by Mr. Gábor KOVÁCS

This paper provides the second part of the Hungarian national presentation and, therefore, it compliments the paper prepared by Dr. Zoltán ADAMIS and entitled "The Regulation and Management of POPs". The two together, they describe the present situation as far as the emissions on POPs and their management in Hungary are concerned.

In 1997, the Ministry of the Environment and Regional Policy requested the Institute for Environment Protection to complete a background paper, which was considered as a Hungarian contribution to the preparation of international/regional agreements on Heavy Metals and Persistent Organic Pollutants.

This report contains both general information and data inventory with regard to the use and emissions detailed on each POP compound in Hungary. The identification of POPs was performed by the TNO Institute of Environmental Science, Energy Research and Process Innovation in accordance with the "Technical Paper to the OSPARCOM-HELICOM-UNECE Emission Inventory of Heavy Metals and Persistent Organic Pollutants". The structure of substances, methods of calculations and emission factors are consistent with the above-mentioned Technical Paper and the international questionaries. Due to the fact that the production and use of most POP compounds is banned or severely restricted, the total annual amounts refer to the emissions of by-products from several processes.

PAH (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons)

For PAH, the trend of total annual emissions was the decrease from 137.1 kt to 61.7 kt between 1980 and 1996 (Chart 1, Table 1). Within the total emission, the pyrogeneous emission trend was similar. The amount changed from 105 kt to 49 kt.

There was a crucial point in the country industrial development: the coke production was totally liquidated in 1993. Practically only one foundry is still operating, namely in the primary aluminium production (Table 1-2).

Of the total country emission, 79% fall into the category of pyrogeneous emissions and, within the latter, emissions of households take 60 %.

Taking into account the 6 Borneff PAH compounds, it was found out, that the most important factor was the fluoranthene emission which represented 54.4 % of the total (Chart 2, Table 3).

PCBs (Polychlorinated Biphenyls)

The trend of PCBs emissions was similarly on the decrease (Chart 3). Between 1980 and 1996, the total emission was reduced from 180.4 kg to 97.6 kg. This resulted mainly from a considerable decrease in the pyrogeneous emission which was reduced from 158.9 kg to 89 kg during the same time period (Table 4).

In the case of PCBs, the most important point is that the pyrogeneous emission amounts to 91 % of the total emission. The largest source is the power plants. They produce about 55-60 % of the total pyrogeneous emission. Two other significant factors contributing to the pyrogeneous emission originate from combustions in households and industry.

In 1996, the PCB emission in Hungary was 97.6 kg and consisted of by-products only (Table 4, total). The major emission sources were the use of fossile fuel and industrial processes.

The total emission of DIOXINS decreased from 184.9 g TEQ to 103.5 g TEQ between 1980 and 1996 (Chart 4, Table 5). The major sources are as follows:

% of the total

The pyrogeneous emission was reduced from 122,6 g TEQ to 49,7 g TEQ during the above-mentioned time interval. It should be noted that, in 1996, the pyrogeneous emission was only about 48 % of the total emission. The major part of the pyrogeneous DIOXIN emission was produced by solid fuel firing and combustion.

HCB (Hexachlorobenzene)

In the case of HCB and PCP, only the emission of incineration of municipal waste could be measured and calculated. At present, only one municipal waste incinerator exists in Hungary (Table 6).

Furthermore, Table 7 provides some data about pesticides containing Lindane and Endosulfan (use and emission). In addition to the existing national legislation/regulations dealing with chemicals/pesticides, other relevant laws as well as related Action Programmes aimed at reducing/eliminating of the emissions are currently under preparation in Hungary.