IUPAC

Environmental pollution is a problem of such magnitude and of such universal concern that national efforts to provide the essential data and devise the most cost effective control strategies are no longer adequate. Increasingly it falls to IUPAC to provide the infrastructure for international collaboration. Understanding and control of air pollution on a regional scale are based on the use of computer models. These require the input of chemical kinetics data. Although the focus of much past work has been on gas kinetics data, it is increasingly recognized that data on reactions occurring in the aqueous phase are also needed. The objective of this project is to provide a data base of evaluated data for use in modeling the aqueous component of atmospheric chemistry. It is envisaged as a companion activity to the current evaluation program on gas kinetics data for atmospheric chemistry.

A panel of participants has been enlisted to carry out the evaluation tasks. The members include: Dr. R.E. Huie, Prof. P. Warneck, Prof. R. van Eldik, Prof. M.R. Hoffmann, Prof. D. Stanbury, Dr. H. Herrmann, Prof. C. von Sonntag, Dr. H-P. Schuchmann, and Dr. A.N. Yermakov. It is the goal of the organizers to make maximum use of the world-wide-web or e-mail, and to minimize reliance on meetings. The details of the web site are being worked out at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It is anticipated that data sheets will be made available to the user community as completed. The basic approach will be to produce a data sheet on each reaction or property of importance.

New coordinators replacing R.E. Huie and J.J. Pienaar