Wissenschaft trifft Politik -die Basis der europaischen Grenzwerte fur Stickstoffdioxid und Feinstaub

摘要

In Germany a controversial discussion about air quality guidelines and standards for ambient air quality is currently going on. This article describes how these values were developed and what they mean. The focus will be on the EU standard for the annual average of nitrogen dioxide, which in Germany is frequently exceeded at traffic measurement stations. The EU standard of 40 mug/m~3 NO_2 is identical with the guideline value of "WHO from 2006, which is based on a recommendation from 1997. For the derivation of this value, the association between symptoms of airway disease in children and the NO_2 exposure in dwellings was analyzed. Meanwhile numerous epidemiological studies on effects of NO_2 in ambient air have been performed, but until now these did not lead to a modification of the guideline value, since the new data are in accordance with the current value. When interpreting health effects of NO_2 all WHO expert panels emphasized that it remains unclear whether the ambient concentration of NO_2 serves as an indicator also for other traffic-dependent pollutants.