Ranked the third most polluted city in the world, the city of Milan is worried and taking drastic measures.
The economic capital of Italy suffers especially from its geographical location, but above all pays the consequences of its activity.
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It’s like a very subtle layer that makes the air grayer. The city of Milan and its region, from Tuesday February 20, 2024, are subject to strict anti-pollution measures with traffic restrictions, turning off the heat and a ban on spreading slurry on fields. Since the beginning of the year, air quality warnings have increased in the Italian city and are causing concern.
On Sunday 18 February, Swiss company IQ Air, which sells air purifiers, indicated that, for a few hours, only Dhaka in Bangladesh and Lahore in Pakistan were ahead of Italy’s economic capital as the world’s most polluted cities. The city has since been demoted in this live ranking, but still appears among the most polluted cities worldwide.
About a month from official standards
The data is considered unreliable, however, according to some Italian media, as the city’s center-left mayor, Giuseppe Sala, fumed: “We are taking steps to improve air quality. The regional agency says this is the case, but not enough, and I vouch for it. But from there everyone takes information from a private organization, it is not possible!“
If the regional Environmental Protection Agency is less alarming than this private ranking, the data remains surprising. For a total of about a month since the beginning of the year, Milan was above the permissible standards for fine particles, which were 30 times the limit on overcast days.
The economic capital of Italy pays the consequences of its activity: industry, population density, traffic, intensive cultivation in the region… The Po plain is divided between mountains, and this end of winter looks like spring in Italy, which makes things worse, because the rain is rare. The nearby Turin region has been declared a state of natural disaster. Sicily declared a state of natural disaster in early February due to drought.
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