The Piacenza
How clean is the air in your city? To the question, in this case rhetorical, they answer the interactive map and ranking (under) updated fromEuropean Environment Agency (Eea), where Piacenza appears in 357th place out of 375 urban centers on the continent.
The picture does not outline particular differences from what was observed in the previous update: the monitoring was extended to a greater number of urban centers – from 323 to 375 – but the non-virtuous position of Piacenza holds up: from the then 307th place and then to the 17th for the high levels of pollution in the atmosphere, to the current 357th, equal to the 19th. In fact, the ranking order sees the city with the worst air in last position; which is equivalent, for our capital, to a renewed one presence among the twenty most polluted cities in Europe. Surpassed, as in 2021, by the fourth position of the neighbor Cremona: da 322 esima su 323, a 372 esima su 375.
The measurement term under consideration is the average concentration level of fine particulate matter (Pm2.5) over the last two calendar years (2021-2022), acquired through the over 400 monitoring stations present in the territories. Exposure to Pm2.5, emphasizes the EEA, is linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and reduced lung function. It represents “the air pollutant with the highest impact on health in terms of premature death and disease”.
Piacenza for air quality gets the orange dot (“poor”) – 20.5 μg/m 3 – associated with PM 2.5 levels higher than 15 and not higher than 25 μg/m 3. Values far from the green dot, which indicates cities below the annual guide value – 5 μg/m 3 – outlined byWorld Health Organization. Numerous other Italian cities are present at the bottom of the ranking: worse than Piacenza there are – in addition to Cremona – Padua, Vicenza, Venice, Brescia and, to close the last twenty, Bergamo.