Environmental Quality Standards

General Provisions

Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) are the most important tool for legal regulation of environmental safety and conservation of natural resources. They are established in order to ensure a favorable environment that guarantees the sustainable functioning of ecosystems, preservation of the genetic fund of plants, animals and microorganisms, as well as rational use of natural resources under conditions of sustainable development of economic activities.

According to the Federal Law "On Environmental Protection", EQS include indicators of physical, chemical, biological and other characteristics of the state of the environment. Their compliance ensures minimization of the negative impact of economic and other activities on natural objects, supports the stability of ecosystems and contributes to the preservation of natural-anthropogenic objects, including specially protected areas and landscapes.

Environmental quality standards are established in the form of maximum permissible concentrations (MPC) of harmful chemical substances and microorganisms, as well as maximum permissible levels of physical impacts (MPL), including noise, vibration, thermal and ionizing radiation. Examples include allowable concentrations of ammonia, mercury, lead, nitrogen dioxide in atmospheric air of populated areas and noise level standards at workplaces of various labor intensity categories.

When setting these standards, natural characteristics of the territory and water area, the purpose of natural objects, their ecological value, presence of specially protected natural territories and unique landscapes are taken into account. This approach allows for the creation of a differentiated system of regulation that ensures not only protection of public health but also preservation of natural ecosystems as intact entities.

Despite the existence of legislation, a comprehensive system for regulating the quality of the environment in Russia has not yet been fully established. In the process of developing standards, sanitary norms oriented towards epidemiological indicators are often used, which limits the effectiveness of environmental protection. In this context, further integration of ecological and sanitary approaches, as well as the development of modern permissible concentrations (PDK) and permissible discharge levels (PDU), taking into account the comprehensive impact of economic activities on the natural environment, is relevant.

As noted by S.A. Bogolyubov, environmental quality regulation is carried out in order to establish maximum allowable standards of impact on the environment, ensuring ecological safety for the population and preserving the genetic background, as well as promoting the rational use and reproduction of natural resources under conditions of sustainable economic activities¹.

According to Article 1 of the Federal Law "On Environmental Protection," environmental quality standards are norms established in accordance with physical, chemical, biological and other indicators for assessing the state of the environment, and compliance with which ensures a favorable environment. A favorable environment is considered to be one whose quality ensures the sustainable functioning of natural ecological systems, natural and anthropogenic objects.

Environmental quality standards are established to assess the state of the environment for the purpose of preserving natural ecological systems, the genetic fund of plants, animals and other organisms. Environmental quality standards include: standards set in accordance with chemical indicators of the state of the environment, including standards of maximum permissible concentrations of chemical substances, including radioactive substances; standards set in accordance with physical indicators of the state of the environment, including indicators of radiation levels and heat; standards set in accordance with biological indicators of the state of the environment, including species and groups of plants, animals and other organisms used as environmental quality indicators, as well as standards of maximum permissible concentrations of microorganisms; other environmental quality standards.

When establishing environmental quality standards, natural characteristics of territories and water areas, the purpose of natural objects and nature-antropogenic objects, specially protected territories, including specially protected natural territories, as well as natural landscapes with special environmental protection significance are taken into account (Article 21 of the Federal Law "On Environmental Protection").

Environmental quality standards are established in the form of permissible maximum concentrations of harmful chemical and biological substances (PDK) and permissible maximum levels of harmful physical impacts on the environment (PDU)².

As an example of permissible norms, the permissible maximum concentrations of pollutants in the atmospheric air of populated areas, which have been approved by the Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the Russian Federation³, can be cited. These norms include permissible average daily concentrations of ammonia (0.04 mg/m³), mercury (0.0003 mg/m³), lead and its compounds (0.0003 mg/m³), carbon monoxide (3 mg/m³), nitrogen dioxide (0.04 mg/m³).

As an example of permissible norms, the permissible maximum levels of noise and equivalent noise levels at workplaces for different categories of labor intensity and stress in dB(A) (see table)⁴ can be cited.

Category of tension in the labor process****Category of severity of the labor processLight physical loadModerate physical loadHeavy work 1st degreeHeavy work 2nd degreeHeavy labor, degree 3Mild tension8080757575Moderate tension7070656565Strenuous labor degree 16060---Strenuous labor degree 25050---

As noted by N.I. Khlyudeneva, since the adoption of the Law on Environmental Protection in 2002, a comprehensive system of environmental quality standards based on special ecological norms has not been established. This, in turn, has led to the fact that when setting environmental impact standards, more emphasis is placed on norms developed not for the purpose of environmental protection, but for other purposes (for example, to ensure public sanitary and epidemiological well-being)⁵.