European Commission (HEIMTSA)

MSC-E takes part in the EU HEIMTSA project launched in 2007 under the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission (EC). The project aims to support the Environment and Health Action Plan (EHAP) by extending health impact assessment (HIA) and cost benefit analysis (CBA) methods and tools so that environment and health impacts of policy scenarios in key sectors can be evaluated reliably at the European level. The responsibility of MSC-E in the project is to assess by means of its chemical transport models the atmospheric dispersion of selected heavy metals and POPs and their concentration in different environmental media.

The main activities carried out by MSC-E during this year were connected with review of methods and models for assessment of concentrations of heavy metals in the environment as well as modelling activity within the HEIMTSA case study on complex pollutants with multi-pathway exposure. Particularly, MSC-E took part in review of available data and models to be used in the full chain assessment of the case study on complex pollutants, discussions of the assessment procedure and development of the case study work plan. It also contributed to the report on review of methods for modelling environmental concentrations, describing model adjustments, developments and applications. Besides, it collected and submitted required modelling data on the considered pollutants (As and Pb) atmospheric deposition and concentration in ambient air. The Centre also contributed to the report of the case study on complex pollutants covering the field of atmospheric dispersion modelling.

An example of the simulation results of country-averaged deposition fluxes of arsenic to terrestrial ecosystems is presented in Fig. 1. The most significant deposition fluxes were predicted for the Benelux countries, and also some other countries such as Germany, France and Greece. The highest deposition reduction by 2010 and 2020 is characteristic of countries with large deposition and also in some other countries. In general, somewhat more significant reduction is predicted for the Central and the East European countries (Slovenia, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary etc.)

Fig. 1. Simulated country-averaged total deposition flux (dry+wet) of arsenic to terrestrial compartments