Italy is the first country in Europe for deaths attributable to air pollution with around 80 thousand premature deaths per year: "to effectively combat the smog that grips cities it is necessary to change the daily habits of the population, starting from private buildings".
The Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (Sima) stated this in a note, commenting on the smog data recorded in Milan and throughout the Po Valley.
"The direct effects of pollution on human health affect various systems and organs - explains the president of Sima, Alessandro Miani -. Pathologies of the cardiovascular system represent the leading cause of death in Italy (coronary events and acute myocardial infarction, 9,000 cases/ year - cerebral strokes, 12,000 cases/year), followed by respiratory system pathologies (7,000 premature deaths/year). Fine particles and nitrogen oxides are able to worsen oxidative stress and trigger a systemic inflammatory response at of the vascular system, causing atherosclerosis and endothelial dysfunction, greater platelet aggregation, thus resulting in ischemic heart disease.
But the inflammatory effects of particulate matter also occur on the lung and on neurons through inhalation and crossing the blood-brain barrier". For this reason, "it is essential and can no longer be postponed to act quickly to drastically reduce the main sources of emissions of air pollution - he continues Miani -.
One of the main causes of smog in our country is represented not by the industrial sector or private cars, but by private buildings, starting from home heating: it is therefore necessary to change daily habits by rationalizing energy consumption, limiting the times the systems are turned on and lowering temperatures in the home.
Like Sima, we have proposed to the Government to mitigate the harmful effects of smog starting from urban buildings, through incentives aimed at facilitating interventions to cover wall and glass surfaces with a photocatalytic coating which has demonstrated in scientific studies to be activated by natural light to perform a action of breaking down and reducing air pollutants".
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