(Isac-Cnr) and the Universities of Urbino and Vienna conducted on 16 thousand people in seven EU countries, and published in the Ambio magazine. The sample of citizens was chosen in Italy, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom, considered as representative countries of various socio-economic, political and cultural realities and, as such, of the entire European society. Respondents had five options to choose from: agriculture and livestock, domestic heating, waste, industry, vehicular traffic. The responses were analyzed on the basis of objective data such as age, gender, level of education and type of residence area. "With limited differences between the types of interviewees and citizenship, the two sectors indicated by the interviewees as the main responsible for air pollution were by far industry and vehicle traffic, a wrong perception - explains Sandro Fuzzi of the CNR-Isac - The agricultural and farming are actually the main culprits of ammonia emissions which, once emitted into the air, are transformed into ammonium salt, or the dominant component of PM2.5, the so-called fine dust, responsible for the most serious effects of atmospheric pollution on health " . The study also hypothesized the causes of this false perception of citizens which refer "to the scarce information that science and public authorities provide to the public, to the increase in uncontrolled news on social media which, in turn, cause an increasingly manifest distrust in so-called official science. ". In the specific case, explains the CNR, "the stereotype of the countryside as the ideal place to live and the repository of important social values and traditions assumes importance". The study was conducted as part of the European project Sefira (Socio-Economic implications For Individual Responses to Air pollution policies in Eu + 27). (HANDLE).
Smog, "distorted perception" means industry and traffic
2021-01-19T15:29:29.793Z
(HANDLE) (Isac-Cnr) and the Universities of Urbino and Vienna conducted on 16 thousand people in seven EU countries, and published in the Ambio magazine. The sample of citizens was chosen in Italy, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom, considered as representative countries of various socio-economic, political and cultural realities and, as such, of the entire European society.