Verification of the Standard

It is important to verify and validate environmental quality standards for several reasons. Validation is an important aspect of cost-benefit analyses. Although it is well accepted that validation exercises can be cumbersome, there is a need for validation to establish a societal feeling of confidence and trust. Costly and important decisions should be founded on real risks and violation of real protection levels rather than on hypothetical ones. If the validation process shows a lack of validity, measures should be taken to 

Validation applies to all standards, from no-risk standards, to trigger standards, to action standards. Standards differ in uncertainty, and this may influence the extent to which they can be validated. As SQSs are part of a tiered approach for decision making, the need for validation applies to all tiers. 

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