The concentration of PM10 continues to rise, with 104 micrograms per cubic meter of air recorded by the Quartiere Italia monitoring station on Monday - well above the 50 micrograms tolerated by regulations - placing the air quality in the city in the "very poor" category, the worst. All this while we are under red alert. The most restrictive badge, which also limits the circulation of commercial Euro 5 diesel vehicles, has been confirmed at least until today.
However, the issue, before being about traffic, is health-related. And this is evident from the words of the doctors. "Masks on days like these would be very useful. Wear them. They protect against fine dust particles. Breathing only through the nose would block the larger particles with a diameter greater than 10 microns. But the problem is that we almost always breathe through the mouth, and for those with a chronic illness, it's a disaster," says Giuseppe Idotta, head pneumologist at San Bortolo, who knows a lot about air polluted by fine particulate and lungs getting sick from it. And his invitation is like an appeal, even though now, after the pandemic, wearing a mask outside the hospital feels like a stigma. However, there are no other protections available. "Every time fine particulate increases," warns Dr. Idotta, "mortality from respiratory infections and cardiovascular disorders increases either". These words should serve as a warning in a Vicenza suffocating from smog, amidst high pressure and lack of precipitation, and in a country, Italy, which holds the sad record for premature deaths caused by nitrogen dioxide, a poison generated by vehicles and boiler combustion processes, which mixes like a deadly cocktail with the 10,000 liters of air we inhale in 24 hours. The polluted air takes away a year and 2 months of life from every resident of Vicenza.
The emergency room at San Bortolo is a clear indicator of smog exceeding limits for too long. Air contaminated with microparticles and wild particles drives up the numbers of visits for respiratory disorders, pneumonia, pleurisy, chronic bronchitis, and asthmatic crises. Many red codes are recorded. Orange and yellow codes are numerous. The onslaught is also constant in the pediatric emergency room. Exposure to high levels of pollutants accelerates and chronicizes diseases, igniting a fuse that may trigger even more serious illnesses in the medium or long term. Smog, a silent killer, shortens life twice as much as cigarette smoke, three times as much as AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other infectious diseases combined, and 15 times as much as traffic accidents, wars. 34,000 Italians die this way every year: almost 100 per day. Pollution triggers diseases. Respiratory failure, asthma, infections piercing the trachea, alveoli, bronchi, and lungs. At least half of the sick are children and teenagers. "The smallest particles under 2.5 microns," explains the head doctor, "manage to bypass the nose filter, lower the barrier of the deep lung, enter the bloodstream, and all organs. The lungs are the gateway and are the first to suffer, but the greatest damage is at the cardiovascular and respiratory level.
(GdV, mercoledì 7 febbraio)