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How harmful are the emissions for the environment and local residents?

Facilities must report their emissions of up to 91 pollutants and pollutant groups, and there is a wide variety of them. They include

  • greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O),
  • air pollutants like ammonia (NH3), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx) or ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs),
  • eight heavy metals like arsenic (As), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu) and mercury (Hg),
  • certain pesticides such as aldrin, heptachlor, atrazine, DDT and lindane,
  • many chlorinated organic compounds such as dioxins and furans (PCDD + PCDF), pentachlorophenol (PCP), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and vinyl chloride,
  • other organic compounds such as benzene, ethylene oxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), total organic carbon (TOC), and
  • inorganic substances (chlorides, fluorides or net emissions of phosphorus or nitrogen).

All of the pollutant emissions reported here in Thru.de can be harmful to the environment or human health. However, a number of these substances or compounds only become 'pollutants' when they are discharged to the environment in large volumes. Two examples:

  • carbon dioxide (CO2) forms naturally through the combustion of biomass on the one hand but is largely responsible for the greenhouse effect and thus global warming on the other;
  • nitrogen and phosphorus are vital nutrients for plants, but if too much is discharged to the environment it can lead to eutrophication in rivers, lakes and oceans and thereby accelerate algal growth.

In contrast, other substances or compounds such as dioxins, furans or polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can damage human health and ecosystems in even the smallest concentrations since they bioaccumulate in the food chain. Therefore these substances are recorded in the register starting at the lowest of amounts and have correspondingly low threshold values.
Many of the pollutants in PRTR may no longer be produced or used in Germany or the EU but are not banned in other countries. These substances include polychlorinated biphenyls and the pesticides DDT, atrazine and lindane.
There is a regulation in Germany that industrial facilities may only release pollutants upon prior authorisation. The competent authorities in the federal states review applications for licensing and often also stipulate threshold values or other requirements with which the facility must comply. When licensing authorities issue permits relating to water law they also impose restrictions on the amounts of certain pollutants that a facility may discharge to a body of water.
Those entities charged with operation of an installation who may come into direct contact with the pollutant are subject to strict regulations pertaining to the protection of health and hazard control. These measures keep the potential threat of pollutants to a controllable minimum in Germany and reduce the immediate threat to man and the environment.