Smog: 35 cities outlawed for fine dust in 2020

In 2020, 35 provincial capitals were outlawed for fine dust PM10 with Turin black jersey for 98 days of exceeding the daily limits (40 micrograms per cubic meter for 35 days a year according to European legislation), followed by Venice (88) and Padua (84).

In the center-south the primacy goes to Avellino (78) and Frosinone (77).

This emerges from the annual report "Mal'aria di città 2021" by Legambiente according to which "the comparison with WHO parameters, more stringent than the European ones (20 µg / mc) is also worrying: 60 outlaw cities with the primacy always in Turin followed from Milan, Padua and Rovigo, Avellino and Frosinone.

Despite the months of lockdown and the spread of smart working, according to the Legambiente report, in 2020 "in Rome and Milan what will be the new annual average value suggested by the WHO for nitrogen dioxide (NO2), that is 20 micrograms per cubic meter (μg / m3). As regards the focus on "Rome and Milan Clean Cities", in the capital last year the average annual value of NO2 was 34 μg / m3, while in Milan it was 39 μg / m3. Legambiente also points out that "cars are the main source of pollution in cities and that the illegal emissions of diesel cars continue to cause an increase in mortality", as also emerged from a recent study that "is part of the broader cross-border initiative on urban traffic pollution Clean Air For Health which estimates for the first time ever the share of pollution in Milan attributable to emissions from diesel cars that exceed, in real use, the limits set in the tests of

marketing laboratory ".

In particular, in the Lombard capital it is precisely the diesel vehicles "Euro4" and "Euro5" that cause most of the NO2 pollution: about 30% in 2018. For this reason Legambiente asks immediately, as had been foreseen in the agreement between the government and the regions of the Po Valley, the blocking of the circulation of diesel "Euro4" and petrol cars "Euro1" and by 2025 the extension of the total annual block also to the diesel "Euro5" and so on. 

Even in times of pandemic, for Legambiente, in Italy "the smog emergency does not stop and becomes increasingly chronic", notes Legambiente, specifying that the country "is behind on the actions to be taken to reduce air pollution. Enough. exceptions, therefore, more courageous and concrete measures are needed starting from sustainable mobility and use of public space to have more clean cities, clean and more liveable cities. Do not waste the economic resources coming from Europe ", warns the environmental association .

Recalling that every year in Italy, according to data from the European Environment Agency (EEA), there are over 50 thousand premature deaths due to excessive exposure to air pollutants with costs of several tens of billions per year (estimated between 47 and 142 billion euros) between health and work days lost, Legambiente explains that it has analyzed 96 provincial capitals and that 35 have exceeded at least with a control unit the limit set for fine dust (PM10), i.e. the threshold of 35 days in the calendar year with a daily average greater than 50 micrograms / cubic meter.

In the top ten of the most polluted cities there are also Rovigo (83 days), Treviso (80), Milan (79), Avellino and Cremona (78) Frosinone (77), Modena and Vicenza (75).

According to the WHO parameters (lowered to 20, considering that it can reduce mortality in polluted cities by 15% per year), Turin is followed by Milan, Padua, Rovigo, Venice, Treviso, Cremona, Lodi, Vicenza, Modena, Verona and going down the Avellino Peninsula, Frosinone, Terni, Naples, Rome, Genoa and Ancona, Bari and Catania.

Legambiente criticizes "the lack of ambition of national and regional plans and program agreements" of recent years to get out of the grip of pollution "which have been promptly evaded and circumvented locally in order not to have to take unpopular decisions".

The most urgent initiatives, according to the environmental association, concern sustainable mobility and the use of public space and the road, which must be integrated with measures in the heating and agriculture sectors to bring immediate and lasting benefits.

On the occasion of the presentation of the "Mal'aria" report, Legambiente launches an online petition - https://attivati.legambiente.it/malaria - in which it summarizes the requests for more liveable and clean cities and a social mobilization with which it asks all people to take a selfie in the foreground with a white mask, on which to write the claim #noallosmog.