Assessment of heavy metal releases from the use phase of road transport in Europe

An emission inventory was compiled for heavy metal air emissions from road transport in Europe (EU-40). For the database, country-specific data was taken such as the diesel and gasoline fuel consumption per country, the content of Pb in gasoline and diesel fuel and the share of different vehicle types. For tyre and brake wear emissions, average wear rates and heavy metal contents of different materials were used to develop emission factors for tyre and brake wear. It covers exhaust emissions (Pb from gasoline and diesel) as well as non-exhaust emissions (As, Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb from the wear of brake linings and vehicle tyres). The base year is 2000, and two scenarios were developed for 2010, a business as usual (BAU) scenario and a maximum feasible technical reduction (MFTR) scenario. Both result in a remarkable decrease in Pb exhaust emissions and a rising share of non-exhaust emissions. To assess the results, the inventory is (a) compared to an inventory compiled with a top-down approach that covers the same area and years but only emissions from combustion processes and (b) added to an inventory covering all sectors for heavy metal air emissions.