| Title | Impacts of air pollution on human and ecosystem health, and implications for the National Emission Ceilings Directive: Insights from Italy |
| Abstract | Across the 28 EU member states there were nearly half a million premature deaths in 2015 as a result of exposure to PM2.5, O-3 and NO2. To set the target for air quality levels and avoid negative impacts for human and ecosystems health, the National Emission Ceilings Directive (NECD, 2016/2284/EU) sets objectives for emission reduction for SO2, NOx, NMVOCs, NH3 and PM2.5 for each Member State as percentages of reduction to be reached in 2020 and 2030 compared to the emission levels into 2005. One of the innovations of NECD is Article 9, that mentions the issue of "monitoring air pollution impacts" on ecosystems. We provide a clear picture of what is available in term of monitoring network for air pollution impacts on Italian ecosystems, summarizing what has been done to control air pollution and its effects on different ecosystems in Italy. We provide an overview of the impacts of air pollution on health of the Italian population and evaluate opportunities and implementation of Article 9 in the Italian context, as a case study beneficial for all Member States. The results showed that SO42- deposition strongly decreased in all monitoring sites in Italy over the period 1999-2017, while NO3- and NH4+ decreased more slightly. As a consequence, most of the acid-sensitive sites which underwent acidification in the 1980s partially recovered. The O-3 concentration at forest sites showed a decreasing trend. Consequently, AOT40 (the metric identified to protect vegetation from ozone pollution) showed a decrease, even if values were still above the limit for forest protection (5000 ppb h(-1)), while PODy (flux-based metric under discussion as new European legislative standard for forest protection) showed an increase. National scale studies pointed out that PM10 and NO2 induced about 58,000 premature deaths (year 2005), due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The network identified for Italy contains a good number of monitoring sites (6 for terrestrial ecosystem monitoring, 4 for water bodies monitoring and 11 for ozone impact monitoring) distributed over the territory and will produce a high number of monitored parameters for the implementation of the NECD. |
| Source | Environment international 125, pp. 320–333 |
| Keywords | National Emission Ceilings DirectiveAir pollution impactsClimate changeTerrestrial ecosystemFreshwater ecosystemHuman health |
| Journal | Environment international |
| Editor | Pergamon., New York, Stati Uniti d'America |
| Year | 2019 |
| Type | Articolo in rivista |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.envint.2019.01.064 |
| Authors | De Marco, Alessandra; Proietti, Chiara; Anav, Alessandro; Ciancarella, Luisella; D'Elia, Ilaria; Fares, Silvano; Fornasier, Maria Francesca; Fusaro, Lina; Gualtieri, Maurizio; Manes, Fausto; Marchetto, Aldo; Mircea, Mihaela; Paoletti, Elena; Piersanti, Antonio; Rogora, Michela; Salvati, Luca; Salvatori, Elisabetta; Screpanti, Augusto; Vialetto, Giovanni; Vitale, Marcello; Leonardi, Cristina |
| Text | 402039 2019 10.1016/j.envint.2019.01.064 ISI Web of Science WOS 000459005200032 Scopus 2 s2.0 85061087388 National Emission Ceilings Directive Air pollution impacts Climate change Terrestrial ecosystem Freshwater ecosystem Human health Impacts of air pollution on human and ecosystem health, and implications for the National Emission Ceilings Directive Insights from Italy De Marco, Alessandra; Proietti, Chiara; Anav, Alessandro; Ciancarella, Luisella; D Elia, Ilaria; Fares, Silvano; Fornasier, Maria Francesca; Fusaro, Lina; Gualtieri, Maurizio; Manes, Fausto; Marchetto, Aldo; Mircea, Mihaela; Paoletti, Elena; Piersanti, Antonio; Rogora, Michela; Salvati, Luca; Salvatori, Elisabetta; Screpanti, Augusto; Vialetto, Giovanni; Vitale, Marcello; Leonardi, Cristina ENEA; Council Agr Res Econ; Sapienza Univ Rome; CNR IRSA; CNR IRET; CNR IIA; Italian Minist Environm Land Sea Protect Across the 28 EU member states there were nearly half a million premature deaths in 2015 as a result of exposure to PM2.5, O 3 and NO2. To set the target for air quality levels and avoid negative impacts for human and ecosystems health, the National Emission Ceilings Directive NECD, 2016/2284/EU sets objectives for emission reduction for SO2, NOx, NMVOCs, NH3 and PM2.5 for each Member State as percentages of reduction to be reached in 2020 and 2030 compared to the emission levels into 2005. One of the innovations of NECD is Article 9, that mentions the issue of monitoring air pollution impacts on ecosystems. We provide a clear picture of what is available in term of monitoring network for air pollution impacts on Italian ecosystems, summarizing what has been done to control air pollution and its effects on different ecosystems in Italy. We provide an overview of the impacts of air pollution on health of the Italian population and evaluate opportunities and implementation of Article 9 in the Italian context, as a case study beneficial for all Member States. The results showed that SO42 deposition strongly decreased in all monitoring sites in Italy over the period 1999 2017, while NO3 and NH4 decreased more slightly. As a consequence, most of the acid sensitive sites which underwent acidification in the 1980s partially recovered. The O 3 concentration at forest sites showed a decreasing trend. Consequently, AOT40 the metric identified to protect vegetation from ozone pollution showed a decrease, even if values were still above the limit for forest protection 5000 ppb h 1 , while PODy flux based metric under discussion as new European legislative standard for forest protection showed an increase. National scale studies pointed out that PM10 and NO2 induced about 58,000 premature deaths year 2005 , due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The network identified for Italy contains a good number of monitoring sites 6 for terrestrial ecosystem monitoring, 4 for water bodies monitoring and 11 for ozone impact monitoring distributed over the territory and will produce a high number of monitored parameters for the implementation of the NECD. 125 Published version https //www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412018329179 via%3Dihub De Marco et al. Environmenti International 2019 Versione pubblicata De Marco_etal_EnvInt.pdf Articolo in rivista Pergamon. 0160 4120 Environment international Environment international Environ. int. Environment international. elena.paoletti PAOLETTI ELENA aldo.marchetto MARCHETTO ALDO michela.rogora ROGORA MICHELA cristina.leonardi LEONARDI CRISTINA lina.fusaro FUSARO LINA |
