Using Continuous Dioxin Measurement within the framework of the european legislation - Chris Green

Continuous dioxin measurement has been carried out since 1993 on several plants in Europe. Air emission measurement for dioxins are defined by the council directive 2000/76/EC, the details of the measurement are defined in the EN 1948 standard Council directive 2000/76/EC defines in Annex V (d) the legal limit value and in Annex I the equivalence factors. Annex III defines, that all measurements have to be carried out as stated by CEN standards, which in the case of dioxin measurement the EN 1948 standard.

Part 1 describes the sampling, part 2 and 3 describe the analytical determination by the laboratory. EN 1948 part 1 allows the use of three methods: filter/cooler method, dilution method and cooled probe method.

Part 4, now developed by CEN/TC 264/WG 1, includes the measurement of the "dioxin like" PCBs to the measurement.Continuous monitoring extends the sampling period from 6/8 hour measurement to 1 week (2 week), which enables complete surveillance of the municipal waste incinerator operation time. So the total dioxin emission (I-TEQ as well as WHO-TEQ) of the waste incinerator can be calculated, which allows the calculation of the specific impact of this plant to the food chain. There are some important reasons why to check the emissions of toxic dioxins and PCBs more frequently in a ‘continuous way’ and to include the "dioxin like" PCBs: