 4: Map of lead emissions of HELCOM Contracting Parties (CP) to air as totals in tonnes/year for the period 1990-2005. Red sections of the bars identify the fraction of emission deposited to the Baltic Sea. (The emission data of the CP refer to the total area of the CP except for Russian Federation, for which emissions from the territory of Russian Federation within the EMEP domain is used).

Data

Table 1. Cadmium emissions from anthropogenic sources of HELCOM countries from 1990 to 2005. Values of emissions estimated using interpolation are given in bold. Units: tonnes/year

	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Denmark	1.1	1.2	1.1	1.1	1.0	0.8	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6
Estonia	4.4	4.2	3.0	2.2	2.9	2.0	1.0	1.1	1.0	0.9	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6
Finland	6.3	3.4	2.9	2.9	2.4	1.7	1.5	1.1	1.3	0.6	1.4	1.6	1.3	1.2	1.5	1.3
Germany	12.0	8.0	5.2	3.7	2.6	2.3	2.2	2.4	2.2	2.7	2.4	2.6	2.7	2.7	2.7	2.7
Latvia	1.5	1.2	0.9	0.8	0.9	0.7	0.9	0.8	1.1	0.9	0.8	0.8	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.5
Lithuania	3.8	2.8	2.5	2.3	2.1	2.1	2.2	2.2	2.6	2.0	1.4	1.2	1.0	0.9	0.5	0.4
Poland	92	85	84	92	86	83	91	86	55	62	50	53	49	48	46	46
Russia	79	68	69	59	57	57	51	50	49	51	51	51	52	57	55	59
Sweden	2.3	1.7	1.4	1.1	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5
Total	202	176	170	165	155	150	152	145	114	121	109	111	107	113	108	112

Table 2. Lead emissions from anthropogenic sources of HELCOM countries from 1990 to 2005. Values of emissions estimated using interpolation are given in bold. Units: tonnes/year

	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Denmark	122	95	86	44	11	10	10	8	7	7	7	6	5	5	5	6
Estonia	201	185	121	101	124	84	65	52	46	44	37	34	34	39	38	37
Finland	326	247	175	100	60	57	35	19	20	14	38	38	40	34	27	24
Germany	1801	1055	761	606	405	330	222	96	94	96	102	105	106	107	109	107
Latvia	21	17	10	8	10	8	10	12	14	13	13	13	13	14	14	17
Lithuania	47	49	32	28	33	30	18	20	22	19	16	15	15	15	5	6
Poland	1372	1336	986	997	966	937	960	896	736	745	647	610	588	596	600	536
Russia	3591	3553	3095	3276	2643	2426	2304	2247	2262	2339	2352	2235	2118	2207	330	355
Sweden	352	307	287	135	41	27	23	24	23	21	19	19	17	18	18	17
Total	7832	6844	5553	5294	4293	3910	3647	3371	3224	3298	3231	3074	2935	3035	1147	1103

Table 3. Mercury emissions from anthropogenic sources of HELCOM countries from 1990 to 2005. Values of emissions estimated using interpolation are given in bold. Units: tonnes/year

	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Denmark	3.3	3.3	3.2	3.2	2.3	2.2	2.5	2.0	1.9	2.0	1.2	1.4	1.3	1.3	1.2	1.3
Estonia	1.1	1.0	0.8	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.5	0.5
Finland	1.1	0.9	0.8	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.6	0.5	0.4	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.7	0.9
Germany	19.2	13.3	8.4	5.3	2.8	2.4	2.6	2.5	2.6	2.5	2.7	2.7	2.7	2.9	2.8	2.7
Latvia	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1
Lithuania	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.5	0.3	0.4	0.4	0.4
Poland	33.3	32.7	31.9	32.5	32.4	32.3	33.6	33.0	29.5	27.1	25.6	23.2	19.8	20.2	19.8	20.1
Russia	15.6	13.4	11.4	11.8	10.4	10.4	10.1	9.6	9.4	9.9	10.0	10.1	10.2	11.4	11.9	14.0
Sweden	1.6	1.3	1.3	1.1	1.1	1.1	1.1	1.0	0.9	0.9	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.8	0.7
Total	76	66	58	55	51	50	52	50	46	44	42	40	36	38	38	41

Meta data

Technical information:

1. Source: EMEP/MSC-E, UN ECE Secretariat

2. Description of data: Annual total emissions of all three metals were officially reported to the UN ECE Secretariat by HELCOM countries. These data are available from EMEP emission database WEBDAB: http://webdab.emep.int.

3. Geographical coverage: European region

4. Temporal coverage: Data on lead, cadmium, and mercury emissions are available for the period 1990 - 2005. Some of the HELCOM countries, in particular, Russia submitted part of the data for this period. Russia did not provide information for 2001. Values of emissions from Russia for 2001 were obtained using interpolation.

5. Methodology and frequency of data collection: National data on emissions are annually submitted by countries Parties to CLRTAP Convention to the UN ECE Secretariat; the methodology is based on combination of emission measurements and emission estimates based on activity data and emission factors. Submitted data are passing through QA/QC procedure and stored in the UN ECE/EMEP emission database at EMEP/MSC-W.

Quality information:

6. Strength and weakness:

Strength: data on emissions are annually submitted, checked and stored in the database

Weakness: gaps in time series of national emissions, uncertainties in national emissions, lack of gridded emissions, and incompleteness

7. Uncertainty: Among the HELCOM countries the level of uncertainty of official data on HM emission was reported by Denmark and Finland. From the EMEP countries the information on uncertainties of PCDD/F official emissions is available for Austria, France, and the United Kingdom. The uncertainty of reported data on PCDD/F emissions expressed as percentage relative to mean value of emission is as follows:

Finland: Hg -24% - +25%

Pb -25% - +26%

Cd -25% - +25%

Denmark: Hg -43% - +43%

Pb -37% - +37%

Cd -110% - +110%

Austria: Hg -48% - +116%

Pb -52% - +110%

Cd -48% - +116%

France: Hg -63% - +63%

Pb -53% - +53%

Cd -52% - +52%

UK: Hg -40% - +100%.

Pb -30% - +40%.

Cd -40% - +100%.

8. Further work required: Further work is required on filling gaps in time series of emissions and reducing their uncertainties.

For reference purposes, please cite this indicator fact sheet as follows:

[Author’s name(s)], [Year]. [Indicator Fact Sheet title]. HELCOM Indicator Fact Sheets 2007. Online. [Date Viewed], http://www.helcom.fi/environment2/ifs/en_GB/cover/.

Last updated 3.9.2007