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Clean air - Danish efforts

Danish environmental regulation

Already in the late 1960's air pollution with sulphur dioxide was recognised as air pollution, which had to be limited, if only for health reasons. The sulphur content of fuel oils was therefore regulated in 1972.

The Environmental Protection Act

With the Environmental Protection Act in 1974 the authorities were empowered to restrict i.e. emissions to the air from about 7,000 polluting industries. Together with guidelines on limitation of air pollution the Environmental Protection Act was an efficient instrument to reduce the local environment and health risks presented by industry. The guidelines and the Environmental Protection Act have been revised several times, and in recent years these direct regulatory measures have been supplemented with economic management tools and optional arrangements, e.g. environmental labelling and agreements on energy and environmental management.

The Danish breakthrough in the regulation of emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide came in 1982, when the Acidification Committee was established. Both in Scandinavia and in EEC it was at that time recognised that acidification in sensitive areas could cause significant damages to soil and ecosystems. The Committee was to investigate how the Geneva Convention on transboundary air pollution could be fulfilled, and further, evaluate the need to limit emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide and the technical and economical possibilities of doing so.

The work of the committee was followed up by a reduction of emissions from Danish power plants. The power plants' emissions of sulphur dioxide are limited by flue gas desulphurisation, whereas emissions of nitrogen oxide can be reduced with different technologies. The reduction of emissions from the power plants is continuously strengthened, and today carbon-fuelled power plants operate without flue gas desulphurisation, and only very few power plants do not control emissions of nitrogen oxides. Regulation of emissions from power plants is one of the most important tools in Danish efforts to fulfil our obligations under the Geneva Convention.

Other important elements in the improvement of the air quality are the Ministry of the Environment's current strengthening of the regulations on sulphur content in both oil and coal products, as well as the recent taxes on the sulphur content in fuel and power plant emissions of sulphur dioxide.

Action in the Ministry of the Environment to control air pollution.

	The level is acceptable
	Not quite acceptable, more should be done
	Not acceptable, more shall be done

Dioxin

A serious accident at a factory in Seveso in Northern Italy in 1976 released large amounts of dioxin to the surroundings. Shortly afterwards damages appeared on vegetation, animals and humans. Immediately the world's population realised the tremendous toxicity of dioxin. After the accident attention focused on the sources of dioxin, and major concern was directed towards incineration. The Danish Environmental Protection Agency reacted by closing a number of minor plants without flue gas purification and by tightening the requirements for construction and operation and for purification at the remaining plants. Recently the EU has adopted very strict limits to permissible emissions of dioxin from utilities, and in Denmark similar requirements have been imposed on Danish industries.

Heavy metals

Desulphurisation at power plants and purification of flue gas from incineration plants have together with rules in the air pollution control guidelines reduced emissions of heavy metals, e. g. lead, cadmium, nickel, copper and mercury. In Denmark environmental problems with heavy metals are not as big as in many other countries.

Transport

Within the transport sector Denmark and the EU have taken early action to regulate emissions to the air. During the 1970's increasing awareness arose of the health impact on the nervous system as a consequence of the steadily increasing content of lead in air. There was no doubt that the dominant source was the lead content of petrol, and in 1978 the first of many EU regulations on lead in petrol appeared.

With the phasing out of the lead content in petrol the exhaust gasses from cars no longer contributed an important part of the air pollution, which especially hit the urban population. In 1990 Denmark introduced strengthened requirements to the exhaust from cars: all new cars should be fitted with catalytic converters, and in 1993 a similar regulation was adopted by the EU, which Denmark has since applied. With the strengthened requirements emissions of nitrogen oxide, hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide from cars have been reduced in step with the renewal of the car park with catalytic converters. This has to a large extent been the reason why the limit values for the nitrogen oxide levels in the air have by and large been observed and are expected to be so in the future.

Particles

One of the problems with air pollution that was recognised very early was emissions of dust from incineration plants, power plants and industrial activities. From 1974 air quality guidelines have laid down limits to these emissions, and they are today limited as far as technically possible by means of filters. Health problems related to particles in the air are therefore solely due to emissions from vehicles, especially diesel cars. The Ministry of the Environment has initiated an extensive investigation of how this problem is solved most efficiently.

Monitoring of air pollution

Monitoring of the air quality

The Ministry of the Environment's efforts also include surveillance of the atmospheric content of many compounds, e.g. SO₂, NO₂, lead, carbon monoxide and ozone. Measurements are carried out both in cities and in the countryside. They give a good impression of the exposure of the population to air pollution and how much originates in other countries. A significant supplement to the measurement is model simulations, which can give important information on the possible effects of new interventions to control the pollution level. The calculations can also give a more detailed picture of the geographical distribution of the pollution.

Limit values for air quality

Monitoring of air quality does not in itself indicate whether the pollution level is satisfactory or not. Only when the measurements are compared with health standards can the results be evaluated. In March 1983 the Ministry of the Environment issued its first guidelines setting out limit values for the content of sulphur dioxide and dust. The guidelines served to implement EU directives in Denmark. Later limit values for nitrogen dioxide and ozone were introduced.