Methodological Approaches to Optimizing Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Programs within the Framework of the Federal Clean Air Project (on the example of Nizhny Tagil)

Abstract

ntroduction: One of the key socially significant results of implementing the Federal Clean Air Project is the maximum possible mitigation of inhalation health risks by achieving the target rate of reducing emissions (by 20 % against the level of 2017) in a number of cities included in the federal project as priority areas. Materials and methods: Ambient air pollution monitoring as a measure of this accomplishment is indispensable both for verification of applying the model to estimating surface concentrations of pollutants, assessing health risks, and evaluating changes in ambient air quality. For the objectivity of such assessments, it is fundamental to determine the list of priority health-threatening air pollutants, to select monitoring sites that best characterize population exposure to these chemicals, and to plan air quality monitoring programs setting sampling frequency and volume. Results: The article presents the results of implementing methodological approaches adopted by the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance in the Sphere of Consumer Rights and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) to optimize ambient air quality monitoring within the framework of solving the tasks of the Federal Clean Air Project in the city of Nizhny Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region, in 2019. The Nizhny Tagil air quality monitoring program for 2020 has been developed and tested. This program, in conjunction with similar programs carried out by the Russian Federal Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring Service (Roshydromet) and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Sverdlovsk Region and taking into account their implementation over the past five years, helps provide implementers of the federal project with air pollution data to address its key challenges. Conclusions: The adopted ambient air quality monitoring program implemented in Nizhny Tagil in 2020 by the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Sverdlovsk Region meets terms and requirements of the Federal Clean Air Project.