Pollution above warning levels according to Cittadini per l'Aria: in 96% of cases NO2 concentrations exceed the limits. “Remove diesel vehicles by 2025”.
A group of volunteers, guided by a lawyer and a researcher, involved 200 Milanese residents in the voluntary sampling of Milan's air quality, to produce what is the first detailed map of NO2 levels in the city. A citizen science project whose published results are as negative as can be. They show, in fact, that the inhabitants of the Milan metropolitan area are daily exposed to atmospheric pollution levels of nitrogen dioxide far exceeding the legal limits.
For an entire month, from 11 February to 11 March 2017, 219 passive samplers measured NO2 levels in the air across various areas of the city, from Niguarda to Certosa, taking in Viale Majno, Via Porpora and Viale Bodio. 96 per cent of the samplers recorded NO2 concentrations above the limit of 40 µg/m3 prescribed by law. Around half of the samplers, precisely 46 per cent, recorded, again on a monthly basis, concentrations of between 50 and 60 µg/m3, while almost a third recorded values of between 60 and 80 µg/m3. Passive sampling is a monitoring technique capable of capturing the pollutant through the molecular diffusion of the substance through the sampler, and does not require the use of an air-intake device. It is therefore an alternative to those used by Arpa, by virtue of their practicality, low cost and the possibility of carrying out simultaneous sampling at many different points, as was done for the "NO2, NO grazie" campaign.
"NO2 is a gaseous pollutant that forms in all combustion processes, and in urban environments the main source is traffic, in particular diesel vehicles," said Maria Grazia Perrone, vice president of the Division of Environmental Chemistry and Cultural Heritage of the Italian Chemical Society, who spoke at the press conference. "The problem of atmospheric pollution is complex, but in recent years several research projects have been funded to study and understand it, in Milan and in northern Italy more broadly, where the situation is particularly critical. The results of the research have made it possible to reach a thorough understanding of the phenomenon and its causes, thereby providing the knowledge base needed to take the necessary measures. In the Milan urban area, interventions on traffic are among the most important steps towards an urgent solution to the problem."
"Our project demonstrates that the Milan metropolitan area is in breach of the law and must change course. Children are the first to suffer the consequences of NO2 concentrations, which have been linked to damage to the development of cognitive functions," Anna Gerometta, president of Cittadini per l'Aria, told LifeGate. "A generation held hostage by the absence of serious policies. We have a letter that everyone can write to the Mayor from our website. Now it is up to citizens to mobilise to truly bring about change." The association has put forward four specific demands in particular: the establishment of a LEZ (Low Emission Zone) that, gradually, from 2018 to 2025, would reduce and ultimately eliminate the presence of diesel vehicles in the Milan metropolitan area. The data are clear; a response from the city administration of the Lombard capital is now awaited.