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.
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“The direct effects of pollution on human health affect various systems and organs – explains President Sima, Alessandro Miani -. Pathologies of the cardiovascular system represent the first cause of death in Italy (coronary events and acute myocardial infarction, 9,000 cases/year – cerebral strokes, 12,000 cases/year), followed by pathologies of the respiratory system (7,000 premature deaths/year) . Fine particles and nitrogen oxides are able to worsen oxidative stress and trigger a systemic inflammatory response at the level 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 affect the lung and neurons through inhalation and crossing the blood-brain barrier”. Tumors, including pollution and climate change among the causes by Irma D’Aria 05 February 2024
For this reason, “it is essential and can no longer be postponed to act quickly to drastically reduce the main sources of air pollution emissions – continues Miani -. One of the main causes of smog in our country is represented not by the industrial sector or by private cars, but from private buildings, starting from the heating of homes: it is therefore necessary to change daily habits by rationalizing energy consumption, limiting the times the systems are turned on and lowering the 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 the coating of wall and glass surfaces with a photocatalytic coating which has been shown in scientific studies to be activated by natural light to break down and reduce air pollutants”.
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