Standards, Environmental

This article aims to describe the past, present and future techniques by which environmental standards are set. Recent concern regarding the lack of acknowledgment of uncertainty and variability in many standards, and thus in reported results on compliance, has lead to an emphasis on the role of statistical methodology in environmental standard‐setting. Research into the feasibility, advantages and disadvantages of such methodology is on going, but much remains to be done. Encompassing within its line of investigation toxicology, environmental sampling methodology and spatio‐temporal modeling, etc. and affecting the fundamental procedures of industry, traffic management, medical and environmental agencies, etc., to name just a few of many, this area of the rapidly growing field of environmetrics may prove to be one of the most far‐reaching and important statistical applications in the coming years.