Profile: air quality regulation policy in Portugal

Article abstract:

Ten years after the publication of the first air quality laws in Portugal, and seven years after the publication of the respective emission limits, it seems appropriate to analyse the degree of law enforcement by the Portuguese manufacturing industry. Therefore, based on the emission measurements made regularly by ISQ as the only officially accredited laboratory, a set of about 400 sources is analysed in terms of the compliance with the emission limits regarding total suspended particulate, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and VOCs. The compliance is evaluated through a non-dimensional parameter and plotted versus the emission flow rate to derive conclusions: it was noticed that emission limits are generally respected regarding sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which does not happen for the other pollutants considered in this study. However, the non-compliance occurs mainly for very low emission flow rates, which suggests some alterations in the emission limits' applicability, which is being revised at the moment.