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Europe Tightens Emission Laws for VOCs and Acid Gas

Alex Scott
Chemical Week. 161.3 (Jan. 20, 1999): p27. From Science In Context.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 1999 IHS Global, Inc.
http://www.ihs.com/

Full Text:

The european commission will introduce draft legislation in the next few weeks setting tougher limits
for emissions of acid gas and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from plants in the European Union.

The emission ceilings are to be effective by 2010. They will be negotiated in the European Parliament
by the end of the first quarter and are part of the commission's strategy to reduce by half the land
surface area affected by acid rain in Europe. The commission estimates the legislation could cost
European industry as much as euro9 billion($10.4 billion)/year. This compares to the estimated euro7
billion/year for proposals announced in 1997 that have lower ceilings. The commission decided that
those ceilings would not meet the target of cutting the area affected by acid rain.

"Certainly, there will be sectors that will be affected [by tougher limits], including nitric acid producers
and the fertilizer business, for ammonia emissions," says Marcel Vogt, head of environmental affairs at
the European Chemical Industry Council. The governments of the U.K. and France had already balked
at the (1997) ceilings because of concerns that the associated costs will make their industries less
competitive.

Friends of the Earth (FoE; London) says lower emission ceilings are necessary. "We need to bring
these limits down until there's no acid rain problem in Europe," says FoE campaigner Leslie James.

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)

Scott, Alex. "Europe Tightens Emission Laws for VOCs and Acid Gas." Chemical Week, 20 Jan. 1999,
p. 27. Science In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A53612453/GPS?
u=j043905001&sid=GPS&xid=10788a21. Accessed 23 May 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A53612453

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