Moscow’s ambient air quality is controlled in accordance with the adopted Russian standards and under methodological guidelines by the RF Ministry of Health. The monitoring includes testing for 27 ingredients which, in addition to common pollutants, include a number of specific admixtures that arise from motor transport emissions, heat-and-power stations and other industries.

Motor transport is a major contributor to the ambient air pollution in Moscow, currently accounting for over 80% of the total harmful emissions. Nevertheless, in 2000-03, Moscow managed to curb the growth rate of the pollution despite the 2-3-fold increase in motor car fleet and freight traffic, and even to improve air quality measurements.

The Moscow automatic air quality control system meets the EU requirements in terms of the number of automatic air quality control posts, principles of their deployment, methods and frequency of measuring. The pollutants measured include those of the priority group recommended for monitoring by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The Moscow City Government guarantees the proper ambient air quality in the city during the whole period of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The daily average measures (for July - August, 2000-04) of major pollutants in the city’s ambient air are given in the table below with reference to respective maximal tolerance concentrations (MTCs) effective in the Russian Federation:

Agent	Average (mg/m3)	MTCs (mg/m3)	Testing method
Carbon monoxide	1.3	3.0	Electrochemistry
Nitrogen dioxide	0.04	0.04	Chemiluminescence, DOAS
Ozone	0.03	0.03	UV-fluorescence, DOAS
Formaldehyde	0.003	0.003	DOAS
Sulphur dioxide	0.007	0.05	UV-fluorescence, DOAS
Ammonia	0.02	0.04	Chemiluminescence
Benzol	0.006	0.1	DOAS
Toluene	0.015	-	DOAS
Xylene	0.005	-	DOAS
Phenol	0.001	0.003	DOAS
Aggregated carbon-hydrogens	1.4	-	Gas chromatographic
PM10	0.04	-	Gravimetric

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