Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

ENVIRONMENT

Which Italian cities have anti-smog traffic restrictions in place?

Milan and other Italian cities have been forced to ban hundreds of thousands of vehicles from the roads after days of persistent smog.

Published: 21 December 2021 10:34 CET
A pedestrian crosses Milan's empty Corso Sempione during a previous car ban.
A pedestrian crosses Milan's empty Corso Sempione during a previous car ban. Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP

Air pollution has spiked above normal levels for several consecutive days in Milan, Turin, and many parts of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna.

With the air not forecast to clear for yet, several cities have introduced temporary restrictions on driving, central heating and open flames, including a ban on diesel vehicles in central Milan.

The alarm concerns levels of fine particle pollution known as PM10, which can be linked to respiratory disorders, allergies, poisoning and cancer.

Still, dry air has helped trap pollution and created what’s been dubbed a ‘smog emergency’ across large parts of Italy, with dozens of towns reporting poorer than average air quality over the past fortnight.

READ ALSO: These 25 cities have the worst air quality in Italy

The Lombardy regional authority announced temporary anti-smog restrictions from Tuesday on the cities of Varese, Monza and Brescia as they exceeded the limits for PM10 pollution.

They will be under the same rules which have been in place in the city and province of Milan since December 15th: the heaviest polluting diesel vehicles (Euro 1-4) are banned from the city centre between 8.30 – 18.30 Monday to Friday. and drivers are required to switch off their engines while stopped. Heating is also limited to 19 degrees C in homes, offices and shops.

Turin has introduced a ban on diesel vehicles up to and including older Euro 5 models for most of the day.

In Bologna and many other parts of Emilia-Romagna, Euro 1-4 diesel vehicles are banned from town and city centres for most of the day. Heating is limited to 19 degrees C in homes and 17 degrees in shops and workplaces.

In Rome, no such measures have been introduced, though the city authorities have recently announced ‘Ecological Sundays’, meaning all vehicles with internal combustion engines are prohibited in the ‘green belt’ ZTL (zona traffico limitato, or limited traffic zone) from 7.30-12.30 and 16.30-20 on January 2nd and 30th, February 20th and March 13th.

READ ALSO: 

Italy’s permitted limit for PM10 pollution is 50 micrograms per cubic metre, above which air quality is considered dangerously poor.

Air pollution is typically worst in northern Italy, where densely populated cities, industry and farming create emissions and mountains trap it in low-lying plains. Industrial Brescia, Monza, Milan, Turin, Venice and other cities in the Po Valley regularly exceed safe limits.

But Rome too, where sea winds help clear the exhaust fumes from the city’s relentless traffic, often sees its air quality plummet.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

ENVIRONMENT

Reader question: Is tap water safe to drink in Italy?

Italians are famously reluctant to drink tap water, with some questioning its safety. But are these concerns justified?

Published: 2 April 2024 16:22 CEST
Updated: 6 April 2024 10:58 CEST
Reader question: Is tap water safe to drink in Italy?

If you’ve spent much time in Italy, chances are you’ve noticed Italians’ reluctance to consume tap water. Most households seem to prefer bottled water (acqua in bottiglia), and requests for tap water at a restaurant are often frowned upon – or, at times, even denied.

According to a survey from market research firm CSA Research, only 29.2 percent of people in Italy drink tap water every day, while nearly half (43.3 percent) drink exclusively bottled water. 

Each Italian consumes an average of 208 litres of bottled water every year, the survey says, making Italy the biggest consumer of bottled water in Europe and the second-biggest worldwide after Mexico, with 244 litres per capita per year. 

READ ALSO: What is it with Italians and bottled water?

Nearly 29 percent of those who only drink bottled water say they do so because they don’t like the taste of tap water, while nearly four in ten claim they don’t ‘trust’ tap water and around three in ten consider bottled water to be safer.

But are these concerns justified? According to Italy’s Water Research Institute, IRSA, water around Italy is not only perfectly safe to drink but also the fifth-best in Europe for overall quality after water in Austria, Sweden, Ireland and Hungary. 

One of the main reasons for this is that some 85 percent of the water in the national supply network comes from groundwater sources, which are largely considered safer than surface sources.

Tap water, Italy 2

Only 29.2 percent of people in Italy drink tap water every day. Photo by Fred TANNEAU / AFP

Further, according to Alessandro Russo, CEO of Milan’s water network operator CAP Group, tap water in Italy is subject to a series of “constant controls” which abide by “parameters regulated by very stringent national and European laws and standards”. 

Italian network operators must comply with the World Health Organisations’ Water Safety Plans (WSP) and, as of March of last year, a 2020 EU directive setting tougher limits on contaminants than previous regulation.

But while official sources tend to agree on the safety and quality of tap water in Italy, there are occasional incidents involving its water network (see cases of contamination in Matera and Brescia).

More recent reports from environmental activist group Greenpeace have raised new safety concerns.

Last October, a Greenpeace report revealed the presence of human-made chemicals known as PFAS – which have been linked to thyroid disease, immune system and fertility problems as well as some types of cancer – in ten different municipalities (comuni) in Lombardy. 

PFAS concentrations were found to have exceeded EU limits in four comuni: Caravaggio and Mozzanica, in the Bergamo province, and Corte Palasio and Crespiatica, in the Lodi province.

Another Greenpeace report published in February found PFAS in the water supply of over 70 comuni in Piedmont, with higher concentrations registered in the Alessandria province. 

READ ALSO: The most polluted towns in Italy in 2024

Experts have said there’s no cause for alarm: Stefano Polesello, a researcher with IRSA in Monza, told Il Corriere della Sera that “PFAS are present in all types of water nowadays, and have been measured even in rainfall in remote areas”. 

As such, the public can “continue drinking tap water because it’s generally controlled” and the only way to avoid PFAS “would be to stop drinking and eating altogether, which is an impracticable solution.”

The issue is not unique to Italy. Last November, PFAS chemicals were detected in drinking water sources at 17 of 18 water companies in England.

In early 2023, the Forever Pollution Project – a cross-border investigation by 16 European newsrooms – revealed that nearly 23,000 sites all over Europe are contaminated by PFAS chemicals.

SHOW COMMENTS