The data coming from air-quality monitoring stations are alarming, with Italy claiming the record of the nation with the highest number of deaths from nitrogen dioxide in Europe.
Italy is the nation with the highest number of premature deaths from nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in Europe, and it also belongs to the group of countries that exceed the legal limits for the main air pollutants. This is what the new air quality report 2010–2017 from the European Environment Agency (EEA), published on 16 October, states.
Two million Italians live in areas where European limits for the three main pollutants — nitrogen dioxide, ozone and particulate matter, such as PM2.5 and PM10 — are systematically violated.
The data were collected over seven years, from 2010 to 2017, and come from anti-smog monitoring stations located throughout the country. The figures indicate the Po Valley as the most polluted area, with Turin contending over the years for the title of most polluted city in Europe with London and Paris, and Padua, where particulate matter levels above the limits have been recorded. The situation is also serious in rural areas across the country, where daily particulate limit exceedances were detected at 16 of the 27 monitoring stations analysed.
The figures in the report place Italy as the leading European nation for deaths from nitrogen dioxide (14,600), from ozone (3,000) and as second for deaths from fine particulate matter (58,600). The recorded data nonetheless represent an improvement compared to 2015, when 20,000 deaths from nitrogen dioxide had been counted.
Every year, more than 370,000 deaths are recorded in Europe as a result of inhaling pollutants emitted by the transport industry, the energy sector, waste disposal, agriculture and heating services.
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The 2017 data on particulate matter showed the highest concentrations in Italy, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Greenpeace described them as "alarming data that demand reflection, given that they are directly linked to the climate crisis being so widely discussed at this time."
Italy, like many other nations, has passed a Climate Decree that was presented by Environment Minister Sergio Costa as "the first legislative act of the new government to inaugurate the Green New Deal". The associations have, however, described it as unsatisfactory because it contains no references to fossil fuels.
"A national plan against pollution is needed that reduces private motorised traffic, invests in sustainable urban mobility, strengthens local public transport and reduces agricultural, energy and industrial emissions," declared Stefano Ciafani, national president of Legambiente.
In light of the data presented in the air quality report, it is important to understand, at a regulatory level too, the profound connection between pollution and global warming. Working towards cities with less smog means focusing, for example, on sustainable heating and mobility sources that automatically contribute to combating global warming as well.
