Environmental problems have come to such dimensions that even children who are new to school are aware that if the environment is not protected, energy resources will be harmed and many opportunities for the earth are exhausted. Everyone has to be conscious and do his part.

The world population is growing at an incredible rate, industrialization is developing more rapidly, unhealthy urbanization is a major threat, nuclear trials have serious problems in their own right, chemicals such as pesticides, artificial fertilizers and detergents both disrupt human health and pollute the environment. Contaminated water, air and soil have reached a level that is harmful to all living things. This pollution narrows the habitats of many living organisms, prevents their proliferation and causes some living species to disappear. In short, the ecological balance of the world is deteriorating. The biggest problem caused by environmental pollution is the deterioration of the ecological balance.

The increasing number of environmental problems and the possibility of reaching more dangerous dimensions in the future has caused some concrete steps by sensitive individuals and organizations. In this context, the first meeting was held in Stockholm by the United Nations Environmental Organization in Stockholm (World Conference on Environmental Issues). This meeting mainly focused on the following topics:

• Care should be taken to protect nature.
• Further deterioration of the ecological balance should be avoided.
• Natural resources should be utilized to the maximum extent and savings measures should be taken.

The issue of environment is discussed in this meeting for the first time. A report was published by the United Nations World Environment and Development Commission under the title of Dünya Our Common Future Daha. The main idea in this report is how sustainable and balanced development is necessary. In the 1978 years our country behind and Environmental Problems of Turkey Prime Ministry Undersecretariat of Environment Foundation was established.

Factors causing environmental pollution can be summarized as follows:

• Urbanization. With industrialization, the need for manpower in factories and large enterprises caused people to migrate from villages to big cities.
• Drinking water sources and access to clean and healthy water. 1980 of the total water consumption up to 40 was met from underground sources. However, this figure has fallen to 1990 in 20. Contamination of groundwater in this decline has a great effect.
• Wastewater management. Wastewater from factories, enterprises and residences affect not only drinking water resources but all water resources. According to a recent study, the percentage of water resources in our country close to 20 is not drinkable in terms of bacteria and chemicals. The percentage 6 is far below the physical quality standards.
• Solid waste management. In our country, the efforts to separate and recover solid wastes at the source are increasing. However, as long as these studies are not disseminated and the capacities of the enterprises doing this work are not increased, the solid wastes left to the nature are a serious threat to the environment.
• Air pollution. In our country, the first cause of air pollution is industrialization. Chimney fumes and toxic gases that are left uncontrolled from the various plants to the atmosphere increase the greenhouse effect and create a series of problems until the temperature of the earth rises. The second serious cause of air pollution is urbanization. Inadequate or incorrectly used heating systems, combustion methods and low fuel quality increase air pollution.
• Soil losses and desertification. 90 of the total soil surface is close to 75 and almost 8 of agricultural areas are under the influence of different sizes of erosion. For this reason only 500 million tons of food is lost in a year and XNUMX million tons of sediment is transported to rivers and seas.

Scope of Environmental Tests

One of the environmental sensitive organizations is the International Standards Organization (ISO). This organization issued ISO 1996 Environmental Management System standards in 14000. Organizations that are sensitive to environmental pollution and attach importance to conservation of natural resources establish and manage this system in their enterprises. The enterprises that have ISO 14000 Environmental Management System certificate have determined the environmental impact of their activities, evaluated the results and completed the works to prevent environmental pollution. These enterprises reduce the use of natural resources during their activities, try to keep the air, soil and water in their activities, not to harm the whole environment, or to keep the damages to the lowest level.

The protection of the environment in our country is the responsibility of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. Several consecutive legal arrangements were made by this ministry. Many of these arrangements are based on European Union directives. Here are a few of them:

• Implementing Regulation on Monitoring Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• Regulation on Waste Management
• Regulation on Control of Vegetable Waste Oils
• Implementing Regulation on Wastewater Collection and Removal Systems
• Regulation on the Protection of Wetlands
• Regulation on the Monitoring of Surface Waters and Groundwater
• Environmental Impact Assessment Regulation
• Implementing Regulation on Transport of Dangerous Goods by Sea
• Medical Waste Control Regulation
• Implementing Regulation on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer
• Regulation on Strategic Environmental Assessment
• Implementing Regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals
• Regulation on Stormwater Collection, Storage and Discharge Systems

There are also many environmental standards published by Turkish Standards Institute. Here are some of the standards that have an important place in the harmonization studies with the European Union and are applied to the environment:

• ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems - Terms and Conditions of Use
• ISO 14004 Environmental Management Systems - General guidance on principles, systems and supporting techniques
• ISO 14020 Environmental labels and declarations - General principles
• ISO 14031 Environmental Management - Environmental performance evaluation - Guide
• ISO 14040 Environmental Management - Lifelong evaluation - Principles and framework
• ISO 19011 Quality and Environmental Management Systems review guide

In accredited testing and inspection institutions, fast, reliable and high quality environmental tests are carried out taking into consideration the legal regulations in force and local and foreign standards.