This thesis deals with the issues associated with the legal regulation of air quality protection. The main objective is to describe, analyse and evaluate the condition of the current legal regulation which is mainly represented by the Act no. 201/2012 Coll., on the protection of air. The introductory part of the thesis focuses on the historical development of the legal regulation, its primary milestones, as well as legal regulation according to International and European Law and its impact on the internal national legislation. Furthermore, the thesis also focuses on the currently valid legal regulation and its components and clarifies its basic terminology. The largest portion of the thesis focuses on the legal regulation of the individual instruments regulated primarily by the Act no. 201/2012 Coll., on the protection of air, with the primary focus being the stationary sources of pollution. These instruments are sorted into traditional groups, each respectively representing conceptual, administrative-legal and economic instruments. The chapter on conceptual instruments primarily focuses on the two fundamental instrumental programs, that is a) - The National Emission Reduction Program of the Czech Republic, and b) - programs aimed at improving air quality and their importance in legal regulation....

Although sexual reproductive development is a critical phase in the life cycle of plants, the effects of air pollutants on the processes involved have not been investigated extensively. This thesis describes experiments undertaken to determine the direct effects of short-term exposures to ozone on the reproductive biology of species with contrasting reproductive growth habits, Brassica campestris L., an indeterminate species, and Plantago major L., a more determinate species. Two purpose-designed exposure chambers were constructed, each of which permitted the reproductive structures of up to twelve plants to be isolated from the vegetative parts and exposed simultaneously to ozone-enriched or charcoal-filtered air. The design of these chambers also permitted whole plant exposures. The occurrence of significant decreases in stomatal conductance and the net rate of photosynthesis following exposure to 70 ppb ozone established that the vegetative structures of both B. campestris and P. major were sensitive to ozone. Visible leaf injury also developed in B. campestris, the extent of which varied with the stomatal conductance of plants prior to fumigation and therefore ozone uptake. The growth of B. campestris and P. major was also reduced following 10 and 14 days of exposure respectively to 70 ppb ozone for 7 h d-1. The effects of ozone on growth differed between the four populations of P. major examined in this study. While a single 6 h exposure of the terminal inflorescence of B. campestris to 100 ppb ozone had no significant effect on reproductive development, repeated exposures over four consecutive days increased the abortion of seeds in apical pods and the precocious germination of seeds in older pods. However, the impact on final seed yield was dependent upon the timing of exposure; thus seed yield was significantly reduced following exposure during the early flowering phase, but was unaffected following exposure during the later stages of reproductive development. The compensation for seed losses in more mature plants resulted from their ability to retain naturally aborting seeds in older pods. Nonetheless, single and multiple exposures to ozone both reduced the rate of germination of harvested seeds and multiple exposures affected seed colour. In P. major, exposure of the fIrst spike to 120 ppb ozone for 7 h d-1 during flowering primarily affected seed number per capsule. Both significant increases and decreases in seed number were observed in the four populations examined, and seed number was also affected in spikes which had not been exposed to ozone, indicating the existence of possible compensation mechanisms. Pollen from both species was also shown to be sensitive to a 6 h in vivo exposure to ozone. The complex responses of B. campestris and P. major following direct exposure of the reproductive structures to ozone suggest that factors other than the type of reproductive growth habit are important in determining the extent of ozone damage and the ability of plants to compensate for reproductive site losses.

Black carbon (BC) is the light-absorbing component of soot, a combustion-generated aerosol that warms the climate by absorbing solar radiation. Its impacts on climate depend on its microphysical properties, which are modified by atmospheric processes including condensation, coagulation and wet removal. State of the art climate models consider soot in a concentric core/shell configuration, with a BC core coated by nonrefractory material such as organics or sulphate. Within this model, thicker coatings enhance visible light absorption, but also wet removal efficiency, and these have opposing effects on the total amount of light absorbed over BC’s lifetime. How well the core/shell model can calculate Mass Absorption Coefficient (MAC, the ratio of absorption to BC mass) is uncertain, as real soot forms more complex (often fractal) shapes, and detailed optical models using these morphologies predict the core/shell model may under- or over-estimate MAC depending on the precise properties of the particles. Few reliable measurements of variations in ambient MAC are available, as most older measurement techniques suffer from systematic uncertainties. In this work, a Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2) and PhotoAcoustic Soot Spectrometer (PASS) were used to measure BC mass concentration and absorption, and these instruments do not suffer from such uncertainties. The SP2 was also used to report core size and coating thickness distributions that are required to test state of the art climate models. Firstly, a method was developed to minimise bias in the measured coating thicknesses related to the limited detection range of the SP2. The sensitivity of this technique to the assumed density and refractive index of the BC core was also explored, and the most appropriate parameters to use with ambient measurements were determined. Core and shell distributions were measured in Pasadena, California under a range of different photochemical ages. These were then used to calculate MAC, which was compared to that measured using the SP2 and PASS. The measured and modelled MAC agreed within 10% at 532 nm, though this was dependent on the assumed refractive index of the BC core. Overall MAC increased by 15 –25% in around one third of a day of photochemical ageing. This is quite modest compared to some climate models, but not compared to the previous best estimate, which predicted MAC may increase by a factor of ~1.5 over BC’s lifetime. Core and coating distributions were also measured in Canadian boreal biomass burning plumes. A case study was presented comparing the properties of BC in three plumes, one of which had passed through a precipitating cloud. It was demonstrated that larger and more coated BC-containing particles were removed more efficiently, in agreement with previous thermodynamic theory. By calculating MAC using the measured core/shell distributions and comparing to measured scattering, it was demonstrated that the MAC and single-scattering albedo in the plumes were likely not significantly affected by the wet removal, as greater differences were observed between the two plumes not affected by precipitation.

Legal Regulation of Air Quality Protection Abstract This diploma thesis provides an overview of the legislation on air quality in the Czech Republic with a focus on the regulation in the Act No. 201/2012 Coll., on air protection including a detailed analysis of some problematic aspects and current issues. Air pollution is the actual global issue that is discussed not only in the Czech Republic but also all over the world, mainly because of the harmful effects on human health and the environment. This paper is organized as follows. The introductory chapter defines the necessary terms, which are essential to the following text of the paper. This chapter also describes the distribution of air pollutant sources and the importance of this distribution for subsequent obligations. The next chapter provides an overview of the historical development of Czech, international and European air quality legislation following by chapters, where the individual types of regulatory instruments to reduce air pollution are analyzed. The chapter on conceptual instruments mainly focuses on the National Emission Reduction Programme of the Czech Republic and an Air Quality Improvement Programs, including an analysis of the changes brought by the amendment to the Air Protection Act implemented by Act No. 172/2018 Coll. Moreover...

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

La fumée de cigarette est reconnue pour être un important polluant des espaces confinés. La matière particulaire qui lui est associée présente un intérêt toxicologique important, tant dans le cadre du tabagisme actif que passif, de par sa forte propension à être retenue dans les voies respiratoires. De plus, les molécules qui les constituent ou qui sont adsorbées à leur surface peuvent être, après leur rétention, transférées à l'organisme sur des périodes de temps importantes ce qui conduit à une exposition prolongée à ces molécules, certaines étant reconnues toxiques. Cependant, les méthodes d'analyses classiques ne permettent qu'une description partielle et ciblée. C'est dans ce contexte qu'a été entrepris ce travail de thèse sur l'étude détaillée de la composition des particules impliquées dans le tabagisme actif et passif. Dans un premier temps, une méthode de quantification par chromatographie gazeuse couplée à la spectrométrie de masse en tandem (GC-MS/MS) a été mise en place dans le but de valider le dispositif de fumage et de prélèvement. Ainsi, la reproductibilité des échantillons de fumées de cigarette soumis à l'étude a pu être assurée. En considérant l'évolution de traceurs comme la nicotine ou certains HAPs, un plan d'expérience a permis d'évaluer l'influence sur la nature des prélèvements, de différentes caractéristiques associées aux bouffées (durée, débit d'aspiration) et à la cigarette (taux d'humidité, perméabilité du filtre). Dans un second temps, les particules de fumées inspirées (MSS), expirées (EXS) et de fumées émises entre deux bouffées (SSS) ont été analysées par spectrométrie de masse à résonance cyclotronique des ions et à transformée de Fourier couplée à l'ionisation/désorption laser (LDI-FTICRMS) ou électrospray (ESI-FTICRMS). La comparaison MSS/EXS met en évidence une rétention préférentielle dans l'organisme des composés à forte polarité. Les SSS quant à elles révèlent des composés plus aromatiques et moins oxygénés que les MSS. Ce résultat a été associé à une différence de température et à une différence d'apport d'oxygène au niveau du foyer de combustion pendant et entre les bouffées. Ces paramètres influencent en effet la nature du phénomène majoritaire qui s'y produit (phases de pyrolyse et/ou de combustion). Un autre paramètre qui permet d'expliquer les différences observées est l'absence d'interactions des SSS après leur émission. Au contraire, les MSS, qui traversent le tabac encore non-consumé et le filtre de la cigarette, sont en mesure d'entrainer les molécules volatiles qu'ils contiennent telle que la nicotine par exemple. Ces résultats ont été, pour bon nombre, confirmés et complétés par des études réalisées en résonance magnétique nucléaire (RMN). L'ensemble des résultats obtenus dans l'étude des MSS, SSS et EXS montre que, pour une part importante, fumeur passif et fumeur actif sont exposés à des classes de molécules différentes qui seraient en mesure de conduire à des pathologies spécifiques / Cigarette smoke is one of the more significant indoor contaminant. Cigarette smoke is associated with gas phase and particulate matter phase components. The cigarette smoke particles are of major concern from a toxicological viewpoint, for both active and passive smoking. Indeed a large part of them is retained by the different levels of human respiratory system. As a consequence, the molecules adsorbed on their surface or the molecules, which compose the particle itself, can be slowly released in the organism. In this context, particles involved in active and passive smoking were analyzed and compared. In a first step, a quantification method by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) for some tracers has been developed and validated to allow the validation of both the smoking and the sampling procedures to be achieved. This is important to be sure that for a given cigarette smoke types, the different samples obtained from different collection procedure are statistically identical. This also allowed the influence of some smoking variables (type and humidity of the cigarette, puff duration, and flow rate of the puff) on the composition of the particles to be evaluated. In a second step, mainstream cigarette smoke (MSS), sidestream cigarette smoke (SSS) and exhaled cigarette smoke (EXS) particles were analyzed by ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry coupled with laser desorption/ionisation (LDI-FTICRMS) or electrospray ion (ESI-FTICRMS). The comparison of MSS and EXS revealed the selective retention of the more polar molecules in the organism. In contrast to what it is obtained for MSS, it was found that the compounds detected in the analysis of SSS particles are highly unsaturated and content low amounts of oxygen and nitrogen atoms. This has to be linked to a lower dioxygen amounts and to a lower temperature between two puffs in the burning zone. Consequently, pyrolytic and combustion phenomena are the main process which induce the formation of SSS and MSS, respectively. Moreover, MSS cross unburned tobacco before to be collected and can induce distillation of some volatile compounds (e.g. nicotine) which are thought to be more saturated and more oxygenated that the compounds generated in the burning zone. These results were confirmed and completed by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy analysis. The results of the MSS, SSS and EXS particle analysis highlight the differences of chemical composition of these different cigarette smokes which is associated to active smoking for the first one and passive smoking for the latter ones. Consequently, differences of toxicological effect can be expected for each kinds of smoking behavior

A combustão do diesel (DEP) é a principal fonte de partículas ultrafinas (PUFs) relacionadas à poluição causada pelo tráfego. Indivíduos com doenças respiratórias crônicas estão propensos a exacerbações durante a exposição à poluição ambiente. Este estudo avaliou os efeitos de exposição subcrônica a uma baixa dose de partículas de combustão de diesel (DEP). 90 camundongos machos BALB/c foram divididos em 3 grupos: (a) Controle: instilação nasal de solução salina (n = 30); (b) DEP15: 15?g de DEP/10?l de solução salina (n = 30); e (c) DEP30: 30?g de DEP/10?l de solução salina (n = 30) durante cinco dias por semana, por 30 e 60 dias. Os animais foram anestesiados com pentobarbital de sódio (50mg/kg ip) e sacrificados por exanguinação. A contagem de células inflamatórias e as concentrações de interleucinas (IL) -4, -10, -13 e -17 no lavado broncoalveolar (LBA) foram avaliadas por ensaio imunoenzimático (Elisa). mRNA da MUC5ac foi avaliado por PCR em tempo real. A análise histológica do septo nasal e bronquíolos foi realizada para avaliar: (a) a espessura do epitélio brônquico e nasal, (b) o conteúdo de muco neutro e ácido na mucosa nasal. Nossos resultados mostraram que a instilação de DEP30 após 30 dias aumentou o número de células inflamatórias totais em relação ao controle (p=0,033). Ao comparar os resultados de DEP30 com o grupo Controle após 60 dias observamos os seguintes aumentos: (a) na expressão de MUC5AC nos pulmões (p = 0,016), no conteúdo de muco ácido no septo nasal (p = 0,017), nas células inflamatórias totais no LBA (p<0,001), no número de macrófagos no LBA (p=0,035) e na espessura do epitélio nasal (p=0,042). Nossos dados sugerem que dose baixa de DEP induz inflamação do trato respiratório com padrão tempo-dependente. / Diesel exhaust is the major source of ultrafine particles (UFPs) in trafficrelated pollution. Subjects with chronic respiratory diseases have great risk of exacerbations during exposure to air pollution. This study evaluated the effects of sub-chronic exposure to a low dose of diesel exhaust particles (DEPs). Ninety male BALB/c mice were divided into 3 groups: (a) Control: nasal saline instillation (n=30); (b) DEP15: nasal instillation of 15?g of DEP/10?l of saline (n=30); and (c) DEP30: nasal instillation of 30?g of DEP/10?l of saline (n=30). Nasal instillations were performed five-days a week, during 30 e 60 days. Animals were anesthetized with pentobarbital sodium (50mg/kg i.p), and sacrificed by exsanguination. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) was performed to assess inflammatory cell count and concetrations of interleukin (IL)-4, -10, -13 and -17 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The RNAm MUC5ac gene expression was evaluated by real-time PCR. Histological analysis in nasal septum and bronchioles assessed: (a) bronchial and nasal epithelium thickness (b) acidic and neutral nasal mucous content. Our results showed that the instillation of DEP30 after 30 days increased the number of total inflammatory cells, as compared to the Control group (p = 0.033). The results of DEP30 after 60 days showed increases in: (a) the expression of MUC5AC in the lungs (p = 0.016); (b) acidic mucus production in the nasal septum (p = 0.017); (c) total inflammatory cells in the BAL fluid (p <0.001); (d) the number of macrophages in BALF (p = 0.035); and (d) nasal epithelium thickness (p = 0.042), as compared with control after 60 days. Our data suggest that a low dose of DEP induces inflammation of the respiratory tract in a time- dependent manner.

Increasingly, policy-makers rely on forecasts to set targets for environmental and health protection. I examine the UK Air Quality Strategies (AQS) for particulate matter (1997-2007). Here policy-makers select and articulate visions for technological and policy developments in order to set targets and policies to achieve them. Despite growing evidence for adverse health effects of particulates, challenging targets in 1997 were followed by two revisions of Objectives without introducing measures for reducing pollution. In 2007 more challenging targets were resumed. This thesis is a study of the formation and evolution of a policy framework: of the interactions and contrasting roles of scientific expertise, wider political discourse, and the ‘futures' presented by actors involved in the policy process. Sociology of Expectations has previously examined the roles of visions in innovation processes. I extended this framework to examine dynamics of visions in the policy-making process. My findings were based on analysis of visions and discourses identified in texts, model data, and interviews. Whilst none of the explanatory factors alone accounted the developments in the AQS, together they provide an explanation of change which highlights the role of learning by policy-makers . Visions for technological development articulated in each version of the AQS were in line with the dominant visions articulated in central government, but over time policy-makers responsible for the Strategy used them to present options for taking action on pollution. Co-construction of the AQS and modelled forecasts enabled policy-makers responsible for the Strategy to articulate visions for technologies and policies to promote taking action to reduce pollutants, and this led to the more action-oriented Strategy in 2007. This thesis proposes that visions can change more quickly than wider political discourses, and as such can provide opportunities for the introduction of new discourses.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Linköping : Univ., 2004. / Härtill 6 uppsatser.