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Last changed: 9/03/11
In Germany, measurements are carried out regularly in pollution control, particularly in the fields of air, noise and water. They are used to control the quality of these media and to evaluate measures taken to maintain and improve the quality. Emission and immission measurements in the field of air quality control are carried out by the competent authorities themselves as well as by specialised institutes designated in a certain procedure with their measurement tasks. The measurements serve to monitor compliance with air quality control provisions, and they determine concentrations of air pollutants at source (emission) and at the place of impact (immission), i.e. in ambient air.
The measurement techniques in these two areas differ primarily in terms of the pollutant concentrations to be measured. Immission concentrations are a factor of 10-3 - 10-5 lower than emission concentrations. Therefore, immission measurement instruments must have a markedly lower detection limit than instruments for the measurement of emissions. On the other hand, emission measurements often require complex treatment of samples and low interference from interfering components at high concentrations. They also require low susceptibility to aggressive gases.
Continuous measurement of the emissions of key pollutants from installations subject to licensing aims to ensure that these installations comply with relevant emission control requirements in day-to-day operation. Plant operators are entitled to equal treatment when carrying out mandatory measurements and want to be protected against unjustified consequences. Therefore, it is of great importance that the measurements are reliable and accurate. Compliance with these requirements is ensured by a whole range of quality assurance measures, which have been gradually developed, tested and introduced to measurement practice over the last three decades. Emission measurement technology has achieved a high technical standard in order to meet the requirements applicable in the Federal Republic of Germany. The same is true for immission measurement technology, which too has advanced in response to increasingly ambitious monitoring objectives.
Recognised experts and measuring institutes take on measuring and testing tasks, thus helping to reduce the workload of supervisory authorities and to ensure a high standard of quality in analysis, measurement and calibration.
The State Environment Agency of the federal state of Brandenburg has made available a system to search for designated measuring institutes and experts (Recherchesystem Messstellen und Sachverständige, ReSyMeSa). It contains information on the number of notifications, on restrictions and other details for all designated measuring institutes in the Federal Republic of Germany.