Cohiba

COHIBA will assess sources and pathways of hazardous substances of specific concern to the Baltic Sea. The aim is also to estimate the loads and environmental fate of the substances by assessing and using models. This will help us to get a better understanding of the links between the sources of the substances and their impacts in the marine environment.

The project will collect existing data on production, use volumes and discharges, emissions and losses of the target substances, which will form the basis for the substance flow analyses.

There are no common models in use to quantify the inputs of hazardous substances to the Baltic Sea. In order to estimate the inputs some environmental fate models will be tested and developed. The project will carry out a case study in the Stockholm region in Sweden. The results from the Stockholm area will be used to estimate the occurrence of the contaminants in the other areas around the Baltic Sea and to further test and assess the used methods.

The final aim is a joint assessment of the “hot spots”, most important sources of hazardous substances in the whole Baltic Sea region as basis for decision making on actions to reduce the inputs.

More information:

Work package 4: Identification of sources and estimation of inputs/impacts on the Baltic Sea. Led by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute.

• Major sources and flows of the Baltic Sea Action Plan hazardous substances, WP4 Final report (2.37 megabytes)