The air quality of Italian cities is among the worst in all of Europe

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 only 13 European cities had "average concentrations of fine particulate matter below the World Health Organization (WHO) health-based guidance level of 5 micrograms per cubic meter of air (5 μg/m3)".For this reason, they have been included in the category of urban centers with "good" air quality.Eleven of these 13 cities are located in Northern European states (Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Estonia, which also see their capitals in the list, and Norway), while the remaining two are in Portugal.Then, moving downwards, there is the category of cities with "fair" air quality (between 5 μg/m3 and 10 μg/m3), which includes a total of 169 cities, including the five aforementioned Italian urban centers .The number of Italian cities present in the group is growing enormously centers with “moderate” air quality (between 10 μg/m3 – 15 μg/m3):there are 29 and, among these, there are also Rome, Genoa, Salerno, Perugia, Florence, Palermo, Naples, Bologna, Trento, Catania and Ragusa.Even more critical is the situation of the 71 European cities where the air quality is “poor” (15 μg/m3 – 25 μg/m3), among which we find 27 Italian locations.According to the ranking, the worst cases are those of Cremona (23.3 μg/m3), Vicenza (23 μg/m3), Padua (22.7 μg/m3), Venice (22.6 μg/m3) and Piacenza ( 22.2 μg/m3).The group also includes, among other centres, Turin, Milan, Brescia, Bergamo, Verona, Treviso, Reggio Emilia, Parma and Ravenna.

From the latest health assessment presented by the European Environment Agency (EEA) at the end of 2023 it is emerged that failure to comply with the recommended limits in the concentration of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) in the air has caused, within 2021 alone, well 253 thousand deaths on the European continent.In fact, the report states that, although the number of deaths attributable to fine particulate matter has decreased by 41% in the last 18 years, the concentration of smog in the air is still the main environmental health risk for all those European citizens who live in urban areas.Seen from Italy, the news sounds even more alarming, since, as the data shows, almost one death from PM 2.5 in five occurs in our country.According to estimates, in fact, exposure to fine particulate matter would have killed almost 47 thousand Italians.Among air pollution-related diseases, the "disease burden" related to exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is caused by ischemic heart disease, followed by stroke, diabetes mellitus, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and asthma.

[by Stefano Baudino]