Evaluation of the existing system for ambient air quality monitoring in the territory of populated areas – ports of the Northern Sea Route

Introduction. The development of the infrastructure of populated areas of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) leads to an increase in the anthropogenic load on the environment of the population and may have a adverse impact on living conditions and the morbidity rate in the population. Despite the increase in cargo handling in the NSR ports, the quality of atmospheric air is systematically monitored only in the largest populated areas - the NSR ports. The choice of priority indicators for monitoring is an important condition for obtaining objective data on the adverse impact of port infrastructure emissions on public health. The purpose of the study. To determine priority indicators of atmospheric air quality under the influence of settlements (ports) of the NSR for the formation of monitoring programs. Materials and methods. Official data from social and hygienic monitoring by Federal Service for Supervision in Protection of the Rights of Consumer and Man Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) in twelve settlements and ports in the Northern Sea Route were used. An electronic database has been created. The analysis was carried out using MS Office Excel. Results. The analysis of monitoring programs showed that over 2021–2024, the quality of atmospheric air was shown to be monitored in the territory of five settlements – ports of the NSR. The most complete list of priority pollutants is established for atmospheric air in the cities of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, the smallest – in the cities of Anadyr and Pevek. All ports of the NSR were found to be characterized by specific pollutants of atmospheric air caused by the transshipment of various cargoes, which dictates the need to take them into account when forming monitoring programs Limitations. The work used the results of laboratory tests of atmospheric air quality conducted by Rospotrebnadzor institutions as part of social and hygienic monitoring, and did not involve data from other organizations. Conclusion. The study showed uneven coverage of atmospheric air quality monitoring in populated areas – ports of the NSR, which made it possible to formulate proposals for inclusion in monitoring programs of priority pollutants, taking into account the specifics of the cargo handled in the ports.