Milan, Padua, Venice, Brescia and Turin: five Italians dominate the EU top ten of cities where air pollution has the highest per capita cost.
This is the figure that emerges from the latest report of the European Alliance for Public Health (EPHA), which quantifies the monetary value of premature death, medical treatment, lost working days and other health costs caused by the three most dangerous air pollutants: particulate matter, ozone and nitrogen dioxide.
Air pollution costs Italians an average of € 1,535 per person per year, the NGO study underlines, compared to an average of € 1,095 for the 432 cities examined in 2018.
First the Milanese (second in Europe only to the inhabitants of Bucharest), to whom the impact of smog costs over 2,800 euros a year, followed by the Paduans (third in the standings) with 2,500 euros, the Venetians (sixth), the Brescia ( seventh) and the Turinese (noni) at around 2,100.
Alongside the Italians, the inhabitants of the eastern capitals, starting from Bucharest (3000 euros per capita), are also paying the highest price for pollution in the EU.
Then Warsaw (2,433 euros per capita), Bratislava (2,168), Sofia (2,084).
Monaco is also in tenth place with 1,984 euros.
Other Italian cities follow further down in the ranking: Parma, Verona, Bergamo, Cremona and Pavia, where the cost is around 1,800 euros per capita.
Among the trends highlighted by the researchers, who also examined cities in the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland, it appears that the inhabitants of large and expensive cities tend to suffer a higher impact due primarily to population density.
A result also confirmed by the European Environment Agency, which reports that air pollution is the leading cause of premature death from environmental factors in Europe (about 400 thousand a year) and the problem is greater in urban centers, where two thirds of Europeans.
In fact, most cities break the WHO clean air standards.
The main culprits are transport, whose pollution has come to cost between 67 and 80 billion euros in 2016 alone for the Member States.
Suffice it to say that a 1% increase in the number of cars in a city raises overall costs by almost 0.5%.
The Alpha therefore calls for government policies aimed at replacing fossil fueled means of transport with more sustainable alternatives, including electric mobility.
To finance them, the Alliance recalls, it will be essential to take advantage of the EU funds put in place for the crisis linked to Covid.
(HANDLE).