The level of atmospheric pollution in Italy remains dangerously high. This was revealed by the first report on quality of the air presented by the National System for the Protection of the Environment (SNPA).
SNPA, active since 2016, includes all the ARPAs, the regional agencies dedicated to the topic, the APPAs, the provincial agencies of the autonomous statute regions and the ISPRA, the Higher Institute for the Protection and Environmental Research, operating both in terms of interventions in defense of the precious public good and in the context of the study of data and trends that regulate the environment in Italy.
Among the data of greatest concern is the constant exceeding of the limit value of PM10, the particulate material with a size of less than 10 micrometers, the main polluting factor in large urban areas. Despite an overall reduction of about 20% in the decade 2010-2019, in 2019 alone the value imposed by the European Union has been passed 22% of the time in at least 111 survey stations. 89% of these exceedances occurred in the Po valley. In addition to environmental damage, exceeding it causes economic damage: Italy, in fact, has often been sentenced by the European Court of Justice to pay large fines.
A second negative element is the progressive exceeding of the concentration limit of NO2, nitrogen dioxide. A fact that has dire consequences with respect to ozone. The report found that the long-term goal is been missed in 296 out of 322 survey stations.
Finally, an interesting food for thought emerges from the hypothetical scenario in which the conditions determined during the lockdown of March-April 2020 would occur in Italy for at least twelve consecutive months. The report data is sensational: we would have 35% less than NO2 and 10% less PM10.
Consult the report "Quality of the air in Italy. 2020 Edition"