Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. The RMNO has been abolished since January 2010, but the website http://www.rmno.nl, where publications can be downloaded, still exists.
This paper discusses critical issues underlying the interface between air quality science, stakeholder participation, and policy development within the context of the European AIRNET Network multistakeholder project. The paper argues that it is not only the content of air pollution and health issues that stakeholders consider important, but also the process and mechanisms by which the interface operates. A visual representation of the interaction between science, society, and stakeholders in the development, dissemination, and evaluation of effective air quality policy strategies is provided. The paper discusses the role of AIRNET in supporting the Clean Air for Europe (CAFE) program and assesses the AIRNET experience in establishing a network to bridge the gap between air quality policy, stakeholders, the public, and scientific communities.
Adaptation to climate change is gradually becoming accepted as one of the major challenges in regional and urban planning. However, the scope for options that make our societies less vulnerable to flood risks, disruptive quantities of rainwater in cities, or urban heat stress tends to be narrowed down, often implicitly, by the existing institutional context. Institutions reflect past choices made regarding the legitimate distribution of burdens and benefits between government and society of measures against weather-related calamities. Alternative options, like innovative dyke concepts, green roofs, or urban planning to reduce heat stress, would require political debate on the legitimacy of different arrangements and would take climate adaptation policy out of the technocratic 'comfort zone'. This article offers a framework of analysis for describing the institutionalized distribution of responsibilities for initiation, implementation, costs and liability for climate adaptation measures, and the shift in these that alternative options would entail. Furthermore, it offers four perspectives for assessing the legitimacy of present and alternative distributions. The framework is applied to the Dutch context in three cases concerning flooding, urban water drainage and urban heat stress.
Background and Aims: Current air quality standards for particulate matter use the mass concentration (PM10 or PM2.5) as a metric. It has been suggested that particles from combustion sources are more health relevant. Expressed in reduction of the total mass concentration the impact of policies directed at reducing particles from combustion processes is usually relatively small. We therefore evaluated the value of black carbon particles (BCP) as an additional indicator in air quality management. Methods. We consider different measurement methods for BCP and compare the near roadway concentration gradients of BCP with those of PM mass. We review the evidence comparing the health effects of BCP with those of PM mass. We compare the potential health benefits of a hypothetical traffic abatement measure calculated based on concentrations response functions for BCP with those based on PM2.5. Results. Near roadway concentration gradients are much steeper for BCP than for PM mass. A relatively large part (40-70%) of the roadside increment in PM2.5 mass concentrations can be attributed to BCP. Health effect estimates from mortality and morbidity time-series studies as well as cohort studies were higher for BCP than for PM10 or PM2.5 when expressed per μg/m3. When applying the calculated Relative Risks (RR) for all cause mortality from cohort studies, the increase in life expectancy associated with a hypothetical traffic abatement measure was four to nine times higher when expressed per achievable reduction in BCP compared to that per an equivalent amount of PM2.5 mass. Conclusion. BCP is a valuable additional air quality indicator to evaluate the health risks of air quality dominated by primary combustion particles
AIRNET was a thematic network project (2002-2004) initiated to stimulate the interaction between researchers in air pollution and health in Europe. As part of AIRNET's communication strategy, a standardized workshop model was developed to organize national meetings on air pollution and health (AIRNET network days) . Emphasis was given to tailor the national workshop information and related activities to the specific needs of a wider range of stakeholders (e.g., policy makers, nongovernmental organizations, industry representatives) . In this report we present an overview of the results of four workshops held in western, northern, central/eastern, and southern regions of Europe in 2004. Overall, workshop experiences indicated that by actively involving participants in the planning of each meeting, AIRNET helped create an event that addressed participants' needs and interests. A wide range of communication formats used to discuss air pollution and health also helped stimulate active interaction among participants. Overall, the national workshops held by AIRNET offered a way to improve communication among the different stakeholders. Because a broad stakeholder involvement in decision making can positively affect the development of widely supported policies, such meetings should be continued for Europe and elsewhere.
Abstract An informal one-and-a-half-day workshop devoted to research needs on the health effects of airborne particulate matter (PM) was held in Park City, Utah, on April 29 and 30, 1996, in conjunction with the Second Colloquium on Particulate Air Pollution and Health at Park City, Utah, on May 1–3, 1996. The objective of the workshop was to prepare a holistic assessment of knowledge gaps and research opportunities for presentation at the penultimate session of the colloquium. The workshop reviewed the research progress made since the first PM colloquium (Irvine, California, January 1994) and the findings of recent major reviews of the PM literature by the World Health Organization-European Region, the U.K. Health Department, the National Institute of Public Health in the Netherlands, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It then discussed: (1) the nature of ambient PM; (2) population segments at special risk; (3) the nature of the health effects of concern; (4) the sources of ambient air PM; and (5) the implications of ambient air PM health effects on occupational exposure limits and occupational cohorts. The workshop concluded that: A primary focus for further research should be on accumulation mode aerosol with the objective of disentangling the roles of its chemical constituents, as well as their interactive effects with each other and with coexisting gaseous criteria pollutants. Research is also urgently needed on the health effects of both the coarse-mode PM10 and the ultrafine particles in the nuclei-mode aerosol. There should be a continued focus on infants, the elderly, and people with preexisting cardiopulmonary diseases. Further development and validation of animal models for human sensitive groups warrants high priority. Validated animal models are needed for target human populations in order to investigate: (1) the roles of specific constituents of PM mixtures; (2) the roles of exposure concentrations and durations on responses; (3) some of the risk factors that predispose individuals to be responsive to PM exposures; and (4) physiological, biochemical, molecular, and pathological correlates of mortality, tissue and organ damage, and chronic disease development.
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