The cities of the Emilia-Romagna region are not only gripped by the anomalous heat, but are endangered by an invisible threat: ground-level ozone. This secondary pollutant can cause serious damage to health, irritating effects on the ocular mucous membranes and the upper airways, cough, bronchostructive phenomena and impaired respiratory function. To date, 23 of the 34 Arpae control units present in the area have exceeded the threshold permitted by law for the annual overruns of tropospheric ozone, set with a target value of 120 µg / m3 on the 8-hour moving average, in a framework that tinges all the provinces in the region.
Below is the table with the data relating to ozone, updated on 20 July ’22, representative of the control units with greater overruns in each province (Arpae data).
Although in the last two years to this date the situation was much better (with 6 and 11 stations overrun in 2020 and 2021 respectively), this year the situation becomes serious again, demonstrating that this serious problem cannot be considered resolved. The alternation between exposure to fine dust in winter and ozone in summer creates an unsustainable framework for citizens’ lives, particularly in places where emissions are concentrated, such as cities.
We must not overlook the pressure of the incidence of diseases linked to pollutants on the health system, already under pressure due to the covid emergency. Globally, WHO estimates that 24% of deaths are caused by exposure to pollutants and that 91% of the population lives in conditions
healthy unhealthy due to pollutants. In this context, Italy has the sad distinction of being among the most polluted countries in Europe: it ranks second for deaths related to ozone exposure, with 3170 premature deaths in just one year.
“The picture that is emerging cannot be taken lightly and must dictate the line for political action.” – comments the association, “tropospheric ozone is the symptom of a system that is still too dependent on the use of fossil fuels, starting with the transport system based on individual mobility by car and road freight transport.”
“Although electrification is a fundamental process to mitigate the serious damage to health caused by this pollutant, what is needed is a real cultural transformation to accompany us towards the exit of the private vehicle tout court. This must be accompanied by a coherent political intervention that provides the cognitive and economic tools to make the ecological transition concrete. ” – He concludes.
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