On substantiating and correcting lists of priority pollutants and objects for which emission quotas in aims of management of ambient air quality and associated health risks

Introduction. The Federal Project “Clean Air” has been implemented in the country since 2019. Its aim is to considerably improve ambient air quality by directive-controlled reduction of emissions of ‘priority pollutants’ – chemicals that persist in ambient air in levels higher than the valid safe standards and/or make their contribution to population health risks.

The aim of this study. To suggest an algorithm for substantiating, verifying and correcting lists of priority pollutants and objects for which emission quotas are to be set considering all accumulated experience in the Project implementation. The ultimate goal is to achieve effective management of ambient air quality and population health risks.

Materials and methods. The results of aggregated calculations per cities included in the Project, lists of priority pollutants and objects for which emission quotas are to be set, health risk assessment results, data obtained by instrumental measurements of ambient air quality at social and hygienic monitoring posts.

Results. The suggested algorithm of actions aimed at selecting and creating more precise lists of pollutants with established quotas and their emission sources in areas covered by the Federal Project includes verification of priority pollutant lists with instrumental monitoring data, mandatory establishment of causes and sources of considerable discrepancies between “Clean Air” calculated and field data, identification and parameterization of unaccounted emission sources. Our suggestion is that a list of objects for which emission quotas are to be set should include economic entities making a contribution to violation of safe standards and creating unacceptable health risks. They should be included regardless of their category, total emission mass and other secondary characteristics that do not have a direct correlation with an actual impact on the environment and human health.

Limitations. The limitations of the study are related to the analyzed data set: only cities included in the quota experiment are included.

Conclusion. The algorithm involves a shift from directive-established reduction in emissions from all economic entities with priority pollutants in their emissions to a targeted calculated reduction adequate to a risk level and a contribution made by a given economic entity to this risk. Effectiveness of the Project activities should be assessed per residual risk levels (which should be verified with monitoring data, epidemiological and/or specialized profound biomedical examinations). Such assessments should become a mandatory element in the system for setting emission quotas. We have developed recommendations to improve the regulatory base for setting emission quotas, which assign greater significance to population health indicators within the whole system for managing ambient air quality.

Compliance with ethical standards. This study did not require a biomedical ethics committee opinion (the study was performed on publicly available official statistical data).

Contribution:
Zaitseva N.V. – concept and design of the study, editing, approval of the final version of the article;
May I.V. – editing, writing the text, approval of the final version of the article.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding. The study had no sponsorship.

Received: July 4, 2025 / Revised: July 28, 2025 / Accepted: August 6, 2025 / Published: September 25, 2025

1. Martsinkovskiy O.A., Dvinyanina O.V., Vaskina A.A., Romanov A.V. Federal project "Clean air": a new standard of living. Standarty i kachestvo. 2022; (3): 93–5. https://elibrary.ru/iohatu (in Russian)

2. Grinevskii A.M. Federal project "Clean Air". Chernye metally. 2021; (10): 76–7. (in Russian)

3. Magdeeva A.R. Summary calculations as a tool for managing ambient air quality. Ekologiya proizvodstva. 2022; (5): 26–35. https://elibrary.ru/mpmmly (in Russian)

4. Shagidullin A.R. Application of summary calculations of atmospheric air pollution to solve problems of environmental quality management. Rossiiskii zhurnal prikladnoi ekologii. 2022; (1): 60–7. https://doi.org/10.24852/2411-7374.2022.1.60.67 https://elibrary.ru/syjrck (in Russian)

5. Chernykh N.A., Burma A.V., Nedre A.Yu., Azarov V.N., Kozlovtseva E.Yu. Calculation of the air pollution index of the city of Krasnoyarsk using the “summary calculations” tool”. Inzhenernyi vestnik Dona. 2020; (4): 34. https://elibrary.ru/wvylqn (in Russian)

6. Kostyleva N.V., Gileva T.E., Oputina I.P. Summary calculations of pollution of atmospheric air. Antropogennaya transformatsiya prirodnoi sredy. 2017; (3): 106–7. https://elibrary.ru/xfivrd (in Russian)

7. Sergeyeva A.S., Gerko A.G.K. Disadvantages of the summary settlement system of atmospheric pollution. Nedelya nauki Sankt-Peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo morskogo tekhnicheskogo universiteta. 2020; 2(4): 62. https://elibrary.ru/bwixlm (in Russian)

8. Lukin A.U., Gileva T.E., Kostyleva N.V. To the question of quoting of emissions of the enterprises into the atmospheric air. In: Modern Problems of Ecology. XXIV International Scientific-Practical Conference [Sovremennye problemy ekologii. XXIV mezhdunarodnaya nauchno-prakticheskaya konferentsiya]. Perm‘; 2020: 128–33. https://elibrary.ru/ntslih (in Russian)

9. Petelin S.A., Vivchar A., Bubley P., Serdyukov V., Sigitov O. Legal problems of the methods for determining the mass emission of pollutants into the atmosphere. Elektricheskie stantsii. 2022; (9): 63–7. https://elibrary.ru/oxfize (in Russian)

10. Zagorodnov S., Kokoulina A., Popova E. Studying of component and disperse structure of dust emissions of metallurgical complex enterprises for problems of estimation the population exposition. Izvestiya Samarskogo nauchnogo tsentra Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. 2015; 17(5-2): 451–6. https://elibrary.ru/vyzmjd (in Russian)

11. Prosviryakova I.A., Shevchuk L.M. Hygienic assessment of PM10 and PM2.5 contents in the atmosphere and population health risk in zones infleunced by emissions from stationary sources located at industrial enterprises. Health Risk Analysis. 2018; (2): 14–22. https://doi.org/10.21668/health.risk/2018.2.02.eng https://elibrary.ru/vtczvu

12. Rastokina T.N., Peshkova A.A., Unguryanu T.N. Ambient air quality and risk of circulatory diseases for population of a large city in the European north of Russia. Analiz riska zdorov’yu. 2024; (3): 4–12. https://doi.org/10.21668/health.risk/2024.3.01 https://elibrary.ru/fhijaa (in Russian)

13. Zaitseva N.V., Klein S.V., Chetverkina K.V., Andrishunas A.M., Tsinker M.Yu. On the safe levels of micro-sized particles PM1.0 in ambient air. Gigiena i Sanitaria (Hygiene and Sanitation, Russian journal). 2024; 103(11): 1434–40. https://doi.org/10.47470/0016-9900-2024-103-11-1434-1440 https://elibrary.ru/hipitl (in Russian)

14. Anenberg S.C., Tinney V., Henze D.K., Davila Y., Kinney P.L., Raich W., et al. Estimates of the global burden of ambient PM2:5, ozone, and NO2 on asthma incidence and emergency room visits. Environ. Health Perspect. 2018; 126(10): 107004. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP3766 https://elibrary.ru/gjcrim

15. Lee D.W., Hong Y.C., Han C.W., Lim Y.H., Oh J.M., Bae H.J., et al. Long-term exposure to fine particulate matter and incident asthma among elderly adults. Chemosphere. 2021; 272: 129619. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.129619 https://elibrary.ru/zuvmjt

16. Volkodaeva M.V., Karelin A.O., Lomtev A.Yu., Kanchan Ya.S., Levkin A.V., Timin S.D. On accounting for emissions of pollutants from autonomous heat supply sources of individual residential buildings when conducting summary calculations of atmospheric air pollution for settlements. Gigiena i Sanitaria (Hygiene and Sanitation, Russian journal). 2023; 102(2): 141–7. https://doi.org/10.47470/0016-9900-2023-102-2-141-147 https://elibrary.ru/nybmxl (in Russian)

17. Nikitin M.V., Mironova A.D. Review of the existing regulatory framework for determining emissions of pollutants from mobile sources and proposals for its improvement. In: Modern Technologies in the Field of Environmental Protection and Technosphere Safety. Materials of the All-Russian Scientific Conference with International Participation [Sovremennye tekhnologii v oblasti zashchity okruzhayushchei sredy i tekhnosfernoi bezopasnosti. Materialy Vserossiiskoi nauchnoi konferentsii s mezhdunarodnym uchastiem]. Kazan’; 2024: 361–4. (in Russian)

18. Ovodkov M.V., Tkachev M.A., Sukhov V.V. Problems of accounting for background contribution in integrated calculations of atmospheric air pollution. Sovremennaya nauka: aktual’nye problemy teorii i praktiki. Seriya: Estestvennye i tekhnicheskie nauki. 2024; (8): 21–7. (in Russian)

19. Zaitseva N.V., Zhdanova-Zaplesvichko I.G., Zemlyanova M.A., Perezhogin A.N., Savinykh D.F. Experience in organizing and conducting epidemiological studies to detect and prove the causal relationship between ambient air quality and health disorders in the population of industrially contaminated sites. Zdorov’e naseleniya i sreda obitaniya – ZNiSO. 2021; (1): 4–15. https://elibrary.ru/kdjfsy (in Russian)

20. Zaitseva N.V., Zemlyanova M.A., Koldibekova Yu.V., Peskova E.V. Scientific and methodological grounds for iterative prediction of risk and harm to human health under chemical environmental exposures: from protein targets to systemic metabolic disorders. Analiz riska zdorov’yu. 2024; (2): 18–31. https://doi.org/10.21668/health.risk/2024.2.02 https://elibrary.ru/cerxjr (in Russian)

21. Popova A.Yu., Zaytseva N.V., May I.V., Kiryanov D.A. Methodological approaches to the calculation of actual and prevented as a result of the control and supervisory activities, medical-demographic and economic 95 losses, associated with the negative impact of environmental factors. Gigiena i Sanitaria (Hygiene and Sanitation, Russian journal). 2015; 94(7): 95–9. https://elibrary.ru/vckpxn (in Russian)

22. Rodea-Palomares I., González-Pleiter M., Martín-Betancor K., Rosal R., Fernández-Piñas F. Additivity and interactions in ecotoxicity of pollutant mixtures: some patterns, conclusions, and open questions. Toxics. 2015; 3(4): 342–69. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics3040342

23. Mustafa E., Valente M.J., Vinggaard A.M. Complex chemical mixtures: Approaches for assessing adverse human health effects. Curr. Opin. Toxicol. 2023; 34(3): 100404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cotox.2023.100404

24. Shilov V.V., Markova O.L., Kuznetsov A.V. Biomonitoring of influence of harmful chemicals on the basis of the modern biomarkers. Literature review. Gigiena i Sanitaria (Hygiene and Sanitation, Russian journal). 2019; 98(6): 591–6. https://elibrary.ru/qlaqms (in Russian)

25. Alikina I.N., Dolgikh O.V. Biomarkers of exposure to airborne formaldehyde in children with allergic pathologies. Gigiena i Sanitaria (Hygiene and Sanitation, Russian journal). 2024; 103(11): 1412–6. https://doi.org/10.47470/0016-9900-2024-103-11-1412-1416 https://elibrary.ru/twibii (in Russian)

26. Zaitseva N.V., Zemlyanova M.A. May I.V., Alekseev V.B., Trusov P.V., Khrushcheva E.V., et al. Efficiency of health risk mitigation: complex assessment based on fuzzy sets theory and applied in planning activities aimed at ambient air protection. Health Risk Analysis. 2024; 103(11): 1412–6. https://doi.org/10.21668/health.risk/2020.1.03.eng https://elibrary.ru/vamexc

27. Barg A.O., Lebedeva-Nesevria N.A., Pestereva D.Yu. Results of social networks monitoring within assessing population’s satisfaction with sanitary-epidemiological situation. Gigiena i Sanitaria (Hygiene and Sanitation, Russian journal). 2024; 103(5): 433–9. https://doi.org/10.47470/0016-9900-2024-103-5-433-439 https://elibrary.ru/iewcva (in Russian)