Pollution and fine particles, Cagliari among the ten Italian cities with the worst air quality

Cagliari is also among the top ten Italian cities with a greater presence of PM10 fine particles in the air . This is confirmed by Legambiente 's "Mal'Aria di città 2024" report on air pollution in Italian cities.

The report, drawn up as part of the Clean Cities Campaign, a European coalition of NGOs and civil society organizations, recalls that the regulatory limits for PM10 exceedances are 35 days a year with a daily average exceeding 50 micrograms/cubic meter . And if the 2023 data show an improvement compared to the previous year, with the cities that exceeded the daily limits of PM10 fine particles rising to 18 (out of 98 monitored) from 29 in 2022 and 31 in 2021, some critical issues still remain .
In fact, what is worrying is the comparison with the new targets for 2030: 69% of cities would be outlawed for PM10 (set at 20 µg/m3 for 2030), 84% for PM2.5 (set at 10 µg/m3 for 2030) and 50% for No2. If 2030 were already here, says Legambiente, the most critical situations for PM10 would therefore be in Padua, Verona and Vicenza (32 µg/m3), followed by Cremona and Venice (31) and by Cagliari , Brescia, Mantua, Rovigo, Turin and Treviso (30).

Similar situation also for PM2.5 , with the highest values in Padua (24 µg/m3) and in Cagliari an average annual figure of 13 µg/m3 . Legambiente's indication is clear: the current concentration, in percentage, should decrease in the Sardinian capital by 33% for PM10 and 23% for PM2.5 to reach the regulatory values that will come into force from 2030 .

Pollution data are decidedly lower, however, in Sassari , where the average annual values for 2023 stood at 20 µg/m3 for PM10 and 6 µg/m3 for PM2.5, therefore already in line with the 2030 objectives.

« Citizens' health is at risk » notes Legambiente recalling that «in Italy there are 47,000 premature deaths per year due to PM2.5» for which «Government, Regions and Municipalities must accelerate. To obtain clean air, we must immediately rethink urban mobility, implementing low and zero emission zones, redesigning urban public space with cities at 30 km/h and school streets, investing massively in local public transport, in the expansion of cycle-pedestrian networks and in the electrification of all vehicles." For the NGO, "it is essential to act synergistically also on other sources of pollution, such as domestic heating and agriculture".

(Unioneonline/vl)