(ANSA) - MILAN, 12 JAN - Despite the long period of lockdown, the air in Lombardy has not improved.
This is confirmed by the usual survey of air quality carried out by the ARPA, presented today at Palazzo Lombardia by the regional councilor for the environment Raffaele Cattaneo and by the president of the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection, StefanoCecchin.
The data shows that, for the third consecutive year, in 2020 Lombardy has respected the limits as regards PM10, even if there has been a slight and unexpected worsening of the annual average and an increase in the days of exceeding the limit.
On the other hand, things have improved a lot with regard to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which has dropped significantly compared to the previous detection due to the lockdown effect. The first days of this 2021 have instead gone quite well, especially thanks to the good weather conditions, so much so that since the beginning of the year there has been only one day of crossing the threshold, New Year. "Given the lockdown, we expected a net improvement in air quality - commented Councilor Cattaneo -, but this was not the case. This means that the correlation between traffic and air quality is not so evident" (ANSA).