Air Pollution and Health: Effects and Levels of the Main Pollutants

Pasquale Avino^1,2, Domenico Brocco³, Luca Lepore³ and Mario V. Russo⁴

¹DIPIA-ISPESL, Rome (Italy); ²Bioscience Department, Telesio Galilei Academy; ³

Centro Studi di Biometeorologia, Rome (Italy)

⁴DIISTAM, University of Molise, Campobasso (Italy)

e-mail: pasquale.avino@ispesl.it

Air pollution causes a number of problems in the environment affecting the human health. In fact, polluted air can cause damage to our health and affect us in a negative way. Different people are affected by high levels of pollution in different ways depending on their age and general health, the type of pollutant and how long they are exposed to pollution. Health problems caused by air pollution range from less serious breathing difficulties, to asthma and even cancer. It is estimated that in the most polluted cities, lives are shortened by an average of one to two years.

From an atmospheric chemistry point of view, outdoor pollutants include smoke, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, particulates and ozone. Smoke is a type of pollution that can be seen because it is made up of solid particles coming out of chimneys. Carbon monoxide is a pollutant that is mainly produced by cars: it has no colour or smell but can be very poisonous. Nitrogen oxides (NO and NO₂) are emitted from cars and power stations. Very high amounts can be recorded in cities during rush-hour traffic. Sulphur dioxide is a colourless gas that is mainly given off from power stations. It combines with water in the air to produce acid rain. Particulates are small bits of solid or liquid matter, for example soot, dust, fumes and aerosols carried in the air. They are produced by factories, cars and coal burning in some homes. Ozone is more commonly associated with the ozone layer, which protects life on Earth from the Sun’s harmful rays (“good ozone”). Near the ground however, it is a harmful pollutant made in the air when other pollutants mix together in sunlight (“bad ozone”). It is the main gas found in modern urban smog.

From a health point of view particulate matter in air pollution is one of the main causes of this health problems. In towns and cities, these are released mainly from diesel engines in cars and trucks. When we breathe in air pollution, the very fine particulates (Pm10 m PM2.5 and PM1) can easily enter our lungs, where they can cause breathing problems, and over time even lead to cancer. Ozone that forms near to the ground can also damage our lungs and throats. In people suffering of asthma, the symptoms may be even more severe. Carbon monoxide, from transport, cigarette smoke and faulty gas fires, affects the blood and is especially dangerous to pregnant women and their unborn babies. The babies may be born with brain damage.

Our communication would like to highlight the main atmospheric contamination in Italian urban areas due to anthropogenic sources such as autovehicular traffic and domestic heating.

Fig. 1  

Fig. 2

In particular we report data coming from the main Italian cities recording the levels and the pollution situation during the previous years 1993-2005. in particular, the main significant aspects are due to benzene and PM10 as reported in Figures 1 and 2. As it can be seen all the situations are critical, the annual average values overcome the law limit for both the pollutants even if the trends shows a clear decrease during the 2000’s.

Among the gaseous pollutants and according the definition reported above, we have investigated the role of the good ozone and the bad ozone according the relative effects on the human health.

Furthermore, we have deeply investigated the PM10 composition using traditional chemical methodologies. Its composition is very complex and it is not easy to simplify it: the master scheme reported in Figure 3 shows the main classes of compounds present and dangerous for the environment and the human as well.

Fig. 3

About the new perspective in atmospheric chemistry, we will present data on an important pollutant, mercury. Its determination is not trivial but it is suggested by the World Health Organization as a priority in the metropolitan areas.

Finally, a task is dedicated to studies of healthy climates.

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