BALANCE OF THE RELEASE OF POLYCHLORINATED DIBENZO-P-DIOXINS AND DIBENZOFURANS DURING FIRE ACCIDENTS - CONTRIBUTION TO THE CURRENT DISCUSSION

Extensive investigations of different dioxin sources in recent years a llowed to estimate annual PCDD/F emission balances for several countri es. Nevertheless, all efforts to validate these data by deposition bal ances showed, that the emission rates have obviously been valuated too low. In this contribution to the current discussion a balance for the emission of PCDD/F from fire accidents is worked out for Germany. The result of the calculation is that ca. 81 g I-TEQ/a are released into the environment out of this so far scarcely noted emission source. Com pared to the up-to-date estimation of more than 1 kg I-TEQ/a PCDD/F, t his is a noticeable additional contribution.