Environmental indicators in EpiAir2 project: air quality data for epidemiological surveillance

OBJECTIVE: construction of environmental indicators of air pollution suitable for epidemiological surveillance in 25 Italian cities for EpiAir2 project (2006-2010) and presentation of the results from a 10 years of surveillance system (2001-2010) in 10 Italian cities. DESIGN: data on particulate matter (PM10 and its fine fraction PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O3), measured in the 2006-2010 calendar period,were collected. Meteorological data needed to estimate unbiased measures of the effect of pollutants are: temperature, relative humidity (estimated “apparent temperature”), and barometric pressure. In continuity with the previous EpiAir project, the same criteria for the selection of monitoring stations were applied and standard methods to estimate daily environmental indicators were used. Furthermore, it was checked the adequacy of the selected data to represent the population exposure. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: EpiAir2 project, relative to the period 2006-2010, involves the cities ofMilano,Mestre-Venezia, Torino, Bologna, Firenze, Pisa, Roma, Taranto, Cagliari, and Palermo, already included in the previous study. The city of Treviso, Trieste, Padova, Rovigo, Piacenza, Parma, Ferrara, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Genova, Rimini,Ancona, Bari, Brindisi, and Napoli are added to the previous group. RESULTS: particulate matter concentrations have decreased in most cities during the study period,while concentrations of NO2 and ozone do not show a similar clear trend. The analysis of the trend showed annual mean values of PM10 higher than 40 g/m3 in some areas of the Po Valley, and annual mean values of NO2 higher than 40 g/m3 in the cities of Trieste, Milano, Padova, Torino, Modena, Bologna, Roma, and Napoli. CONCLUSION: the enlargement of the Epi- Air project to 13 other cities has highlighted critical issues related to the different geographical areas under study. Results of EpiAir2 project point out the need of a monitoring systemof air pollution concentrations in both urban and industrial sites, in order to obtain reliable estimates of exposure for resident populations and to evaluate the related time trend