Economic status as a determinant of national PCDD/PCDF releases and implications for PCDD/PCDF reduction

The annual releases of polychlorinated dibenzo-para-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDD/PCDF) from 68 countries/regions were investigated by correlating quantitative emissions with economic status of the nations. The national dioxin/furan inventories were developed using the PCDD/PCDF Standardized Toolkit, which presents the quantitative releases from ten major source groups to five release vectors. The correlation between intensity of PCDD/PCDF release and economic status was discussed and the influence of economic status on composition of five release vectors and ten source groups was studied. As PCDD/PCDF are mainly released from human activities to environmental matrices, release per person (RpP) and release per unit area (RpA) are defined to reflect release burden (Donor) and contamination burden (Receptor), respectively. Based on these two concepts, International PCDD/PCDF Reduction Burden is characterized by burden quotient (BQ) and a calculation model is established. The numbers of countries/regions with high, moderate and low International PCDD/PCDF Reduction Burden were 19, 31 and 18, respectively. The information in this paper can be used for politicians to develop legislations to improve International PCDD/PCDF Reduction.

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► PCDD/PCDF inventories of 68 countries/regions were developed.
► Economic status was found to be a determinant of PCDD/PCDF release.
► Economic growth can reduce PCDD/PCDF release intensity per GDP effectively.
► Open burning is dominating PCDD/PCDF source for lower income countries.
► A methodology to assess International PCDD/PCDF Reduction Burden is proposed.