Municipalities in focus - NonHazCity seminar

The municipalities play an important role in minimizing emissions of hazardous substances from urban areas. At the seminar tools and potentials for a pro-active municipality to manage use and emissions from the own entities has been discussed. The importance of communication to increase the public awareness, as well as the role for the municipalities in procurments to ensure that products with no or at least less hazardous substances are used within  society.

An important part in the initial fase of the NonHazCity project has been to increase the knowledge on which hazardous substances that may be found in the urban water environment, and where these substances originate from. In this screening study samples has been analysed from eight municipalities from the eastern part of the Baltic Sea. Samples have been take from eg. effluents from waste water treatment plants, seewage sludge, storm-water effluents. Initial results indicate that some metals may be found more or less everywhere, whereas there is larger variation between where organic hazardous substances are found. Some of the organic pollutants have been analysed at our laboratory for organic risk pollutants.