Project duration

01.11.2005 - 31.01.2008

Main objective  

The project aims to provide a full-chain analysis related to impact of health protection measures related to priority pollutants as identified by the Environment and Health Action Plan (EHAP), to support the development of cost effective policy measures against pollution related diseases and their wider impacts. 

Project in brief

The project will achieve its aim through extending and further developing existing methodologies, models and data to provide an impact-pathway-based model for evaluation of the role of public health externalities on society. The model will be made operational for the selected compounds.
Specifically, the objectives are related to the following pollutants: ozone, heavy metals (mercury, cadmium, arsenic, nickel, lead), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins and indoor air pollution. Main deliverables from the project will include evaluation of a number of emission scenarios using a cost-benefit analysis and incorporating macro-economic modelling. A coherent set of methodologies covering the indicated priority pollutants will be developed and applied in this evolution. 
The project objectives will be achieved in 7 work packages. WP 1 will extend current policy-relevant emission scenarios to cover all the targeted pollutants or pollution situations, and will provide data on costs of measures. WPs 2 and 3 will review latest research and incorporate information on dose/exposure/concentration - response relationships for health and non-health benefit endpoints of the targeted pollutants. They will also provide monetary valuation data. Based on WPs 1-3 and on macroeconomic analyses done in WP6, WP 4 will develop an integrated tool for the cost benefit assessment, which will be implemented in WP5. WP5 will also expand datasets created in WPs 1-3 and 6 with environmental information, to provide coherent input into the modelli

General tasks and key accomplishments

The project will: 

• Identify emission reduction measures and their costs for PCBs, Dioxins and indoor air pollution, and review such information for ozone and heavy metals, particularly through the ESPREME project progress for heavy metals. 
• Evaluate benefits of such measures in terms of reduction of health impacts, including possible ancillary benefits, based on data derived from current and previous relevant projects (e.g. ESPREME, MERLIN, INFOS) 
• Evaluate uncertainties related to single health estimates and provide guidance on how to deal with these uncertainties 
• Review existing non-health benefit aspects of emission reductions, identify missing elements and seek to fill in the gaps, such as providing additional valuation estimates 
• Based on the cost benefit analysis approach used for the CAFE programme and on its review, develop an integrating methodology that would allow a split between economic and social benefits both direct and indirect 
• Construct and evaluate a number of emission abatement scenarios using the integrated system for cost benefit analysis (all scenarios based on RAINS/CAFE and ESPEREME) 
• Assess the macro-economic impacts of the constructed scenarios for key economic variables broken down by economic sector. 

Main deliverables from the project will thus include evaluation of a number of emission scenarios using a cost-benefit analysis and a macro-economic modelling, A coherent set of methodologies covering the indicated priority pollutants will be developed and applied in this evolution. 

Co-ordinator of the project

Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), Kjeller, Norwegia, www.nilu.no  
Prof. Jozef M. Pacyna, NILU, e-mail: jp@nilu.no

Project consortium     

Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), Norway
University of Stuttgard (USTUTT), Germany
Univerzita Karlova v Praze (CUEC), Czech Republic
Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas (IETU), Poland
Śląska Akademia Medyczna (SAM), Poland
NILU Polska Sp. z o.o. (NILUPL), Poland
Cambridge Econometrics Limited (CEL), Great Britain 

Project website:

• http://www.nilu.no/DROPS/

Contact person at IETU:

Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas
Atmospheric Research Department
Ewa Strzelecka-Jastrząb, M.Sc.
ul. Kossutha 6 
40-833 Katowice 
tel.: +48-32-254 60-31 ext. 253
fax: +48-32-254 17-17 
e-mail: strzelec@ietu.katowice.pl  

Additional materials

• DROPS leaflet, pdf file

Polish Thematic Network for Environmental Technologies

Polish Thematic Network for Problems of Air Pollution and Climate Change