Introduction. The object of the study is the results obtained during the implementation of the Federal Project (FP) “Clean Air” in 2020 in the supervised participating cities and the assessment of the possibility of implementing the tasks set for Rospotrebnadzor for effective health risk management, reducing morbidity and mortality of the population. The purpose of the study is to assess the risk to public health according to the summary calculations of atmospheric air pollution in the cities of Cherepovets, Lipetsk, Omsk, Novokuznetsk during the implementation of the FP “Clean Air” (baseline, 2017). Materials and methods. The primary approach to implementing the FP “Clean Air” in 2020 is to use the initial data (summary calculations of atmospheric air pollution) and obtain on their basis the levels of exposure and risks to public health. A software product of the “Ecolog-Gorod” series was used to calculate single and average annual concentrations. The health risk assessment procedure was carried out under the requirements of the manual R 2.1.10.1920-04. Results. Studies were conducted to assess the risk to public health based on the data of summary calculations of atmospheric air pollution in the cities participating in the FP “Clean Air” (Cherepovets, Lipetsk, Omsk, Novokuznetsk) in 2017 before the start of the measures provided for by the Comprehensive Plans to reduce emissions of pollutants into the atmospheric air. The assessment of the public health risk from atmospheric air pollution made it possible to establish: priority compounds contained in industrial emissions, the primary industrial sources and their share contribution, as well as the contribution of motor transport and independent heat supply sources emissions to the formation of pollution levels in cities; the population exposed to unacceptable risk levels were determined; substances that should be taken into account when quoting emissions were identified. The variants of improving the quality of preparation of the initial data of summary calculations for health risk assessment are recommended. Conclusion. There are suggested approaches to improving the quality of preparation of initial data of consolidated calculations for health risk assessment.

The article dwells on the analysis of the latest world data indicating that ambient air contamination is one of the most significant risk factors causing non-infectious diseases. Adverse effects produced on health are the most evident among sensitive population groups (women, children, and elderly people). It was noted that risk management with well-grounded choice on the most efficient activities aimed at its minimization was rather rare in Russia; it is a key problem related to practical implementation of health risk analysis methodology in the country. We highlighted that health risk analysis methodology was successfully applied when “Pure air” federal project was implemented within “Ecology” national project. We recommended basic stages in assessing efficiency of activities aimed at health risk management, reducing population morbidity and mortality, creating comfortable and favorable urban environment in 12 cities that participated in “Pure air” federal project. The article also contains suggestions on a unified algorithm based on economic estimation of alternative health risk management techniques and ways to provide sanitary-epidemiologic welfare. The algorithm includes substantiating a necessity to perform examinations and health risk assessment under “basic” exposure, and determining priority problems; assessing residual health risks after each considered activity, assessing efficiency of technological, economic, and health-influencing activities; comparative health risk assessment; health risks ranking taking into account additional effects, as well as technological and economic efficiency; substantiating choice on the most optimal activities and presenting conclusions to decision-makers in the field; giving grounds for a decision being taken.

The article dwells on the analysis of the latest world data indicating that ambient air contamination is one of the most significant risk factors causing non-infectious diseases. Adverse effects produced on health are the most evident among sensitive population groups (women, children, and elderly people). It was noted that risk management with well-grounded choice on the most efficient activities aimed at its minimization was rather rare in Russia; it is a key problem related to practical implementation of health risk analysis methodology in the country. We highlighted that health risk analysis methodology was successfully applied when “Pure air” federal project was im-plemented within “Ecology” national project. We recommended basic stages in assessing efficiency of activities aimed at health risk management, reducing population morbidity and mortality, creating comfortable and favorable urban environment in 12 cities that participated in “Pure air” federal project. The article also contains suggestions on a unified algorithm based on economic estimation of alternative health risk man-agement techniques and ways to provide sanitary-epidemiologic welfare. The algorithm includes substantiating a necessity to perform examinations and health risk assessment under “basic” exposure, and determining priority problems; assessing residu-al health risks after each considered activity, assessing efficiency of technological, economic, and health-influencing activities; comparative health risk assessment; health risks ranking taking into account additional effects, as well as technological and economic efficiency; substantiating choice on the most optimal activities and presenting conclusions to decision-makers in the field; giving grounds for a decision being taken.

A rapidly growing number of megalopolises in the world leads to some substantial problems to environmental conditions of their population. One of these problems is the intensification of motor traffic, which contributes to air pollution measured as average concentrations of several air pollutants and climate change in the form of more frequent heat waves and cold spells. The present study analyzes the selected indicators of environmental health in Moscow, the largest Russian megalopolis which contributes for adoption of sound and evidence-based health risk management policies. Individual carcinogenic risks attributed to traffic emissions varied across the study area of 400 km(2) between 3 x 10(-4) and 6.53 x 10(-4) which is typical for most megalopolises in the economically developed countries. However, the carcinogenic risks in some districts may exceed the threshold of 10(-3) which is regarded as unacceptable. The total population carcinogenic risk for 3.5 million people who lived in the study area with intense road traffic was 23 additional cases of malignant neoplasms per year or 1513 cases per 70 years. Additional mortality during the extreme heat episode in the summer of 2010, when forest and peat fires caused exceptionally high levels of smog in Moscow, reached 11,000 deaths. The measures to be taken by the executive authorities include informing the residents about the onset of extreme heat by means of an early warning system, and rating the relative severity of heat and air pollution according to a 4-point scale.

The article provides an analysis of global trends and new areas of health risk assessment and analysis methodology caused by exposure to chemicals, environmental pollutants, and the contemporary issues of national assessment methodology. Most details are considered: risk assessment evidence base, modern methods and problems of carcinogenic risk assessment, hygienic regulation based on risk assessment, the economic aspects of the methodology. Particular attention is paid to reasons of recent years perceived gaps in the Russian methodological basis of the best foreign samples. The urgent measures to improve the national risk assessment methodology are proposed, the main of which are: legislative consolidation of the basic concepts of risk assessment, a further update of the methodology and the practice of hygienic regulation on the basis of risk assessment, improving the valuation of damage to human health, the tightening of the requirements to the developed regulatory guidance documents on risk assessment, as well as to the training and retraining of personnel in the risk assessment.

In the article there are considered the main problems of assessing public health risks of the combined effects of high temperatures and air pollution with the account taken of the consequences of abnormally hot weather observed in summer 2010 in Moscow and without equals in the history of meteorological measurements in the city. The daily average concentrations of fine suspended particles matter (PM10) in the city during peatland fires from 4 to 9 August are emphasized to be within the range of 431-906 μ/m3, being 7.2-15.1 times the Russian maximum permissible concentration (MPCs) (60 μ/m3). The anomalous heat and high levels of air pollution in this period were shown to cause a significant increase in excess mortality among the population of Moscow. There was established the relative gain in mortality from all natural causes per 10 μg/m3 increase in daily average concentrations of PM10 and ozone, which was respectively: 0.47% (95%; CI: 0.31-0.63) and 0.41% (95%; CI: 0.31-1.13). On the base of the statistical analysis of daily mortality rates, meteorological indices, the concentrations of PM10 and ozone there was developed marking scale for the risk assessment of these indices accordingly to 4 gradings--low (permissible), warning, alert, and a hazard level. There has been substantiated the importance of the introduction of the system for the early alert for hazard weather events and the unified rating scale for the hazard of high air temperatures and high levels of air pollution with PM10 and ozone, which allows to take timely measures for the protection of the public health.

We try to identify the unknown source of air pollution caused by unknown substance. We do it using only complaints on odor submitted by population living in the ∼20 × 30-km area. We test all possible locations of pollution source on the grid with 1-km spacing covering the area. For each virtual location, we perform the dispersion modeling using AERMOD with meteorological data from three nearest stations. We assume a low, ambient temperature area source with unit emission rate. The space-time array of concentrations is correlated with the analogous array of complaints, and the best correlated source position is chosen. We performed extensive experimentation with data processing options to obtain the best spatially focused correlation hotspot. This included filtering the moments of time used for correlation, quantizing the complaint numbers and concentrations, and finding the best time lag between concentrations and complaints. The best lag was 3 h in total or 1 h added to propagation time from source to receptor. The resulting focus is 1–2 km wide, positioned exactly on an active landfill. We estimate this accuracy as very good, better than warranted by the quality of source data. This demonstrates the possibility of obtaining a good focus for the location of an unknown source even from very imperfect data. The technique applied can be useful in many situations where the inventory of air pollution sources is incomplete, especially in developing countries.

The article provides an analysis of global trends and new areas of health risk assessment and analysis methodology caused by exposure to chemicals, environmental pollutants, and the contemporary issues of national assessment methodology. Most details are considered: risk assessment evidence base, modern methods and problems of carcinogenic risk assessment, hygienic regulation based on risk assessment, the economic aspects of the methodology. Particular attention is paid to reasons of recent years perceived gaps in the Russian methodological basis of the best foreign samples. The urgent measures to improve the national risk assessment methodology are proposed, the main of which are: legislative consolidation of the basic concepts of risk assessment, a further update of the methodology and the practice of hygienic regulation on the basis of risk assessment, improving the valuation of damage to human health, the tightening of the requirements to the developed regulatory guidance documents on risk assessment, as well as to the training and retraining of personnel in the risk assessment.

The lack of adequate legislative and regulatory framework for ensuring minimization of the health risks in the field of environmental protection is the obstacle for the application of the risk analysis methodology as a leading tool for administrative activity in Russia. "Principles of the state policy in the sphere of ensuring chemical and biological safety of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025 and beyond", approved by the President of the Russian Federation on 01 November 2013, No PR-25 73, are aimed at the legal support for the health risk analysis methodology. In the article there have been supposed the main stages of the operative control of the environmental quality, which lead to the reduction of the health risk to the acceptable level. The further improvement of the health risk analysis methodology in Russia should contribute to the implementation of the state policy in the sphere of chemical and biological safety through the introduction of complex measures on neutralization of chemical and biological threats to the human health and the environment, as well as evaluation of the economic effectiveness of these measures. The primary step should be the legislative securing of the quantitative value for the term: "acceptable risk".

In the article the perspective directions of development of methodology of the analysis of risk in Russia with taking into account the last world achievements in this area and requirements to harmonization of a system for control of environment quality are considered. Main problem questions of the analysis of risk in relation to regulation of nature protection activity were emphasized to be related as well with insufficiency of legislative, standard and executive support for this direction of administrative activity as with the need of the solution of the methodical questions concerning new tendencies of justification and use of reference levels of chemicals, development of modern approaches to the specification of cancerogenic and not cancerogenic risks, including cumulative ones.

Historically, Ukraine has been a major source of industrial production for the former Soviet Union and the source of pollution associated with an aging industrial infrastructure. The US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and the Ukrainian Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MENR) entered into partnership to develop Ukrainian expertise and capacity in risk assessment so that Ukraine could more effectively use its National and Regional Environmental Protection Funds and set priorities for cleanup and regulation. Ukrainian scientists, local officials, and EPA consultants conducted a pilot study in the heavily industrialized Zaporizhzhia Oblast so that the process, analytical tools, and approach for a risk assessment could be developed for and tailored to Ukrainian needs. As a first step, site-specific information was obtained from multiple sources of air pollution and an emissions inventory of air pollution developed. Efforts by local officials were critical for emissions inventory construction. After refinements were made to the inventory, Ukrainian scientists then performed exposure modeling using this information so that ambient concentrations of pollutants could be estimated. 11 industry types (i.e., enterprises) were identified as a major emission source. Results of the modeling effort demonstrated that emissions estimates of particulate matter (as measured by particles of less than 10 micron diameter or “PM10”) and a number of carcinogens were consistent with those from other cities with high concentrations of metallurgical industries in former Soviet Union countries, and were above safety standards. Hazard information was gathered from international databases for each of the estimated pollutants. Using such data, prioritization and identification of potential health concerns can be made, but most importantly, the expertise and experience gained from the pilot allowed for continued support of risk assessment capacity building in the Ukraine and support by the World Bank.

In the article the perspective directions of development of methodology of the analysis of risk in Russia with taking into account the last world achievements in this area and requirements to harmonization of a system for control of environment quality are considered. Main problem questions of the analysis of risk in relation to regulation of nature protection activity were emphasized to be related as well with insufficiency of legislative, standard and executive support for this direction of administrative activity, as with the need of the solution of the methodical questions concerning new tendencies of justification and use of reference levels of chemicals, development of modern approaches to the specification of cancerogenic and not cancerogenic risks, including cumulative ones.

In the article the basic problems of harmonization of domestic regulatory framework of air pollution with the WHO recommendations and normative values adopted in the EU, U.S. and other countries are considered. The important role of health risk analysis methodology in the process of harmonization of regulation and control of air quality has been pointed out. The necessity of radical changes in the structure and content of the basic normative document GN 2.1.6.1338-03 "maximum permissible concentration (MPC) of pollutants in the air of populated areas" has been shown. The algorithm of the procedure that justifies the new list of normative values in the air harmonized with international recommendations and standards of developed countries has been proposed.

In the article the basic problems of harmonization of domestic regulatory framework of air pollution with the WHO recommendations and normative values adopted in the EU, U.S. and other countries are considered. The important role of health risk analysis methodology in the process of harmonization of regulation and control of air quality has been pointed out. The necessity of radical changes in the structure and content of the basic normative document GN 2.1.6.1338-03 maximum permissible concentration (MPC) of pollutants in the air of populated areas has been shown. The algorithm of the procedure that justifies the new list of normative values in the air, harmonized with international recommendations and standards of developed countries has been proposed