Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
capabilities of the monitoring networks. The alerts raised by LAURE are not carried
out in the same way as the alerts that were previously raised by industrialists.
6.2.3.
The alert system devised by LAURE
The main objective of raising such alerts is for the media and for health reasons.
These alerts will allow people who are sensitive to the different kinds of pollutants
to take a certain number of precautions. As soon as an alert level has been exceeded,
an alert is then made to this vulnerable population by providing them with the
relevant information (Table 6.1).
Documents used for planning purposes are intent on respecting the coherence of
two different processes including: the old process of preventative industrial alerts
used in licensing actions, and the current process of making information public. The
atmosphere protection plan (PPA), must be applied in cities that have a population
of more than 250,000 inhabitants. The aim of the PPA is to record the different
protocols of alert that are used, and which have already been set out in prefectoral
decrees.
The acquired experience in industrial pollution alerts cannot be easily applied to
pollution peaks created by car pollution. This is due to the fact that car pollution is
produced by many different pollutants that are referred to as secondary pollutants.
The reason alerts, which are used to warn people about industrial pollution levels,
are so effective is due to the linearity that exists between emissions and emissions.
A reduction in the number of pollution sources leads to an improvement in air
quality. Reducing the emissions of industrial pollution is an easy task because there
are not many different sources of pollution that exist. As far as car pollution is
concerned, and especially in the case of ozone, a major reduction in the most
harmful pollutants does not mean that a decrease in ozone levels will be recorded on
a local level as ozone levels are measured on a continental scale.
The aim of these alerts, introduced by the LAURE, is not operational because
they were introduced to make the general public aware of pollution levels. The
introduction of these alerts has made the public aware of the fact that nowadays it is
no longer the polluting industries that we should be focusing our attention on in
order to fight against pollution, but rather that each of us contributes to the pollution
of the environment through car and domestic pollution. Media coverage that is
associated with high-level pollution, in other words levels that exceed the maximum
acceptable threshold, is used as a sort of risk management. Such media coverage has
two main objectives: first, to make the population aware of pollution levels, and
second, to inform the population about what they can do in order to reduce pollution
levels. Paradoxicaly, this short term advice may have some results in the long term.
Different alert thresholds are set, depending on the type of pollutant being
monitored (Table 6.1). In certain regions in France particles are included in these
alert advices. These thresholds are detected by measurement networks that publish
