GMP2: Africa

GMP2 Africa Region dataset contains information on POPs concentrations in ambient air, human tissue - breast milk and surface water; for water-soluble fluorinated POPs only (perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, its salts and perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride).

The second global data collection that can be seen in this dataset was held during 2013–2014 and it contained information on 23 POPs listed in the Stockholm Convention when the second global data collection took place. The data were sampled between 2008 and 2014, however also older data were reported.

The Africa Region is characterized by six different climatic zones that have influence on the movement and distribution of POPs. In addition, except for large deserts in Northern and Southern Africa, the regions face challenges associated with hot and humid climatic conditions that promote growth of a myriad of pests and disease vectors. POPs have therefore been used in many sectors including agriculture, industry and public health to control pests and diseases.

The region collaborated with the following programmes and strategic partners to obtain data on core media: • the MONET-Africa project coordinated by the Centre of Excellence in Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Brno, Czech Republic (RECETOX), • the Global Atmospheric Passive Sampling (GAPS) programme coordinated by Environment Canada, • the World Health Organization (WHO) – Milk survey

The POPs Global Monitoring Plan Data Warehouse (GMP DWH) has been developed by the Stockholm Convention Regional Centre in the Czech Republic through the Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment, Brno, Czech Republic (RECETOX) and the Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, under the guidance of the GMP Global Coordination Group, and based on Chapter 6 of the Guidance on the Global Monitoring Plan for Persistent Organic Pollutants relevant to data handling (UNEP/POPS/COP.6/INF/31). The GMP Data Warehouse (DWH) is designed to work with data from a wide range of heterogeneous sources, such as national monitoring programmes or large international monitoring networks.

The data reporting model involves compiling and archiving primary GMP data within a “regional data repository” in the GMP DWH. In addition, the GMP DWH compiles and archives aggregated data, including supplementary data, in cases where no primary data is made available.

Only reliably reported concentration values can be accepted for any spatial or temporal comparison. Therefore, a multilevel evaluation procedure based on the annually aggregated concentration values is proposed in order to maintain a high predictive value of the GMP records while avoiding bias in the concentration values. Compatible data records stored in the GMP DWH are considered by members of the respective regional organization group and validated for further use in the publication.