Air quality in Vicenza

Is there a high level of air pollution in Vicenza?

Vicenza is a city located in the northeastern side of Italy, part of the Veneto region, one of twenty different regions found throughout the country. It is home to a large amount of industries, having many economically powerful businesses, with Vicenza being renowned as a center for industrial imports.

Whilst this has led to Vicenza being one of the wealthiest cities in the country (as well as having a close proximity to other major cities such as Venice and Milan), it also has the knock on effect of causing extremely poor pollution levels, with many months of the year coming in with high levels of air contamination as a result.

Italy as a whole is well known for repeatedly coming up amongst the European countries as an offender in regards to its pollution emission levels, going over safe levels year after year. This is due in part to lack of stringent rules and regulations and restrictions regarding what factories, businesses, power plants and other related industrial areas can emit, as well as a lack of enforcement. The end result of this is that many cities in Italy come in amongst some of Europe's most highly polluted cities, with several even coming in within the world 500 most polluted cities, as of 2020.

Regarding the air quality present in Vicenza, it can be seen that in early June of 2021, a US AQI reading of 53 was taken, placing the city into the ‘moderate’ air pollution ratings bracket for that particular day and time. This moderate rating is color coded as yellow, and requires a US AQI reading of anywhere between 51 to 100 to be classified as such. Whilst this is on the significantly lower side of the moderate pollution bracket (only a few units from being moved down to the ‘good’ air quality ratings bracket, which is color coded as green and requires a reading of anywhere between 0 to 50), it still nevertheless finds itself in this pollution bracket, which may start to cause mild issues for at-risk or vulnerable individuals. However, the general public would remain largely unaffected.

US AQI is a figure aggregated from the volume of the main pollutants typically found in the air in Vicenza, as well as every other location in the world (due to the high prevalence of a certain few pollutants). Some of these pollutants are ones such as the fine particles, both PM2.5 and PM10. Out of both of these, PM2.5 is far more dangerous due to its significantly smaller size, being roughly 30% the size of a human hair at 2.5 microns or less in diameter (and able to go down to sizes many microns smaller, as well as being comprised of a variety of extremely hazardous materials).

Other pollutants include nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and ozone (O₃), or smog as it is more commonly known as. These pollutants, among others, would be fairly prevalent in the air during certain months of the year (with these more polluted months being discussed in further detail later in the article). Despite its acceptable level of US AQI shown above (with the US Environmental Protection Agency deeming any reading between 0 to 150 as being within the ‘acceptable’ range), Vicenza is still a city that can have some severe spells of high pollution, and as such could do much to improve its level of air cleanliness and improve its standing on the world circuit.

What are some health effects of exposure to pollution in Vicenza?

In 2020, Vicenza came in with a PM2.5 yearly average reading of 28.4 μg/m³, placing it into the ‘moderate’ pollution ratings bracket, which requires a reading of anywhere between 12.1 to 35.4 μg/m³ to be classified as such (also color coded as yellow in the same manner as its US AQI reading, however requiring a different measure of entry, with PM2.5 readings being taken in microns per cubic meter, or μg/m³).

This reading also placed Vicenza in 7^th place out of all cities ranked in Italy as of 2020, as well as 444^th place out of all cities ranked worldwide. In order to attain such a high ranking, as well as having certain months that far exceeded its yearly average, Vicenza would have multiple sources of air pollution present.

These would include ones such as the aforementioned industrial emissions, with the burning of coal, diesel and natural gas giving out large amounts of chemical pollutants and hazardous clouds of fine particles. Vehicles would also be a major contributor, with cars and other heavy freight vehicles also putting out similar pollutants to those found in factory emissions, as well as releasing many tons of microscopic rubber particles into the environment from tire tread wear.

Other sources include construction sites and road repairs, and whilst they are not as prevalent in this part of the world as the first two sources, any activity that disturbs a large amount of earth or particles can lead to massive spikes in both PM10 and PM2.5 levels.

What are a few of the main pollutants found in the atmosphere in Vicenza?

Some other pollutants found in the air in Vicenza would be ones such as dioxins and furans, along with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Black carbon and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) would also be extremely prevalent, due to their high release from all combustion sources, with black carbon often found blanketing roadside areas in the form of soot. Some examples of VOCs include chemicals such as benzene, styrene and methylene chloride.

When does Vicenza have the highest levels of air pollution?

Observing the air quality data taken over 2020 once again, it can be seen that the months of January and February had the highest levels of PM2.5 on record, coming in with readings of 59.2 μg/m³ and 48.1 μg/m³ respectively.

This placed January into the ‘unhealthy’ air quality bracket, color coded as red (55.5 to 150.4 μg/m³ required), and February into the ‘unhealthy for sensitive groups’ bracket, color coded as orange and requiring 35.5 to 55.4 μg/m³ to be classified as such. These were the only two months in 2020 that went above the moderate rating of air pollution, thus indicating their level of danger.

Does Vicenza see any improvements in its air quality throughout the year?

Despite having had a very bad start in 2020, the later months of May through to August all had significantly better readings, with two months even falling into the ‘good’ air quality ratings bracket. These two months were May and July, which came in at 10.5 μg/m³ and 11.9 μg/m³ respectively, indicating a time in which the air would be considerably more free from smoke clouds, haze, smog and other hazardous particles or contaminants.