Use and emissions of hazardous substances in Norway, 2002-2006

Increased awareness of the effects of hazardous substances on human health and the environment has led to a growing demand for information regarding use and release patterns of such substances. For the past few years, Statistics Norway has been working on new statistics on the consumption and emission of hazardous substances in Norway. At present, the statistics cover the emissions of hazardous substances caused by the use of products that are subject to the duty of declaration to the Norwegian Product Register. The statistics include about 450 substances that are categorised as being CMR (may cause cancer, be mutagenic or generate reproductive disorders), chronic toxic, sensitising and/or dangerous for the environment.

The emission of hazardous substances to the surroundings (including air, soil and water) is calculated by multiplying the amount consumed of a substance by an emission factor. The consumption of a substance is expressed as the sum of production and import, minus export, declared to the Product Register. The emission factor represents the fraction of the substance that is not incorporated into a new product, transformed into a new compound, or handled in some other way (e.g. as waste). The fraction of a hazardous substance emitted is assumed to be dependent both on the type of product used and the sector in which it is used.

The model and its emission factors have been gradually improved, incorporating an increasing amount of information. In the present model, the majority of the emission factors are specific for the combination of product type and industrial sector. Some are product-specific factors, while a few emission factors are specified for the combination of product type, industrial sector and substance. The first two groups of emission factors are obtained from two Swedish studies, while the substance-specific factors are based on consultations with relevant industry.

Results show that roughly 0.3 per cent of approximately 6 million tonnes of around 450 selected hazardous substances that are consumed in Norway each year is emitted to the surroundings. In other words, around 19 000 tonnes of a long list of substances classified as CMR, chronic toxic, sensitising and/or dangerous for the environment find their way into the environment every year.

According to present estimates, there has been a substantial reduction in the emissions of CMR-substances since 2002. This decline is mainly due to lower emissions of CMR-substances from the use of energy goods, which is by far the largest source of such substances. Emissions from products containing substances with chronic toxic effects have also fallen since 2002. These emissions are related to both fuel consumption and emissions from the manufacturing industry. Meanwhile, the use and emission of substances with sensitising effects have been quite stable during the past five years. Production and use of paint and varnishes are the main sources of these emissions.

The emissions of substances that are dangerous for the environment increase in the beginning of the period but decline almost correspondingly by 2006. This is mostly due to a decline in the use of these substances in manufacturing industries. However, this reduction is partly counteracted by an increased use of biocides in fish farming.

For all hazard categories other than "Dangerous for the environment", emissions from sectors other than manufacturing industry were predominantly generated by the use of solvents, paint and various construction products in 2006.

Although trends in emissions of a series of hazardous substances may be considered to be a rough indicator of the development of the risk of damage to human health and the environment caused by these substances, such emissions figures are not a measure of the actual risk they pose. Firstly, not all hazardous substances or emission sources are covered. Secondly, a risk assessment would require the integration of more information, both about the recipient and about various properties of the substances. Thus, one of the first steps towards an approximate quantification of risk, is to give emission figures for different substances weights according to their hazardous properties. Various such hazard weights are available and may be evaluated. Note, however, that hazard weights based on existing R-phrases, could be misleading for substances that are dangerous for the environment. For instance, substances that represent the highest environmental concern, i.e. substances that are persistent (P), bioacummulative (B) and toxicity (T) (so-called PBT-substances), do not yet have a separate classification category. However, applying appropriate hazard weights to emission figures would probably make the statistics easier to interpret and bring the resulting estimates closer to a measure of risk. The statistics on hazardous substances is still work in progress. Thus, there will be continued need to improve emission factors, quality and completeness of activity data and as well as the estimation model itself.

Acknowledgements: This work was carried out in cooperation with Arnfinn Schjalm (Statistics Norway), Mette Follestad (Product Register) and Jan Kraft (Product Register). Nina Holmengen contributed substantially in the final phase of the project.

The project received financial support from the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority (SFT), and Kari Løkken, Pia Sørensen and Marit Kopangen at SFT made important consultative contributions during the work process.