Preliminary Results of the QA/QC Programme for PM10/PM2.5 in Europe

A QA/QC programme aiming at assessing the measurements of PM10 and PM2.5 of national reference laboratories (NRL) and local networks was coordinated by JRC - ERLAP in collaboration with the network of laboratories AQUILA. Since it is not possible to create a primary standard for particulate matter (PM), the mobile laboratory of JRC ¿ ERLAP carried out parallel measurements of PM10 and PM2.5 in 18 EU Member States. The uncertainty between two identical PM10 systems sampling in parallel is negligible, so that their means of 24 hour samples are used as reference values. In general, the reference and the measurements of NRLs using gravimetric methods are in good agreement. The highest discrepancies are observed in the extremes of the mass range (very high or very low concentrations). Continuous methods present more evident differences with respect to the reference than gravimetric methods. This is partly due to the different operation principles and treatment of the sample (e.g. heating). For this kind of measurements the application of a correction factor often results in an improvement of the data quality. More than 90 % of PM10 measurements in the range Limit Value ± 25% comply with the data quality objectives (DQO) set by EU Air Quality Directive. The compliance falls to less than 80 % for PM2.5 in the range L.V. ± 25% . Moreover, near 50% of the L.V., the uncertainty of PM2.5 is likely to be comparable to the reduction targets set by EU AQD for that level. The non negligible loads observed in travelling blanks suggest an interaction of the filter matrix with sampling air that may significantly contribute to the uncertainty budget.

BELIS Claudio; 

2010-08-05

European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change

JRC59335

http://air-climate.eionet.europa.eu/docs/meetings/091005_14th_eionet_aq_ws/ETCACC_TP_2009_14_14thEionet_AQ_WS_proceedings.pdf,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC59335,