Lombardy is fully in the red zone: for the coronavirus containment measures, and for smog that has risen well above warning levels.
An air quality index (Iqa) of 183, with 117 micrograms per cubic metre of PM2.5 in the atmosphere. By throwing open their windows on the morning of 20 January, Milan's residents welcomed into their homes a quantity of smog that far exceeds warning levels. To put it in context, the Iqa (calculated on the basis of the most widespread pollutants) is considered "poor" already above a value of 100. There is no daily limit for PM2.5, but the average annual concentration should remain below 25 microg/m3.
In a striking coincidence, Sunday 17 January Lombardy returned to the red zone in every sense. For the containment measures relating to coronavirus, and for the smog peaks reached in Milan after an up-and-down start to the year. The negative record so far was set on 18 January with an Iqa of 196. The following day Milan shared with Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Delhi (India) the podium of the world's most polluted cities.
Anyone hoping to find relief in the countryside will, unfortunately, be disappointed. Legambiente points this out, highlighting the apparently paradoxical fact that in the first half of January, before the surge of recent days, the air in Milan was cleaner than the air breathed in smaller towns. In the first 19 days of 2021, the monitoring stations in the Lombard capital recorded average PM10 levels of 37 micrograms per cubic metre, exceeding the safety threshold of 50 on four days. Things went much worse in Cremona, with 45 microg/m3 and 7 days above the limit, Crema and Soresina, both with 8 days above the limits and averages of 45 and 46 microg/m3 respectively. The wooden spoon goes to Codogno, which between 1 and 19 January breached the safety threshold for no fewer than 11 days, with an average of 54 microg/m3 of particulate matter monitored by the Arpa station.
How is it possible that the countryside is in the grip of smog even more than the major cities? The main suspects are livestock farms. Agricultural and livestock supply chains release ammonia into the atmosphere, which, combining with the nitrogen oxides (NOx) produced by car and lorry engines, is converted into ammonium salt. The latter is nothing other than one of the main components of fine particulate matter, so harmful to human health. This is explained by Sandro Fuzzi, a researcher at the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of the National Research Council (Cnr-Isac).
Cnr-Isac itself, together with the universities of Urbino and Vienna, has just published in the scientific journal Ambio the results of a survey conducted with 16,000 people in Italy, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. With no great discrepancy from one country to another, industry and traffic are unanimously identified as the main causes of air pollution. This "demonstrates a marked underestimation of the contribution of the agri-food sector." A "false perception" that stems from a mix of factors: scant official information disseminated by public authorities, unverified news circulating non-stop on social media, and an evident distrust of science. Also at play is the stereotype of the countryside as an ideal place to live, still alive despite having been overtaken by the facts.
"If one considers that the Lombard lowlands concentrate 51 per cent of all pigs and almost 25 per cent of the cattle reared across the country, it is plain to see why, in winter, pollution levels are often worse in agricultural centres than in the Lombard metropolis," says Damiano Di Simine, scientific coordinator of Legambiente Lombardia. The environmental organisation points the finger at a measure by the Lombardy region that allows farmers to empty slurry tanks into the fields. Although the ministerial decree prohibits this practice continuously throughout December and January, the region has reduced this window to the period 15 December–15 January, spreading the remaining restricted days across the rest of the year. "Allowing slurry to be spread in the middle of winter is tantamount to undermining the anti-smog measures adopted in cities," denounces Barbara Meggetto, president of Legambiente Lombardia Barbara Meggetto.
