Introduction

Physical and Chemical Exposure Unit Exposure Modelling and Environmental Noise Group

Objectives

The focus of the activity is urban & indoor air pollution exposure assessment, seen as part of human health risk assessment and also considering the needs of urban and indoor air quality management. Specific examples of the working areas of ECA are:

- the relative importance of outdoor and indoor sources of pollution,
- the building-related interaction between outdoor urban air and indoor air,
- exposure to pollutants from the different urban outdoor and indoor sources and its relation to health and comfort,
- validation and harmonisation of methodologies and models for assessing human exposure to, and health impact of, stressors of high public concern.

ECA is a widely accepted scientific network at EU level concerning the field of indoor air pollution, human exposure and health for:

- preparing reports summarizing available knowledge of important issues in the aforementioned research fields
- identifying ongoing research within the participating countries and the major research needs
- establishing working groups for well defined tasks such as the development and/or validation of guidelines and reference methods for indoor human exposure related investigations and measurements or for measures to improve the quality of indoor environments and protecting human health.
- providing a forum to help the exchange centrally of information and collaboration with other national and international organizations active in the aforementioned field (e.g. WHO, NATO/CCMS, U.S. EPA, EEA).
- organizing workshops, symposia, seminars and training courses, activities aimed at helping the transfer of knowledge in this scientific field within the EU Member States and to the Accession Counties.

Integration

The inter- and multidisciplinary research area of indoor exposure and health in EU and worldwide covers practical and scientific aspects ranging from technical to medical research disciplines. The overall scientific area can be split into six areas of special focus: (a) exposure measurements, (b) health effects, (c) buildings science and design, (d) exposure modeling, (e) indoor air quality control and (f) exposure risk assessment and management.
There is an increasing demand for better integrating these activities at European level to design and achieve effective urban air quality management and to minimise human exposure to harmful pollutants. Established 18 years ago, the ECA Network activities cover all the above topics, through its multidisciplinary character, offering a unique opportunity for further integrating these research activities mainly at European level.

Co-ordination

The ECA Steering Committee (coordinated and managed by the JRC/IHCP/PCE Unit) consists of 33 distinguished scientists from 15 EU countries States (plus Norway and Switzerland), WHO and the European Commission. During the 18 years of its operation more than 100 scientists of leading European Institutions have contributed to its activities through their participation in various WGs, prepared and delivered 23 state of the art reports which have been distributed to more than 1400 addresses in Europe and worldwide. Specific actions include preparation and execution of joint scientific projects (e.g. SCAs), performance of Inter-laboratory comparison exercises, organisation of workshops and training courses.

The ECA has helped the activities in the field of indoor air pollution and human exposure and health to achieve a good level of coordination at EU level which is expected to be further enhanced through the EnVIE co-ordination action on "Indoor Air Quality and Health Effects" created under FP6 (DG RTD project no. SSPE-CT-2004-502671). The core group of this 3-years project is composed from ECA members.

Reference

Through its activities in the field of indoor human exposure and health, the ECA Network (coordinated and managed by the JRC/IHCP/PCE Unit): (a) provides scientific and technical reference for policy making in the EC, (b) contributes to the integration of research efforts in Europe, (c) ensures capacity building, knowledge dissemination and sharing in EU Member States, the Accession Countries and beyond (for example in 2001 China set up guidelines concerning formaldehyde emissions from wood based materials on the basis of the ECA Reports).

The creation and continuation of the ECA Network for 18 years has been deemed important for two main reasons: (a) there are no other similar scientific structures dedicated to indoor human exposure and health research for research on outdoor air or water quality. Therefore, research is fairly scattered and often performed by small groups in a wide range of different institutions; and (b) Indoor human exposure and health is a research issue which (more than any other) requires interdisciplinary collaboration.

Enlargement

Over the last few years, the number of experts and trainees from candidate/accession countries included in some ECA activities is progressively increasing and is designed to spread excellence (through Workshops, Training Courses, etc) and to create capacity building, knowledge transfer and training in those countries.