Scientific and technical research
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IMEP-33, total cadmium and lead in baby food
Interlaboratory comparison report,December 2011
The Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), a Directorate-General of the European Commission, operates the International Measurement Evaluation Programme® (IMEP). It organises interlaboratory comparisons (ILC's) in support to EU policies. This report presents the results of an ILC which focussed on the determination of total Cd and Pb in baby food in support of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 of 19 December 2006 setting maximum levels for certain contaminants in foodstuffs.The test material used in this exercise was baby food formula purchased in a local pharmacy and prepared by the Reference Material Unit of the IRMM for this exercise. Each participant received one bottle containing approximately 15 g of test material. Sixty-six laboratories from 23 countries registered to the exercise and 61 of them reported results. Participants were asked to analyse the measurands in the powder and in the reconstituted form.The assigned value for total Cd was determined by LGC Ltd (UK) and IRMM using direct isotope dilution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The assigned value for total Pb was determined at IRMM using the same technique as for Cd. The standard deviation for proficiency assessment σ was set at 22 % of the assigned value based on the modified Horwitz equation.Laboratories were rated with z- and ζ-scores (zeta-scores) in accordance with ISO 13528. Most of the participants reported uncertainties with their results.The outcome of this exercise is clearly characterised by the very low level of Cd and Pb content in the test material which triggered a high number of "less than" values, overestimation especially for lead very likely due to contamination, and a visible method influence in the case of lead. The results were also evaluated with regard to the reported limit of detection and some incoherencies were observed here as well.Finally, the dilution factor between the reconstituted form and the powder, which should be 8, was investigated More
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ASTRA 3.x
Theoretical manual
This report describes the main algorithms implemented in ASTRA 3.x to analyse coherent and non-coherent fault trees. ASTRA 3.x is fully based on the state-of-the-art of Binary Decision Diagrams (BDD) approach. In case of non-coherent fault trees ASTRA 3.x dynamically assigns to each node of the graph a label that identifies the type of the associated variable in order to drive the application of the most suitable analysis algorithms. The resulting BDD is referred to as Labelled BDD (LBDD). Exact values of the unavailability, expected number of failure and repair are calculated; the unreliability upper bound is automatically determined under given conditions. Five different importance measures of basic events are also provided. From the LBDD a ZBDDembedding all MCS is obtained from which a subset of Significant Minimal Cut Sets (SMCS) is determined through the application of the cut-off techniques.An important issue is related to the analysis of safety related systems according to the IEC 61508 international standard. In order to simplify the fault tree modelling and analysis a new component type has been defined allowing determining, for any configuration, the PFDavg and PFHavg values. The Staggered testing policy is also applicable besides the Sequential testing implicitly considered by the IEC standard More
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37th plenary meeting report of the scientific, technical and economic committee for fisheries (PLEN-11-02)
Plenary meeting, 11-15 April, Copenhagen
The Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries hold its 37th plenary on 11-15 July 2011 in Copenhagen (Denmark). The terms of reference included both issues assessments of STECF Expert Working Group reports and additional requests submitted to the STECF by the Commission. Topics dealt with ranged from fisheries economics to management plan evaluation issues More
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Evaluation of biosoil demonstration project
Soil data analysis
The BioSoil demonstration Project was initiated under the Forest Focus-Scheme(Regulation (EC) Nr. 2152/2003) concerning the monitoring of forests and environmental interactions in the Community, and aimed to broaden the scope of previous forest monitoring activities (on atmospheric pollution and forest fires) to the fields of soil characteristics and biodiversity indicators.The evaluation of the project concentrated on analysing a selected number of parameters submitted by NFCs for estimating the distribution and changes in soil organic carbon and the performance of the WRB classification. The spatial consistency of data reported between NFCs was found to vary significantly between sources, such as the presence of an organic layer on the over soil. The temporal stability and changes in variable parameters were assessed using data from the previous soil condition survey on Forest Focus / ICP Forests Level I sites. No clear general trend in the development of soil organic carbon over the previous survey was found, but some local changes. The results provided by the Central Laboratory suggest that some methodological differences in assessing the organic carbon content of the organic layers exist between the FSCC / ICP Forests and the BioSoil survey. Those differences limit the scope of a change analysis.A particular problem in sampling and reporting data was the separation of the organic layer from the soil material, which was approached differently by the NFCs. The evaluation also concluded that the specifications provided in the Manual detailing sampling and analysis of the data collected need to be up-dated with a clear and unambiguous description of procedures to follow and making the reporting on key soil parameters a mandatory task More
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Online information systems with alien species occurrence records in Europe
Coverage, complementarity and compatibility
This report assesses the coverage of thirty existing on-line national, regional and global databases from which alien species occurrence records within the territory of the European Union can be retrieved. In addition, it quantifies their degree of complementarity, and as such the added value of an integrated information system. Finally, it includes a qualitative evaluation of the feasibility of combining alien species information from existing databases at EU level.Our comparative analysis of occurrence data across 30 online databases with alien species records uncovers a high degree of complementarity of information. The most comprehensive resource for country level alien species occurrences in Europe (DAISIE) fails to report about one out of every four species known to be alien to one or more countries within the EU27 + Norway territory. When accessing only a single database, a minimum of 10,000 species by country records stay unaccounted for at European level.The distributed and largely independent nature of existing alien species information systems has multiple consequences: (i) In the absence of an overarching data exploration system, it complicates the retrieval of information, and the identification of knowledge gaps; (ii) It allows systems to diverge and as such become less compatible; (iii) It potentially makes inefficient use of existing financial and intellectual resources.The efficiency and accuracy of existing databases could be improved if communication between systems was enhanced. Expert knowledge could be shared and harmonization of the information would facilitate the retrieval of information, for example through a common network of interoperable web services. Integrated alien species databases currently report occurrences at country level, with limited value for scientists and managers. A shift towards georeferenced occurrences could be achieved in a cost-effective way by link linking to biodiversity databases and digitized archives of relevant journals More
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Seveso Lower Tier Establishments
Implementation of Article 7 of the Seveso II Directive in the European Union
The European Union hosts approximately 8500 industrial sites that are considered major hazards due to the potential accident risk associated with the presence of dangerous substances as defined by the Seveso II Directive. Approximately, half of these sites are classified as so-called lower tier sites because the quantity of the dangerous substances exceeds the lower threshold quantity stipulated in the Directive. Theoretically, the Seveso II Directive imposes a lower regulatory burden on lower tier sites than upper tier sites, whose quantity of dangerous substances exceed the higher threshold quantity given in the Directive. This lower burden is manifested particularly in Article 7, designed to apply exclusively to lower tier sites. In 2008-2009, on behalf of the Committee of Seveso Competent Authorities (CCA), the regulatory committee established by the Directive, the European Commission¿s Joint Research Centre (JRC) undertook a study of Seveso implementation in lower tier sites, through administration of a survey of competent authorities and subsequently co-organization of a workshop on the topic with DG-Environment and the Czech Republic. This paper summarizes the results of this study More
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Handbook of tsunami evacuation planning
SCHEMA (Scenarios for Hazard-induced Emergencies Management), project n°030963, specific targeted research project, space priority
This handbook is dedicated to provide thorough and hands-on information and a fully-comprehensive methodology of tsunami evacuation plan generation. Hence community-employed decision makers or similar stakeholders are supplied with a detailed guideline to implement a fully-fledged evacuation plan within three stages: set-up of valid first instance of evacuation plan, mid-term revision, and long-term revision and integration.Local tsunami risk assessment and all subsequent implications on evacuation planning are based on (1) knowing the to-be-expected tsunami wave height, and (2) the to-be-expected arrival time of the first devastating tsunami wave. The first parameter helps to calculate the area at risk; the second parameter gives an indication of how fast the evacuation has to take place. Evacuation has to take place on a given network of suitable roads or paths. In this context, if necessary, the methodology foresees also the inclusion of additionally to be built escape routes and/or safe places.Moreover, the methodology explains how to implement a valid instance of evacuation plan by marking the identified escape routes and shelters in reality, and how to disseminate all information to the affected population. Within a midterm review the evacuation plan has to be maintained constantly and appropriate authority-own measures have to be guaranteed. The long-term review, finally, keeps track of all other information needed to run the evacuation plan properly: integration with early-warning systems, integration with other emergency plans, checking of legal obligations.The handbook also presents the results gathered during interviews with potentially affected persons (Setúbal case study) and concludes mentioning the difficulties and limitations that may arise during the generation of evacuation plans. This work has been realized in the framework of the FP6 European co-funded SCHEMA project (SCenarios for Hazard-induced Emergencies MAnagement, www.schemaproject.org) More
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A quality assurance and control program for PM2.5 and PM10 measurements in European air quality monitoring networks
To harmonize PM measurements in the European Union, the JRC together with the AQUILA Network of National Air Quality Reference Laboratories organized a PM QA/QC program. From 2006 – 2009, the JRC, equipped with a mobile laboratory, measured in 18 Member States, for a duration of two weeks each, PM10 and PM2.5 in parallel to measurement sites of local networks and to the National Reference Laboratories. The main goals of the project were to find out to which degree PM measurements performed in the Member States agree with the requirements of the relevant EU directive and how correction factors for automatic analyzers were applied More
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Opinion by written procedure
Assessment of black sea stocks (STECF-OWP-11-06)
The Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries gave its opinion by written procedure in November 2011 on request by the European Commission. In response to the ToR the STECF EWG 11-16 on Black Sea stock assessments has accomplished seven stock assessments approaches of sprat, turbot, anchovy, whiting, horse mackerel, piked dogfish and rapa whelk. Relevant data have been compiled and reviewed, including those called officially by DG Mare through the 2011 DCF data call for the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Expert knowledge completed the data underlying the stock assessment approaches. The methods and data of the seven stock assessment approaches are documented in section 6 of the present report. For four analytically assessed stocks, i.e. sprat, turbot, anchovy and whiting, fisheries management advice is provided More
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The big table
A software tool for nuclear trade analysis
This report overviews functionalities provided by ‘The Big Table’ (TBT), a software tool designed to support nuclear trade analysis for IAEA safeguards. TBT allows analysts to perform steps preparatory to the retrieval and analysis of data records pertinent to case studies on nuclear trade. Trade data records stem from open source web data services on global trade and are retrieved by Harmonized System codes, i.e. commodity descriptors used by traders to declare imports and exports to customs authorities. The report is structured in two main Parts. The first Part presents elements of nuclear trade analysis. The second Part deals with implementation aspects and more directly with TBT. The report concludes by comparing TBT to related information tools developed in the context of export controls. Future developments on TBT are outlined pointing to new application areas More
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