"Ultra-fine dust hotspot": Citizens' association and state parliamentarians are calling for a measuring station right on the airport premises

Created: 02/16/2022, 12:00 p.m

By: Markus Schwarzkugler, Andreas Beschorner

Aircraft turbines - our picture shows production at MTU Aero Engines - are considered to be one of the main sources of UFP.

© dpa

The topic of ultrafine dust is becoming "socially acceptable": The Freising Citizens' Association has handed over millions of measured values ​​around Munich Airport.

He and a member of the state parliament are now also demanding a measuring station directly on the airport premises.

But FMG doesn't play along.

Airport - It was a long, rocky road that the Freising Citizens' Association has traveled over the five years since it was founded.

And he was successful.

The representatives of the BV recently handed over a scientific publication on the effects of reduced flight operations during the corona pandemic on the concentration of ultrafine particles (UFP) to District Administrator Helmut Petz.

He praised the BV for his tireless commitment: "You have made the topic socially acceptable."

When the lockdown also hit Munich Airport in March 2020 and flight movements collapsed, there was a great opportunity to confirm what had already been found in countless measurements: the airport was a "UFP hotspot" as it is now Wolfgang Herrmann from BV put it.

The measurement campaign, which was supported by the Freising district and then even by the Bavarian Ministry of the Environment and was scientifically accompanied by the Helmholtz Institute, ran from June to August 2020 and resulted in 45 million individual measurement data, as Herrmann said at the meeting of the planning committee of the Freising district.

The evaluated results have now been published in a prominent place in the trade journal "Hazardous substances - air pollution control", which is published by the Association of German Engineers (VDI), among others.

As you know from the citizens' association, the evaluation of the data is detailed and scientifically proven.

The problem with the whole thing is currently known that there are no scientific limit values.

The result of the measurement campaign, which is presented in the article, was presented by Herrmann and BV Chairman Reinhard Kendlbacher using an example: In February 2020 - i.e. before the lockdown - there were around 1020 take-offs and landings at the airport, the average UFP The concentration between 6 a.m. and midnight was 51,544 particles per cubic centimeter.

In April 2020, when there were only 68 flights per day at the airport, the UFP concentration dropped to 7063 particles.

Another clear result: the UFP concentration correlates with the wind direction.

Data was recorded at seven measurement locations.

Kendlbacher emphasized that the community, North Protection Community, the district, district administrator and Freising parish association had supported the measurement campaign.

Despite repeated requests, there was only one source of no support: the airport.

The FMG not only did not install any UFP measuring points on the airport site, but also flatly refused to measure there, criticized the BV.

The Green member of the state parliament, Johannes Becher, is now demanding such a measurement directly on the site.

"We cannot understand that," said Kendlbacher about the lack of support from the airport.

He suspects that politicians want to put a protective hand over the airport.

The BV representatives also brought two ways of reducing UFP pollution at and around the airport: Firstly, desulfurization of the kerosene to below ten milligrams per kilo (ppm) - currently kerosene is 100 to 600 ppm - , on the other hand towing the aircraft from the landing to the gate and from the gate to the take-off – called a taxi bot.

The Green member of the state parliament, Johannes Becher from Moosburg, is now calling for the cooperation of Flughafen München GmbH (FMG) again with a budget proposal and in a press release and wants to enable the financing of another measurement site.

“FMG benefits from air traffic and must therefore also contribute to compensating for the negative effects of air traffic on the health of people in the airport region.

With a view to creating a broader data basis and the possibility of further research, the airport company must finally give up its blockade of ultrafine dust measurements directly on the airport premises," demands Becher.

The publication by the Freisinger Bürgerverein now brings the expected certainty: "The airport is the largest UFP hotspot - even during the pandemic, when air traffic has almost come to a standstill." Whenever the wind blows from the direction of the airport, it contains many ultrafine particles , according to Becher.

Leon Eckert, member of the Greens in the Bundestag from Eching and deputy member of the Bundestag's transport committee, emphasizes in the same press release: "People in the Freising-Erding region have a right to know what dangers they are exposed to from air pollutants.

When experts call for action, the federal government and the Free State of Bavaria, as shareholders of FMG, must meet their responsibilities and enable measurements to be carried out directly on site.” The measuring network at Frankfurt Airport could serve as a model for Munich.

“UFP have been measured there at and around the airport since 2017,” says Eckert.

Becher is now demanding that the state parliament increase the item "equipment of stationary air quality monitoring with devices, equipment and equipment" in this year's budget by half a million euros - from 700,000 to 1.2 million euros.