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ED78.08: Environmental
Quality Management

Chapter 5 [Part 1]
Environmental Quality Standards
Dr. Ekbordin Winijkul
Semester: January 2019

Photo source: BDC, 2018

5.1 Setting Standards: Uncertainty and Variation (1/2)

• Environmental pollution is a major issue of our times

• To control the problem of pollution --> impose “requirements” on the

polluters
• Optimum balance between [a measure of benefit] and [an assessment of cost of
regulatory process]
• “Requirements” can range from a self generated set of actions by a polluter to a
specific mandatory (such as governmental) requirement --> standards for
environmental pollution

• To answer the questions of “How are standard set?”

• Set a specific aim --> what need to be measured to assess compliance with this aim
• Conduct a real-life empirical study of what effect the pollutant has
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Setting Standards: Uncertainty and Variation (2/2)

• It is no point in setting standard unless we can monitor compliance and assess
whether it is achieving its aim

• Real-world effects of pollutants are crucial information to determine how to set

standards to control them
• This real-world effects are uncertain and highly variable --> cannot fully predictable and
have to be expressed in terms of appropriate ways to define uncertainty and variation
• Observation errors or measurement errors
• Spatial and temporal effects
• Natural variability

• The control of environmental pollution & setting of standards --> raises difficult
problems for governments --> different groups of people have different views of
• Extent to which a government should protect its citizens from risk
• Cost associated with the controls

5.2 Terminology
• Environmental Pollution -- energy or waste materials that are discharged into the
environment where they can cause damage to human health and environment
• Toxicity of environmental pollutants depends on their formulation and concentration
• Organic combinations of mercury pose a greater hazard than the inorganic mercury salts
• High concentrations of sulfur dioxide in urban areas can harm both plants and people, even though
sulfur is an essential component of all living organisms

• Toxicity -- the capacity of a substance to cause injury to a living organism

• Hazard -- the potential of a pollutant to induce harm

• Pathways -- Pollutants may reach human through different pathways, e.g., water,
air, soil, food, or consumer products
• One source usually contributes the major proportion of the pollutant --> “critical pathway”

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Two Main Steps in Forming Public Policies (1/2)

(1) Scientific Stage
• Knowledge of the hazard --> involves identification and characterization
• Evaluation of the risk --> establishes the probability and severity of potential adverse
effects on health and safety
• Assessment of hazard --> determines routes of exposure and estimates the number
of people exposed

• At the conclusion of this stage, it should be possible to:

• Determine levels of pollutants that do not produce adverse effects and to establish
necessary safety margins
• Establish goals or norms for national environmental pollution prevention and control
program

Two Main Steps in Forming Public Policies (2/2)

(2) Political and administrative Stage
• Determination of acceptable risk --> views problem not as scientific matter, but one opinion
• Determination of public to be protected --> considers not only healthy individuals but also
population groups whose state of health need to be taken into account
• Consideration of human ecology
• Choice of control technology --> requires both formulation of strategy and selection of
appropriate control techniques
• Legislation standards --> existing legal framework and necessary legal strategies
• Economics --> a balance between costs and benefits

• At this stage, consideration is given to the means of achieving the environmental

health goals:
• Requires knowledge of the technical, social, financial, legal, and institutional implications
• Promotes the examination of links between environmental problems, the solutions, and
society

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5.3 Identification of Priority Pollution Issues

• Generally insufficient resources available to deal with all the pollution
problems in a country --> necessary to establish priorities

• Two general criteria should be considered:

• The boundaries of the problem must be defined
• The problem in question must be put into a wider context by consideration of other
risks and/or benefit

• Most developed countries and international organizations have now

adopted systems for setting priorities in order to provide more rigorous
guidance --> Five Criteria

Criteria for Prioritizing Pollutants

• Severity and frequency of adverse effects on human health
• Irreversible or chronic effects, such as genetic, neurotoxic, carcinogenic, embryotoxic effects
• Continuous or repeated exposure --> a higher priority than isolated or accidental exposure

• Ubiquity and abundance of the pollutant in the environment

• Persistence and accumulation in the environment

• Environmental transformation or metabolic alterations

• May produce chemical substances that have greater toxic potential

• Population exposed
• A large proportion of the general population
• Highly vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women, children, or elderly
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Selection of Pollutants for Control

• Systematic Evaluation
• Scoring system
• Knowledge and opinion of groups of experts

• Local or foreign health crises

• Research

• Chemical Similarity

• International Corporation
• WHO Environmental Health Criteria programme
• United Nations Environment Programme
• Others

5.4 Information on Health Effects

• The toxic effects of pollutants in environment:
• Acute toxicity
• Chronic toxicity
• Carcinogenicity
• Teratogenicity
• Mutagenicity

• Assumption --> dose-thresholds exist for the acute and chronic toxic
effects, but not carcinogenic effects
• Threshold: standard-setting to achieve a total dose of the substance below the level
of injury
• No threshold (finite risk may exist at any dose above zero): standard-setting to
reduce exposure to zero or to specify a dose level that will contribute only a
negligible increase in the lifetime risk

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5.4.1 Studies of Health Effects

• The first step in establishing
environmental standards for a
pollutant --> determine the nature
of any hazards associated with it

• National or local authority chooses

to conduct appropriate studies
itself, or rely upon the expert
opinion of others

• Important to know the strengths

and limitations of the data and
information available
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(1) Epidemiology
• The study of the various factors that determine the occurrence and
distribution of diseases and other physiological and pathological effects in
human population

• Epidemiological studies on human populations can provide definitive

evidence of the health risks associated with a particular pollutant
• Main weakness --> ineffective in proving that observed health effects are the direct
result of exposure to a particular substance

• Some examples where the setting of environmental health standards has

been largely based on epidemiological studies
• Fluoridation of drinking-water
• Oxides of nitrogen and Control of emissions of arsenic & asbestos in the air
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Major Features of Study Designs in Env Epidemiology

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(2) Clinical Studies

• Certain types of information about the
effects of environmental pollutants can
only be obtained by direct observations in
human

• For example:
• types of effect, such as subtle changes in
reaction time, behavioral functions, and
sensory responses
• can be carried out using low doses

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(3) Animal Studies

• Acute animal studies are most commonly used to predict human response to
short-term, high-level exposures
• Can also provide a measure of the toxic potential of different compounds

• The toxic effects of longer-term, low-level exposure

• Chronic or lifetime studies
• Sub-chronic studies of 28 days or longer

• Most regulatory decisions on the toxicity of pollutants are based on the results of
animal tests using mammalian species
• Questions: How valid is the comparison between man and animals?
• Extrapolation from animals to man has been most successful for certain effects, such as
carcinogenicity, acute toxicity, and metabolic interference, as well as for deafness,
behavioral changes, and influence on the immune system

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(4) Other Methods

• Short-term tests to detect toxicity • Structure-activity relationships

• Reasons: • Correlation between chemical

• The time, expense, and logistic structure, in terms of functional
difficulties involved in the conduct of groups and spatial orientation, and
animal tests parameters of toxicity
• A growing concern for animal welfare

• Short-term methods for predicting

• Mutational effects (changes in genetic
material) have been widely used as an
index of toxicity
• Detect substances that may induce birth
defects
• Give indication of possible
carcinogenicity
toxicity and maximum permissible
concentrations for occupational and
ambient air pollutants have been
developed on the basis of such
studies
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5.4.2 Dose-Effect Relationships

• The dose received can either be expressed as:
• The total dose integrated over time
• The actual dose (amount present in the target organ) at a point in time

• Observed effects are evidence of biological changes in an organism. A dose-

effect relationship can be seen in terms of:
• Increasing severity of one effect with increasing dose (e.g., eye irritation versus
oxidant concentration in the atmosphere)
• A series of effects, from the less severe to the more severe, with increasing dose

• The terms [effect] and [response] are often considered to be

interchangeable

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Example of a Series of Effects with Increasing Dose

Lowest observed levels for
lead-induced health effects in
adults
Lowest observed levels for
lead-induced health effects in
children

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Different Approaches to Develop Standards

• Threshold Effects

• Non-threshold effects

• Major problem in the establishment of a

dose-effect relationship --> extrapolating
from the results of high doses observed
during experimental studies to those of
the low dose levels (typical of human
exposure)

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(1) Threshold Effects

• Different types of dose-effect curves • Curve 1: the simplest case, where
there is no risk until a certain level of
exposure is reached, at which Curve 1
leaves axis

• Curve 2: there are some effects at low

doses, and these effects increase
slowly with increasing exposure, until
a take-off point is reached after which
the effects increase dramatically

• Curve 3: the effects of exposure are

impossible to separate from similar
effects that occur from background
exposure --> some "effects" at zero
dose and any dose above zero will
increase those effects
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Policy Implications
Curve 1
• It would be appropriate to keep
exposure of the population below
the threshold level
Safety Factors and Extrapolations
• There are two fundamental problems of
extrapolating animal data to human:
• the problem of extrapolating projected response from
one species to another
• the problem of extrapolating from a tested dose-
response range to a different dose ranges of practical
importance
• The safety (ex. 10-1000) factor reflects the degree
of uncertainty that must be incorporated in the
extrapolation from experimental data to the
human population
• When the quality and quantity of dose response data
are high, the safety factor is low
• When the data are inadequate, the safety factor must
be higher
• Noted that when permitted doses of carcinogens
are the practical equivalent of zero, safety factors
are not especially relevant
• the term safety factor should be replaced by the term
"acceptable risk"
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Curve 2
• It may not be practicable to reduce
exposure to zero in order to
protect the relatively small number
of susceptible people affected at
low doses
• In this case, the standards may be
set at or somewhat below the take-
off point, and additional steps
taken to safeguard or reduce the
exposure of the susceptible
persons
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• In practice, it is not always possible to specify
with confidence the slope of the dose-effect
curve
• At very low exposures, the effects may not be
easily detectable; equally, data relating to the
upper end of the curve are difficult to obtain
because massive exposures are relatively rare
• The solid line to point A is the dose-effect curve,
determined by a multiple-dosing experiment.
Point A is the "no observed effect" level (NOEL) in
mg per kg of body weight per day
Exposure-effect curve
showing different
possible lower
dose levels
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(2) Non-threshold Effects

• Possible non-threshold • Curve 1 is the classical linear
relationships exposure-effect relationship when
no threshold exists
• Zero risk occurs only at zero exposure

• Curve 2 is a variant showing

reduced sensitivity to risk at lower
levels

• Curve 3 is the reverse showing

increased sensitivity at lower levels
of exposure
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5.5 Assessment of Exposure

• Assessment of exposure to a given environmental pollutant involves:
• Consideration of the probable sources of the substance, such as industrial, domestic
• Making environmental measurements to determine the average and peak concentrations of
the pollutant in the relevant media/pathways (time/space variation)
• Exposure of the general population and subpopulations at particular risk and lifestyles

• High-risk groups
• Once the toxic dose for the "normal healthy" population has been determined,
consideration must be given to high-risk groups
• Infants and young children, the elderly, pregnant women and their fetuses, the nutritionally deprived,
the physically debilitated, individuals with genetic disorders, and those exposed to excessive amounts
of the pollutant
• It is very important to know which individuals are at high risk with respect to pollutants, because they
will be the first to experience when the pollutant increases --> Standard that protects the high-risk
sections of the population will also protect the rest of the population

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High-risk Groups
• A theoretical comparison between
normal and high-risk segments of the
population with regard to the onset of
toxic effects
Definition of Adverse Health Effects
• In setting a standard for the control
of an environmental pollutant, the
effect that the population is to be
protected against must be defined
• A hierarchy of effects on health can
be identified
• ranging from acute illness and death
through chronic and lingering
diseases, minor and temporary
ailments, to temporary emotional or
behavioral changes
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• As pollutant levels increase, adverse
health effects will be seen first in the
high-risk group
• The precise difference in sensitivity
between a statistically "normal"
individual and one in the high-risk
subpopulation varies with the specific
cause of the high-risk condition
• Distinct thresholds for the normal and
the high-risk groups are not exist
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Range of effects on human health of
exposure to environmental pollutants
Premature death of many individuals
Premature death of an individual
Severe acute illness or major disability
Chronic debilitating disease
Minor disability
Temporary minor illness
Discomfort
Behavioral changes
Temporary emotional effects
Minor physiological change
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Approach to Standard-setting in Different Countries

• Fundamentally, the approach to • Contrasts in approaches in standard-
standard-setting depends largely on the settings
accepted concept of the term "state of
health“

• USA: it is assumed that there is no

threat to health as long as the exposure
does not overloads the normal
protective mechanisms of the body

• USSR: a potential for ill health is said to

exist as soon as the organism
undergoes a detectable change, of
whatever kind, from its normal state
• Thus, the concepts of tolerance limits or
thresholds of response are markedly
different in these two countries
• Other countries generally follow one of
these two approaches
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5.6 Strategies for Prevention and Control

• Once it has been decided that exposure to an environmental pollutant
needs to be prevented or reduced in order to protect human health
• select appropriate measures to achieve this goal

• Exposure can be avoided

• if the pollutant is prevented from being released
• if it is degraded naturally or treated before it reaches its target

• Reduction or control measures may be taken at various points on the path

between the source of the contaminant and its target (a person or
resource)
• Control at each stage has its own advantages and disadvantages
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Possible Points to Set Standards

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5.6.1 Source-oriented Measures (1/2)

• Product design, marketing, and use
• Banning
• Substituting
• Recycling

• Process of manufacture
• Use of different methods of production
• Voluntary or Command

• Operating practices
• Handling of materials in ways that prevent accidental or continuing release
• Maintenance measures
• Careful storage and segregation of different types of waste
• Cleaning of equipment
• Deal with them when accidental releases occur
• Training is essential

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Source-oriented Measures (2/2)

• Limits on releases into the environments
• Emission or effluent standards may be expressed in terms of the permissible concentration
of a pollutant in units of air emitted or wastewater discharged by a source, or in terms of
the total load of pollutant per time unit, unit of production, or unit of energy or materials
input
• Air, Water, Soil (sludges)

• Treatment and disposal

• Best practicable means

• This approach implies the use of the best available and economically feasible control
technology
• Advantages: Emission standards based upon "best practicable means" should be uniform for the
whole country, if the technical and economic conditions are essentially the same
• Disadvantages: Does not guarantee a satisfactory environmental quality and does not encourage the
development of new processes that produce less pollution

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5.6.2 Medium-related Measures (1/2)

• Environmental quality or ambient standards

• Environmental quality may be expressed in terms of:

• health (of human, aquatic, and/or wildlife populations)*
• economic considerations*
• recreational and aesthetic factors

• An environmental quality standard may range from

• a stated concentration value for a contaminant or other parameter of quality in an
environmental medium designed to provide a degree of health or other protection for man or
other species
• a regulatory standard, complete with statements of scope and purpose, definitions, specification
of permissible concentration for the contaminant, compliance requirements, prescription of
sampling methods and frequency, and acceptable analytical methods

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Medium-related Measures (2/2)

• Exposure standards
• Commonly set for the workplace and for food, but are also used for drinking-water quality
control

• Biological standards
• concentration of pollutants in biological fluids and tissues, for example, lead in blood or
mercury in human hair
• Advantage: they include contamination from all sources, which may vary from person to person, thus
their use provides an accurate picture of exposure
• Disadvantage: it is difficult to implement biological standards because this may require compulsory
sampling

• Environmental quality management

• From emission inventories and monitoring data, a dispersion model for the area concerned
can be developed --> reductions in emissions/effluents necessary to meet the standards
adopted
• Problems: data/information available
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5.7 Legal Framework

• Environmental control policies • Components of the broader
define not only the responsibilities approach
of industry, but also the limits on • Nature of the decision
the government's power to • Scope and development of
intervene environmental legislation
• Content and structure of regulations
• Institutional considerations
• In some instances a broader • Geographical dimension of
approach may be adopted, that environmental problems
requires the implementing agencies • Supporting measures for regulatory
to weigh economic and social strategies
considerations together with public
health aspects in reaching a
decision concerning regulation
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5.7.1 Nature of the decision

• The control options --> final result: to ensure that levels of pollutants in a given
medium - air, water, soil, - do not exceed specified quantities

• This may be achieved through either legislation or voluntary cooperation

between industry and government, together with public information and
education

• In countries where there is a history of close cooperation between government

and industry and of industrial compliance with government "suggestions", and a
positive public attitude towards environmental quality
• Standards will tend to be applied through voluntary agreements

• In countries that possess a long history of state control of polluting activities

through licensing, and a well developed administrative apparatus for the
supervision of such activities
• Standards will generally set as regulatory options
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5.7.2 Scope and Development of Env Legislation (1/2)

• Statutes and regulations are often drafted initially by technical and legal
experts within government departments

• Over a period of time, two evolutionary trends can be seen:

• Development of more comprehensive laws
• An increasingly creative and forward-looking role of government in environmental
management

• The legislative framework has moved from a responsive role that facilitated
particular decisions towards a guiding role that places decisions regarding
pollution within a wider context of social and economic development.

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Scope and Development of Env Legislation (2/2)

• Legislation in many countries now covers:
• protection and conservation of natural resources essential for survival of people, animals,
and vegetation
• national and international rules and regulations controlling the discharge and distribution of
pollutants and chemical substances
• approaches to planning and other behavioral controls to reduce the impact of man-made
pollution and natural hazards
• the establishment of investigatory bodies to appraise, review, and quantify risks in relation
to associated benefits

• The development of a legal framework comprises two regulatory actions

• The enactment of a formal legal instrument, such as an act, ordinance or decree
• The second is the development of regulations, by-laws, rules, and orders, which may
embody subsidiary legal changes, by the authority designated in the formal legal instrument
• The development of these subsidiary instruments involves the determination and acceptance of a
standard or norm, representing the pollutant level that is considered acceptable for protection of
human health and the environment
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5.7.3 Content and Structure of Regulations

• The format and structure of standards incorporated in legal instruments
vary from country to country. However, any regulation will generally
contain the following:
• A statement of the scope of the legal instrument, together with a definition of the
applicable terms and concepts, specification of the responsible authorities, and of
the parties, areas and substances to whom or to which the instrument will apply
• mention of applicable documents, such as other standards, specifications, and
regulations
• A detailed description of the requirements, including limits on pollutants, applicable
tests, mandatory control methods, reporting requirements, etc.
• where the requirements are to be implemented over a period of time, a timetable will be
included
• A specific statement of the monitoring, reporting, and inspection systems
• A statement describing applicable penalties for contraventions

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5.7.4 Institutional Considerations

• One factor in determining the appropriate decision-making level for environmental
control is the geographical scope of the problem
• whether the contemplated regulations are to be local in operation or applied on a nationwide basis

• Another is the technical expertise of the various decision-making bodies.

• Authorities at the local level may not always possess the necessary knowledge to make decisions that
take into account fully all the technical issues, possibilities, and options involved

• Countries that have special ministries, departments, or agencies with responsibility for
environmental issues should ensure that all relevant sectors are adequately represented
and that all perspectives are taken into account during policy- and decision-making

• Environmental issues cannot be treated in isolation; every effort must be made to take
account of all factors that impinge on environmental problems

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5.7.5 Geographical Dimension of Env Problems

• The jurisdictional scope of an agency competent to make the relevant
decisions may not have the same boundaries as the geographical range of
an environmental problem --> problems within a country and even greater
problems when environmental pollution transcends national boundaries

• The solution to this problem, both within countries and especially in the
international sphere --> depends on the establishment of procedures of
cooperation to ensure that the problem is dealt with in a consistent and
concerted way, after consultation and deliberation with all relevant
agencies, bodies or institutions

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5.7.6 Supporting Measures for Regulatory Strategies

• Environmental Impact Assessment • Information gathering

• Licensing strategy • Administrative supervision and

penalties
• Dissemination of information
• Land-use planning
• Economic incentives or
disincentives • National conservation strategies

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5.8 Consequences of Different Approaches

• For each level of risk and for each • A full list of possible analyses is in
means of control or prevention, the Table:
there will be not only health-
related concerns, but also a range
of economic and social
consequences

• The analyses used should be

designed to provide useful
information on how effectively a
proposal will achieve the desired
result & how the proposal will
affect other sectors of the society
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Components of the Analysis

• Risks and benefits

• Cross-media concerns

• Acceptable risks

• Cost and effectiveness of control measures

• Other types of analysis

• Risk-cost comparison, Industrial impact analysis, Economic impact analysis, Benefit-
cost analysis, Environmental impact analysis
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5.9 Decision-making Process

• Main objectives
• To agree on a goal (or norm) for control of a particular pollutant, that will provide adequate
protection for health
• To establish a suitable regulatory strategy and legislative instrument to achieve this health
goal

• Characteristics of an effective standard-setting process:

• Involve the major parties in the community, such as politicians, bankers, citizen groups,
industrial leaders, and health officials --> lead to some compromises in both goals and
methods, and ensure broad support in the society
• Provide a mechanism for technical and policy analyses can be generated, distributed, and
criticized
• Provide a mechanism whereby the results of analyses can be presented to the policy-
makers and the other centers of interest in the society
• Provide a mechanism for conflicting interests to be heard and discussed in a controlled
manner, so that divergent opinions in the society can be aired and accommodated
• Provide a mechanism whereby the society can reach a decision and take useful action, even
though such action may be less than what is "objectively" ideal

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Constraints Affecting Developing Countries

• There are difficulties in the timely and effective transfer of information on
specific pollutants that will allow national scientists and others to make
evaluations and appropriate recommendations regarding national environmental
issues

• Most of the health-related research information on pollutants is produced in

developed countries with temperate climates and is based on studies of people
with better quality of life
• Until more data from developing countries become available --> safety factors to be used in
standard-setting in these countries

• Very rapid industrialization and urbanization are taking place

• Proceed with very limited planning and without appropriate safeguards
• Exposing large numbers of people to much higher pollution within a short time

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