Future European emission standards for vehicles: the importance of the UN-ECE Particle Measurement Programme

Traffic-related emissions of fine particles represent one of the main sources of air pollution especially in urban areas. In particular, diesel engines are blamed as one of the main contributors for their inherent high particulate emissions. In order to reduce the impact on human health of particulate emissions from vehicles, new stricter emission standards were considered necessary for Europe. The introduction of very low particulate emission limits has required the development of an improved measurement procedure for particulate mass and a new measurement procedure for particle number. The Particle Measurement Programme (PMP) was established in 2001 on the initiative of some European states to achieve this target. The interlaboratory comparison exercise for light duty vehicles, co-managed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission and the UK Department of Transport, was completed in 2007, and the results have provided the scientific basis for the new Euro 5/6 limits for particle number and particulate mass. The heavy-duty interlaboratory exercise was started in the second half of 2007 with an exploratory work carried out at the JRC and is still on-going.