and in 2019 a pollution crisis led the Dutch government to set a goal of halving emissions from the gas by 2030.
WARNING THIS ARTICLE IS MISLEADING UND UNSCIENTIFIC
It is not about elemental nitrogen gas. Elemental nitrogen N2, which is gaseous makes up 79% of the atmosphere and is unproblematic.
The problem are nitrogen compounds such as NH4, NO2 and NO3. These are magnitudes more bioavailable and are used in mineral fertilizers as well as contained in high levels in animal manure. They lead to Eutrophication, which you probably know as algae bloom in water bodies. Additionaly high concentrations of them lead to soil deterioation, as they interfere with the biome in the soil, destroying the usefull balance between different mircoorganisms. Finallly with having too much NO2 and NO3 in the soil it eventually leaks into the ground water table. There it interferes with the microorganisms that are needed to clean the groundwater. When the water is used for drinking water, the high concentrations of NO2 and NO3 can aid the formation of cancers in humans. Currently in affected regions the water users are paying extra for the additional steps needed to remove these from the water in the process, while the polluters dont pay.
Elemental nitrogen is actually one way to safely remove nitrogen from the biological cycle in waste water treatment plants. There specialized bacteria turn NO3 into N2 using the oxygen for their metabolism.
The confusion of the journalist might have risen from harmful nitrogen compounds being expressed as the weight of the nitrogen contained. This is done to be able to compare them better, as the molecular weight of NH4 is very different from the weight of NO3, but one NH4 molecule can be metabolized into one NO3 molecule.
WARNING THIS ARTICLE IS MISLEADING UND UNSCIENTIFIC
It is not about elemental nitrogen gas. Elemental nitrogen N2, which is gaseous makes up 79% of the atmosphere and is unproblematic. The problem are nitrogen compounds such as NH4, NO2 and NO3. These are magnitudes more bioavailable and are used in mineral fertilizers as well as contained in high levels in animal manure. They lead to Eutrophication, which you probably know as algae bloom in water bodies. Additionaly high concentrations of them lead to soil deterioation, as they interfere with the biome in the soil, destroying the usefull balance between different mircoorganisms. Finallly with having too much NO2 and NO3 in the soil it eventually leaks into the ground water table. There it interferes with the microorganisms that are needed to clean the groundwater. When the water is used for drinking water, the high concentrations of NO2 and NO3 can aid the formation of cancers in humans. Currently in affected regions the water users are paying extra for the additional steps needed to remove these from the water in the process, while the polluters dont pay.
Elemental nitrogen is actually one way to safely remove nitrogen from the biological cycle in waste water treatment plants. There specialized bacteria turn NO3 into N2 using the oxygen for their metabolism.
The confusion of the journalist might have risen from harmful nitrogen compounds being expressed as the weight of the nitrogen contained. This is done to be able to compare them better, as the molecular weight of NH4 is very different from the weight of NO3, but one NH4 molecule can be metabolized into one NO3 molecule.