W roku 2023 powołane zostało decyzją Komisji Europejskiej konsorcjum, którego zdaniem jest prowadzenie prac na rzecz europejskiej infrastruktury badawczej aerozoli, chmur oraz gazów śladowych ACTRIS ERIC. ACTRIS (ang. Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure). Jest ono jednym z kluczowych elementów europejskiego systemu infrastruktur do badania środowiska. Polska w ramach ARCTIS ERIC reprezentowana jest przez konsorcjum ACTRIS – PL, w którego skład wchodzi Instytut Podstaw Inżynierii Polskiej Akademii Nauk wraz z siedmioma innymi instytucjami naukowymi. Polskie konsorcjum ACTRIS – PL, którego liderem jest Instytut Geofizyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk ma służyć budowaniu i udoskonalaniu stacji pomiarowych stacjonarnych oraz platform mobilnych, koordynacji, monitorowaniu i integracji rozproszonej infrastruktury badawczej do badania atmosfery i środowiska oraz tworzenia i udostępniania zbiorów danych o atmosferze.
Minister Nauki przyznał dofinansowanie dla konsorcjum ACTRIS-PL, w tym Instytutu Podstaw Inżynierii Środowiska Polskiej Akademii Nauk w ramach programu „Wsparcie udziału polskich zespołów naukowych w międzynarodowych projektach infrastruktury badawczej” na realizację projektu „Infrastruktura do badania aerozoli, chmur oraz gazów śladowych” ACTRIS (ang. Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure) w wysokości 16 203 087,47 zł. Dofinansowanie przyznano na 5 lat, do końca 2028 roku.
Dane projektu
Data rozpoczęcia: 01.01.2024
Data zakończenia: 31.12.2028
Nazwa konkursu, programu lub przedsięwzięcia: Wsparcie udziału polskich zespołów naukowych w międzynarodowych projektach infrastruktury badawczej (umowa nr 2024/WK/04)
Finansowanie: Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego
Wysokość przyznanego finansowania dla IPIŚ PAN: 2 461 391,32 zł
Konsorcjum realizujące projekt:
The ACTRIS-2 Integrating Activities (IA) addresses the scope of integrating state-of-the-art European ground-based stations for long-term observations of aerosols, clouds and short lived gases. It consolidates and improves services offered within FP7 funded Integrated Infrastructures Initiative ACTRIS (2011-2015). ACTRIS-2 takes up the overarching objectives of ACTRIS to further integrate the European ground-based stations and to construct a user-oriented RI, unique in the EU-RI landscape, for aerosols, clouds, and short-lived gas-phase species.
ACTRIS-2 responds to user needs:
To maintain and increase availability of long-term observational data relevant to climate and air quality research on the regional scale produced with standardized or comparable procedures throughout the ACTRIS network of stations; To further develop and disseminate integration tools to fully exploit the use of multiple atmospheric techniques at ground-based stations, in particular for the calibration/validation/integration of satellite sensors and for the improvement of the parameterizations used in global and regional-scale climate and air-quality models; To open calibration facilities and advanced observing platforms to Trans-National Access to the benefit of a large user community, including SMEs, and to further facilitate virtual access to high quality information, tools and services enhancing the ACTRIS Data Centre; To maintain and enhance capacity of training in the field of atmospheric observations particularly directed to new users including those from non-EU developing countries;
Innovation in instrumentation is one of the fundamental building blocks of ACTRIS-2. Associated partnership with SMEs stimulates the development of joint-ventures addressing new technologies for use in atmospheric observations. Target user-groups in ACTRIS-2 comprise a wide range of communities worldwide. End-users are institutions involved in climate and air quality research, space agencies, industries, air quality agencies.
ACTRIS-2 will improve the systematic and timely collection, processing and distribution of data and results for use in modelling, in particular towards the implementation of atmospheric and climate services. ACTRIS-2 invests substantial efforts to ensure longterm sustainability beyond the term of the project by positioning the project in both the GEO and the on-going ESFRI contexts, and by developing synergies with national initiatives.
ACTRIS-2 will represent a fundamental step towards the establishment of the atmospheric component of the Integrated European Observing System and a clear upgrade in services offered to users.
With the advent of bulk DNA sequencing, understanding the "microbial community", or microbiome, in different environments has become one of the greatest challenges of modern microbiology. Bacteria inhabit almost every niche of our planet. Earth's diverse ecosystems are characterised by a great variety of bacteria inhabiting them, and many of them are crucial for the smooth functioning of other organisms and natural processes. The human body is no different. Each of us harbours about one hundred trillion bacteria that make up our body's microbiota. We are also highly dependent on which microorganisms populate our system, as their composition largely determines human health. In extreme cases, the presence of pathogens can lead to disease.
Bacteria accompany us in almost every activity, even breathing! Every time we breathe in, along with the air, we also inhale dust particles and various microorganisms that are present on them.The planned research is based on finding out the types of these micro-organisms and to what extent they are able to enter our bodies with the help of dust. It is also known that there are many more bacteria in polluted air (e.g. in big cities with smog) than in the air of rural areas. We want to investigate how the composition of dust and its sources (e.g. car exhaust, coal burning) affect the composition of the air microbiome and whether there are strains in it that affect human health. This will also enable the development of an air quality bioindicator that takes into account microbiological hazards. In addition, research into the microbiome of airborne dust near an infectious disease hospital will help answer the question of whether metropolitan dust promotes the spread of antibiotic resistance among bacteria.
Atmospheric air pollution is a complex cocktail of chemical species, with particulate matter (PM) being currently the subject of extensive research carried out by scientists from various disciplines worldwide due to its broad spectrum of impacts. In the last decades, high concentrations of PM have caused great public concern due to the increasing awareness of their negative impact on human health. Nowadays, exposure to both ambient and indoor air pollution has been identified as the greatest environmental risk to human health and the fourth-leading risk factor for premature deaths after high systolic blood pressure, tobacco and dietary risks. Latest global disease estimates indicate that more than 4 million premature deaths are caused every year by ambient air pollution, with PM and ozone being of the greatest concern. Among all PM fractions, fine PM2.5 (particles with an aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 μm) is recognized as a key air pollutant in terms of adverse health effects, as, when inhaled, they can penetrate to the deep alveolar regions of the lungs and further migrate to the blood system, affecting the whole organism and, in particular, causing cardiovascular, respiratory and cerebrovascular disorders. High PM concentrations are also of great concern to the public due to the increasingly common knowledge about their negative impact on human health. However, due to the heterogeneity of this air pollutant, it is extremely difficult to assess its health impacts as the characteristic of PM depends on its size, shape and surface, as well as chemical and mineralogical composition. Such detailed characteristic of PM is not commonly investigated within the routine air quality monitoring, which also makes it impossible to quantify the sources responsible for the observed PM levels.
Therefore, the research carried out in the project aims to perform a detailed chemical analysis of the different subfractions fine PM2.5, i.e. PM1 (da < 1 μm) and PM1-2.5 (da > 1 μm and da < 2.5 μm), as well as the development of knowledge regarding the characteristic of the smallest ultrafine particles (UFP; da < 100 nm), which are hypothesized to exert higher toxicity than larger particles. Such an in-depth analysis of PM characteristics will allow identifying the sources of its emission, and further link the distinguished PM types with the negative health effects. To this end, PM2.5 and PM1 samples will be simultaneously collected daily during a measurement campaign lasting 12 months, while the chemical composition of both fractions, including 20 trace elements, water-soluble ions, as well as elemental and organic carbon, will be determined every second day. Identification of PM sources will be carried out applying the advanced receptor modelling method, i.e. positive matrix factorization – PMF, investigating the data on the concentrations of PM1 and PM2.5 and its constituents. Since the smallest UFP particles have a negligible mass but are the dominant contributor to the total number of particles in the atmosphere they are better quantified by the number concentration. Measurements of the number concentrations of UFP particles will be conducted in different parts of Warsaw, as well as during the different times of the day and different seasons of the year. This will allow assessing the temporal and spatial distribution of the particle number concentrations across the city.
The numerous epidemiological studies conducted for seven decades have shown that PM has a significant impact on the occurrence and/or exacerbation of many diseases and disorders, and a wide spectrum of the observed symptoms. The project will attempt to determine to what extent individual fine PM fractions and their components, as well as the identified PM sources contribute to an increased risk of hospitalization and premature death. The AirQ+ software, developed by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, will be used for the calculations, in which the risk of exposure to PM air pollutants in a given population is represented by the concentration-response functions based on the relative risk (RR) estimates derived from epidemiological cohort studies.
As people spend most of their time indoors, where the concentrations of some pollutants are often higher than typical outdoor concentrations, a better understanding of the indoor-outdoor relationship is of importance. Thus, the simultaneous measurements of the particle number and mass concentrations in ambient air and inside different types of buildings will also be conducted in the project, allowing for the characterization of the indoor/outdoor (I/O) ratios for different living and working conditions.
Furthermore, the proposed project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the local air pollution control policies adopted in Poland at the regional and local levels, in particular with the regard to coal combustion for heating purposes in small scale combustion installations.
The results obtained in the project will expand knowledge in understanding the sources and processes forming PM air pollution in Polish agglomerations, providing scientific knowledge for policymakers to improve the tools for the effective reduction of air pollutant emissions. The dissemination of these results may also bring benefits for raising public awareness of the negative impact of PM air pollution on health.
The scope of the project includes retrofitting the European ACTRIS research infrastructure for aerosols, clouds and trace gases with the equipment needed to provide high-quality data on the so-called short-lived components of the atmosphere. It is planned to upgrade the existing research infrastructure and expand the research centres.
The implementation of the project consists in the acquisition of equipment that will allow research in the following research areas:
Which will contribute to the implementation of the following research goals, among others:
The project's target groups are scientists, policy makers, the private sector, funding organisations and the education sector. ACTRIS, in conjunction with the development of modelling techniques, can have a significant impact on the business sector by supporting areas related to risk management, environmental management and forecasting activities (ex-ante analysis). It can also support the implementation of environmental and energy policies at EU and national level.
scientific interests:
Research interests focus on the study of the chemical composition of atmospheric aerosols, secondary organic and inorganic aerosols; identification of factors influencing the concentration and chemical composition of suspended dust, analytical tests, with particular emphasis on the determination of OC and EC in suspended atmospheric dust by thermal-optical method, quality control and quality assurance of tests.
private interests:
Music, sport, travel
The current look on the service market shows that nowadays every, even small city, has at least a few or a number of beauty salons, which differs in the character of offered treatments. Such availability in the market is the feedback to the client's needs. The cosmetic treatment available at a typical salon covers face and skin cleaning, manicure and pedicure, hand skincare, make-up and others. Each of these activities is connected with mechanical and chemical treatment of skin, nails, and other body parts. All these treatments are connected with the emission of a significant amount of a wide spectrum of chemical compounds (mostly the ingredients of cosmetics) into the beauty salons interiors. Moreover, in presence of heat sources like dryers or, for example, ultraviolet radiation, these compounds can react and transform into other compounds, which are more or less hazardous for the beauty salons workers and occupants. The crucial factor for the air quality inside beauty salons will also be the chemical composition of the outdoor air. The quality of indoor air inside beauty salons will be characterized by better or worse conditions depending on the geographical location of each salon, its topography, meteorological conditions and, finally, the proximity and intensity of the impact of various sources of pollutant emissions. Having all above in mind, it is clear that description of the sources and transformations of the priority air pollutants inside the salons together with proper understanding of the health effects among their users is a very important issue. Among those pollutants especially dangerous are fine particulate matter (PM2.5), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and selected organic compounds (i.e. benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes (BTEX)). Most research in the area of air quality inside beauty salons and barber shops was conducted in the context of microbiological contamination. In the framework of the proposed project we planned to investigate and describe the origin, changes and impact of particulate matter and selected organic compounds inside beauty salons on the exposure level and health of their occupants. The most important element of the project, however, will be to clarify whether the internal emission of PM and gaseous pollutants occurring in certain types of nonproduction spaces causes significant/measurable changes in the content of PM-bound and gaseous PAHs and the qualitative and quantitative changes in the characteristics of BTEX compounds founded indoors. An answer to the question - whether the ventilation conditions and migration of atmospheric air into the beauty salons are responsible for the concentration of hazardous organic compounds in indoor air will also be given.
Gravimetric mass of PM continues to be an important surrogate of regulatory importance linking particulate pollution to health and environmental impacts. For this reason methods of PM measurement have become essential in the preparation of strategies directed to human health protection. Filter weighing is a key part of this process, since PM mass and its concentration give a measure of air quality. Next to the manual weighing a robotic weighting systems have been developed to catch even microgram-level PM mass. In comparison to traditional weighing these systems provide more repetitive and accurate results regarding PM mass and eliminates human factor as the reason of measurement errors, making them more cost-effective and compliant with the EN 12341:2014 standard. This project will give an evaluation of the performance of a traditional manual weighing vs robotic weighing in the repeated measurements of mass as a comparative measure. To the date a coherent scientific view of the effects of PM-bound water on uncertainty in mass measurements has yet to be established. In this research I will define the uncertainty in gravimetric measurements of PM due to water species occurrence, and finally find out to which extent this uncertainty can be reduced to get most precise mass results. Different PM fractions (PM1, PM2.5, PM10) will be collected in three locations differing regarding the type of emission sources. The reference samplers will be used. To know, whether and to which extent filter type influence deviations in weighing precision different types of filter media will be used. The PM mass will be measured with a typical microbalance and newly developed weighing robot. The impact of the weighing technique on the deviations of PM mass measurements will be determined. An influence of the particle mass loadings collected onto filter on the accuracy of the gravimetric measurements will be also determined. The ultimate goal of this study is to obtain a better understanding of mechanisms regulating variation in mass of particulate matter due to atmospheric water content as well as the impact of this uncertainties on human health, when determining PM concentration.
41-819 Zabrze, ul. M. Skłodowskiej-Curie 34
tel.: +48 32 271 64 81
tel.: +48 32 271 70 40
e-mail: ipis@ipispan.edu.pl
NIP: PL6480006720
