US EPA

1700612 

Journal Article 

Air pollution in Reykjvik the capital of Iceland 

Benjaminsson, J 

1999 

Yes 

Advances in Air Pollution
ISSN: 1369-5886 

ADVANCES IN AIR POLLUTION SERIES 

6 

323-330 

WOS:000083991000031 

Revkjavik, with its 110,000 inhabitants, is the capital of Iceland, a volcanic island in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, located far away from the continents of Europe and America. Icelanders enjoy non-polluting central heating from natural geothermal heat and electricity from hydroelectric station which is relatively inexpensive. In Iceland there are only three relatively large scale aluminium and ferrosilicon factories as the major air-contaminating industry. The only pollution from the combustion of fuel in Iceland is from the fishing fleet, fishmeal factories and car traffic. The concentrations of main polluting gases has been measured systematically in Reykjavik since 1990. It is apparent that the main source of pollution in Reykjavik is from car traffic. However, pollution originating from continental Europe and America has been observed. High background ozone concentration in the air, especially in late winter months has a profound effect on the concentration of nitrogen oxides from car traffic. The nitrogen monoxide in car exhaust react with the high background ozon and is converted to nitrogen dioxide. In calm winterdays when the background ozon is high the exhausted nitrogen monoxide concentration tends to escalate causing the nitrogen dioxide to exceed the air quality limits. The high background ozon thus seem to play important role in the effect of emissions from car traffic on the air quality in Reykjavik.