Air pollution hard to fight even in remote parts of northern Sweden
The present high levels of nitrogen hydroxide and ground-level ozone in and around Norrbotten County in northern Sweden are making it difficult for the municipality to reach its clean air goals. At the moment, the air in this area is clean and healthy, but it may not stay this way.
In Nikkaluokta, a village close to Sweden’s highest mountain Kebnekaise, the air is constantly being monitored. Despite being a long way from emission sources, scientific measurements show that the air here is still sufficiently polluted to have a negative impact on the environment. Although, the air in Nikkaluokta is not as polluted as it is in some urban areas it is still a source of concern.
“Ground-level ozone is something we don’t want,” says Rebecca Möller, the environmental analyst for air quality at the Norrbotten County Administrative Board. “This is in contrast to the ozone in the atmosphere that protects us against hazardous UV radiation. The ozone up there is fine, but it’s not good at ground level.”
Möller explains that ground-level ozone is a big problem. It interacts with both human and plant cells and retards their growth. The level of ground-level ozone is a major source of concern for Norrbotten County’s forestry industry because it destroys trees and other vegetation leading to lower revenues. It is also hazardous to human health.
On the outskirts of Nikkaluokta are three poles equipped with instruments that measure the quality of the local air. The instruments collect data about the levels of nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, ammonia and ground-level ozone. Data on levels of rain and snow precipitation are also gathered and sent in for analysis. The aim is to find out how these pollutants get into the ground, where they subsequently leach into to the areas lakes and rivers.
Rebecca Möller unscrews the funnel that is at the top of one of the poles. It is to be replaced with a long, transparent plastic container, a snow container of sorts. The precipitation is gathered in a tank that is emptied by Kiruna’s municipal environmental office once a month.
Each autumn and spring, Rebecca Möller from the county administrative board’s department for environmental analysis in Luleå makes the nearly 400-kilometer drive north to replace the summer equipment with winter equipment and vice versa.
The rain water that has run down into the tank is emptied into a large plastic bag. It’s then poured into small test tubes that are sent in for analysis.
Sulphur is down but nitrogen levels persist
Scientists measure how much sulphur and nitrogen from the air has been caught up in the precipitation.
Sulphur content was at its highest in the mid-80s, but it has decreased by as much as 60 percent since then.
The decrease in nitrogen content, however, has not been as significant and this is not good, because both sulphur and nitrogen produce acidification in the ground.
The acidity is carried into the ground water, which then runs into water courses and lakes.
Nitrogen content in Nikkaluokta and at the three measurement stations that are beyond Norrbotten’s urban areas is no longer decreasing.
This can be compared to conditions in Luleå, the largest city in the region, where the EU’s maximum allowable amount of nitrogen dioxide was exceeded in 2010. It forced the municipality to take measures and report to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the county administrative board.
Nitrogen emissions come from car traffic, wood burning stoves, energy-intensive industries and shipping.
