Pollution in the Po Valley: the most unhealthy air in Europe

According to the report about air quality in 2018 by the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen (EEA), in Europe 3.9 million people live in areas where the limits of the pollutants in the air are constantly exceeded. Among these, the 95% live in the North of Italy.

Especially because of the critical situation in the Po Valley, Italy is at the first place in Europe as regards the number of deaths caused by nitrogen dioxide (20.500 victims) and ozone (3.200) and at second place (after Germany) as regards deaths due to Pm2.5 pollutant (60.600).

In 2015 in Italy the exposure to particulate caused the premature death of 422.000 people. Beyond the indirect damages due to compromised resources and ecosystems, data highlight how particulate, tropospheric ozone and nitrogen dioxide reduce life expectancy, cause or worse respiratory problems, facilitate cardiovascular issues and different types of cancer.

A silent epidemic that is developing and that does not spare children. The “Air pollution and child health: prescribing clean air” report, write by World Health Organization (WHO) for the first Global Conference about air pollutant and health (November 2018), is clear and unavoidable: 93% of children under 15 y.o. is exposed to particulates levels higher than those expected by guide lines about air quality. The WHO estimates that in 2016 600.000 children died due to respiratory infections caused by venoms in the air and also in this case, Italy distinguished itself negatively, with 98% of the children exposed to too high levels of particulates.

Industrial processes that degrades air quality are those connected to combustion, responsible of different type of damaging emissions, including carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and Pm. There are other critical processes in the industry and handcraft sector and emitted pollutant are many (solvents, acidic mists, metal dust...). In the industrial field, emissions are highly supervised and because of this, industries have to equip with filtration systems that change according to pollutant type.

Tama Aernova includes in its range of products many solutions that aims to reduce the damaging effects caused by different industrial processes. The continuous research of solutions to the variable needs of the market, allows Tama Aernova developing innovative filtration systems.