The IAQM has decided to accept applications to the Institute at Fellowship Grade. Candidates for election to the class of Fellow shall be at least thirty- five years old and be able to fulfill the following criteria;

• Hold a relevant degree (or be able to demonstrate education to a comparable level)
• Have at least ten years full time experience in one of the following fields, air quality management, air quality policy, research, monitoring, modelling, emission inventories, and other related and relevant areas to satisfy the Membership Committee.
• Hold a responsible position within the field of Air Quality.

The NFU has joined the Crop Protection Association and other key stakeholders in a letter send to Gordon Brown calling on the Government to ensure proposals to cut crop protection sprays, under a revised EU's Pesticides Registration Regulation, do not reduce farmers and growers ability to produce food at a time of rising prices and concerns over food security.

The EU regulation is looking to move from a risk-based assessment to a hazard based assessment which will have a huge impact on the number of approved and available pesticide sprays. Growers could initially lose 15% of these sprays, but the proposals could go much further resulting in a loss of 85% of all EU approved pesticides.

The NFU is concerned that the removal of these pesticides will greatly reduce crop yields and contribute to shortages and rising food prices.

Details of the pesticide legislation can be found at the NFU website here

The plant with a thermal capacity of 30 megawatts, costing approximately 70 million Euros has officially commenced operations in Lausitz region of Germany. The carbon dioxide produced in this pilot plant will not be released into the atmosphere, but will instead be separated, liquefied and treated for long term underground storage. The plant, built by Vattenfall is considered to be a milestone on the way to converting coal to electricity without the harmful emissions.

Read the full article

On the 7th July 2008 the Department of Transport Secretary, Ruth Kelly, and Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, set out a new approach to biofuels based on recommendations from the Gallagher review, concluding that the introduction of biofuels in the UK should be slowed down to take into account emerging scientific evidence about their sustainability.
The review, commissioned by Ruth Kelly in February, looked at the wider social and environmental impacts, particularly the indirect impacts of different forms of biofuel production.

The review expresses concerns that the whilst biofuels have the potential to deliver greenhouse gas savings their uncontrolled expansion could lead to changes in land use which are unsustainable.

Read the key findings here

The Department of Transport is particularly seeking the views of environmental modellers and practitioners who prepare air quality inventories at a national or local level, to improve the quality of modelling exhaust emissions from road transport.

The closing date for consultations is 24th October 2008 and full details of the consultation as well as a response paper can be found here

This document published by the European Environment Agency (EEA), provides an evaluation of ground level ozone pollution in Europe for the period April - September 2007 and compares the data for the last 10 years.

The results from last summer were among the lowest in the ten year period. Ozone pollution was at its highest in July and the relatively low temperatures of June led to a much lower number of exceedences of the information threshold compared to the summer of 2006.The highest one-hour ozone concentration of 479 µg/m3 was observed in Sicily, followed by 363 µg/m3 in Romania. France, Greece, Italy and Romania also reported high hourly ozone concentrations at least six times last summer.

Copies of the full report can be obtained from the EEA website:

http://reports.eea.europa.eu/technical_report_2008_5/en/technical_report_5_2008

Dear IAQM Members

We have been asked by the University of Greenwich to provide input on a questionnaire requesting data regarding Environmental modelling activities within your organisation.

The data collection exercise is part of an INTERREG project entitled ‘Air Quality Modelling Actors and Skills Inventory’. The objective of the project is to gather data from a range of organisations (e.g. Universities, Consulting Firms, Associations, etc.) that use modelling tools for air quality predictions within the UK. A similar exercise is also underway in France. The data gathered will form part of a database which will be freely available on the web.

As part of the questionnaire they are also looking for details of the projects that you would like to share with the community. In particular, they are looking for projects that involve modelling; data gathering and public awareness. Please do not forget to include your contact details, as without this, the information provided would not be included in the database.

They have indicated that the questionnaire should only take a few minutes to fill and your participation in providing the requested information will prove very valuable to the Environmental Modelling community. It is hoped that the material gathered will provide you with links to organisations between the UK and France.

Dr Mayur K Patel would like to thank you for your support and looks forward to receiving your completed form by the 15th of May. Please forward completed forms to Dr Patel at: m.k.patel@gre.ac.uk

Download the questionnaire

This report produced by the Defra funded UK Acid Waters Monitoring Network (AWMN), an integrated long-term freshwater monitoring network is concerned with assessing the impact of acidic emissions on UK waters. The report presents and reviews data collated in 2006. At the time of release of this report the AWMN will have been in operation for 20 years and over this period substantive interpretive reports have been produced every 5 years. These reports reviewed the operation of the Network, summarised trends in the data and integrated the information at site and national levels. The next substantive report is due to be published in 2008.

The report can be found here

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Diffusion tubes are widely used in the UK to measure ambient concentrations of nitrogen dioxide in the context of air quality management. No standard methods currently exist for tube preparation or analysis and as a consequence, there is considerable variation in procedures amongst both laboratories and end users. Reducing these variations in methods should reduce the inter-laboratory variation in results.

Defra and the Devolved Administrations commissioned AEA Energy and Environment and Air Quality Consultants to set up and manage a working group on harmonisation of nitrogen dioxide diffusion tube preparation and analysis methods. The full report produced by this working group can be viewed here

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The Agency has opposed the proposal to add capacity at Heathrow Airport on air quality grounds. The proposal to add a third runway and use the additional two runways for mixed activities would appear to compromise the ability to meet EU air quality standards for nitrogen dioxide. As the Governments White Paper states, not meeting these standards would be against the law.

The Agency concludes that the evidence presented in the consultation is not sufficiently robust to ensure that nitrogen dioxide limit values will not be infringed. This is because the assessment of air quality in the consultation document pays insufficient attention to future uncertainties, particularly with regard to climate change, road traffic patterns, background air quality and meteorological variability.

The full Agency response to this consultation can be accessed here. A second paper providing more background information into the project and a Q & A covering frequently asked questions is available here.