Contemporary trends in harmonization of legal grounds for providing safety of environmental chemical contaminaiton for human health

Regulatory documents on environmental protection adopted in Russia and abroad often contradict each other as regards terms and requirements. It is even more so in case of subordinate legislation in Russia which often doesn't fully conform to international requirements and is not sufficient when it comes to legal protection of people and the environment from sources of chemical threats. Our research goal was to compare international and Russian documents on environment protection and validate our suggestions on their harmonization. Such a concept as a "target" is not a quantitative characteristic for those threats for health which are caused by contamination with chemicals. The MPC validating system existing in Russia as well as types of standards accepted in the country are not in full conformity with international practices. Abroad there are no MPCs for water objects used for fishery. In Russia, the Federal Law issued on January 01, 2002 No. 7-FL "On environmental protection" contains a term "standards for the quality of the environment"; however, such standards don't exist, and there are no techniques for their development either in Russia or abroad. But still, it is vital to give grounds for ecological-hygienic standards allowing for a lifecycle of chemicals. The greatest discrepancies occur in lists of chemicals which are subject to control in various environmental objects; these lists are to be adjusted significantly in order to create a unified document on control with recommendations on choice of priority indexes. International regulatory documents recommend a system of the best available technologies (BAT) as a way to reduce chemicals emissions into the environment. And they also state that in case it is impossible to meet safety requirements even with BAT application, then any permission to emit and discharge should contain a program on emissions reduction in future. However, there is no such requirement in Russian legislation; that is, MPC is replaced with technologies for emissions reduction. Therefore, it is necessary to work out a unified consistent system of laws and subordinate legislation on providing health safety and protection from chemical contamination of the environment.