environment

Italian cities are among the most polluted in Europe.The new indicator of air quality in European cities, published in recent days by the European Environment Agency (EEA), which examined the average levels of fine particulate matter ( PM2.5) in 372 urban centers with over 50 thousand inhabitants of the European continent.What emerges is that only 5 Italian cities - namely Sassari (6.2 μg/m3), Livorno (7.8 μg/m3), Savona (9.2 μg/m3), Battipaglia (9.6 μg/m3) , Syracuse (9.7 μg/m3) - present a "fair" air quality, while for 29 centers it is "moderate" and, for another 27, "poor".The Italian city that turned out to be the most polluted is that of Cremona, with 23.3 μg/m3, followed by Vicenza (23 μg/m3) and Padua (22.7 μg/m3). Specifically, the research – carried out thanks to the collection of data from 500 monitoring stations within the EEA member countries in the months of 2022 and 2023 - highlighted how onl...

In Los Alamos, New Mexico, the plants and water of numerous recreational spots would contaminated by "extreme concentrations" of plutonium:this is what independent analyzes report from the team of Professor Michael Ketterer, a scientist from Northern Arizona University, who declared that he had detected the highest levels of plutonium he had ever seen in an area accessible to the public during his ten-year career in the sector , and that such levels would even be comparable to those found in Chernobyl, the site of the Ukrainian nuclear disaster.All this after the US Senate passed a law for those who have been exposed to radioactive waste, which, however, would not apply to the citizens of Los Alamos.On the other hand, the Department of Energy (DOE) stated that the levels are "very low and well below the safe exposure range", although the scientist reiterated that the environmental risk is still concerning. The Dr.Michael Ketterer, professor emeritus of chemistry and...

In all the regions of Italy where surveys have been carried out to search for PFAS, perfluoroalkyl substances produced by industries and associated with numerous pathologies, they have been found.This is what emerges from the results of a recent report published by Greenpeace, entitled "PFAS contamination in Italy", which recorded the presence of PFAS in the waterways of 16 Italian regions, all those in which research has been carried out.The investigation was carried out using ISPRA data, whose database hosts the results of the analyzes carried out by the regional ARPAs and autonomous provinces in Italy in the period between 2019 and 2022 on the presence of PFAS in water bodies, i.e. rivers, lakes and groundwater.According to these statistics, PFAS contamination is present in 17% of test results. The percentage of positive values ​​for PFAS varies depending on the region being examined, as well as the accuracy of the surveys carried out by the relevant bodies.Spe...

According to a new study published in Nature, the loss of biodiversity is the main environmental cause of infectious disease epidemics, which become more dangerous and widespread.In what is called a 'meta-analysis' in technical jargon, the researchers found that of all the 'factors of global change', species loss was the most important in increasing the risk of epidemics.Climate change follows, chemical pollution and the introduction of non-native species.Urbanization was instead associated with a decrease in risk, this is because urban areas tend to host fewer wild animals and to have better sanitation infrastructures compared to rural environments.The experts they analyzed 2,938 observations of infectious disease responses to drivers of global change in 1,497 host-parasite combinations, covering every continent except Antarctica. Interest in zoonoses, diseases caused by agents transmitted directly or indirectly from other animals to humans, has increased after the Covid19 pand...

Some scientists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), in collaboration with local farmers, are promoting a program to restore the chinampas in the Xochimilco wetland, south of Mexico City.The chinampas are delicious small artificial islands created by the Aztecs, a sort of floating farms that play a fundamental role in the identity of Xochimilco, an area of ​​lakes and swamps that has survived urbanization and the expansion of industrial agriculture.The objective of the initiative is to preserve the chinampas system and all living beings that depend on it.A system which, in 1987, was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO precisely because of its cultural importance and ecological value. The chinampas, once used only to grow vegetables and leafy greens, are now largely abandoned or transformed into, for example, football fields and restaurants.In 2018, FAO data revealed that only 17% of the 20,922 chinampas it was still cultivated in the traditional wa...