During the last years, several exceedances of PM10 and benzo(a)pyrene limit values exceedances were recorded in Taranto, a city in southern Italy included in so-called areas at high risk of environmental crisis because of the presence of a heavy industrial district including the largest steel factory in Europe. A study of these critical pollution events showed a close correlation with the wind coming from the industrial site to the adjacent urban area. During 2011, at monitoring sites closes to the industrial area, at least the 65% of PM10 exceedances were related to wind day conditions (characterized by at least 3 consecutive hours of wind coming from 270-360±2deg with an associated speed higher than 7 m/s). For this reason, in 2012 an integrated environmental permit and a regional air quality plan were enacted to reduce pollutant emissions from industrial plants. A study of PM10 levels registered during windy days was performed during critical episodes of pollution highlighting that the difference between windy days and no windy days’ concentrations reduces from 2012 to 2014 in industrial site. False negative events (verified ex-post by observed meteorological data) not identified by the forecast model - did not show a significant influence on PM concentration: PM10 values were comparable and sometimes lower than windy days levels. It is reasonable that the new scenario with a relevant reduction emissions form Ilva plant reduced the pollutants contribution from industrial area, contributing to PM10 levels decrease, also in false negative events.

Apulia is a 19,362 km 2 region in the south-east of Italy, surrounded by the Adriatic Sea in the northeast and by the Ionian Sea in the south. Two relevant industrial areas (Brindisi and Taranto) and several cities of medium-large dimension characterize the territory. In particular, Taranto hosts a heavy industrial district unfavourably positioned towards nearby residential areas, including the largest steel factory in Europe (ILVA), an oil refinery (ENI) and a kiln factory (CEMENTIR). Due to numerous PM10 and Benzo(a)pyrene limit value exceedances in sites close to industrial area of Taranto in last years, a Regional Air Quality Recovery Plan was enacted in 2012. The results of this action showed relevant effects on pollutant concentrations with decrease of BaP level and number of PM10 exceedances.

Cecilia Scarinzi,1 Ester Rita Alessandrini,2 Monica Chiusolo,1 Claudia Galassi,3 Marco Baldini,4 Maria Serinelli,5 Paolo Pandolfi,6 Antonella Bruni,7 Annibale Biggeri,8 Aldo De Togni,9 Giulia Carreras,10 Claudia Casella,11 Cristina Canova,12 Giorgia Randi,13 Andrea Ranzi,14 Caterina Morassuto,12 Achille Cernigliaro,15 Simone Giannini,14 Paolo Lauriola,14 Fabrizio Minichilli,16 Bianca Gherardi,14 Stefano Zauli-Sajani,14 Massimo Stafoggia,2 Patrizia Casale,17 Emilio A.L. Gianicolo,18 Cinzia Piovesan,19 Riccardo Tominz,20 Loredana Porcaro,21 Ennio Cadum;1 Gruppo collaborativo EpiAir2* e&panno 37 (4-5) luglio-ottobre 2013 Rassegne e Articoli

Apulia is a 19,362 km region in the south-east of Italy developing about 800 km of coastline, surrounded by the Adriatic Sea in the northeast and by the Ionian Sea in the south. Its territory is quite low with mountains only per 1.5 %, level ground per 54 % and hills per 44 %. It is divided into six provinces: Bari, Brindisi, Lecce, Foggia, Taranto and Bat (Barletta, Andria, Trani), the latest one including ten Municipalities. Two relevant industrial areas (Brindisi and Taranto) and several cities of medium-large dimension characterize the territory. Bari is the capital of the Region and its most populated town, with over 300,000 inhabitants. Its urban centre is characterized by high vehicular traffic, while in its industrial area activities in the mechanical sector take place. Lecce and Foggia are service industry towns, with small artisan areas. Due to the numerous and high impact industrial activities (steel production, metallurgical, chemical, petrochemical, cement – producing and coal power plants), Taranto and Brindisi are included in the so called areas at high risk of environmental crisis of the Region. In particular, Taranto hosts a heavy industrial district unfavorably positioned towards nearby residential areas, including the largest steel factory in Europe (ILVA), an oil refinery (ENI) and a kiln factory (CEMENTIR). At the aim of improving air quality, during the last decade European emission mitigation policies have been following a multi pollutant approach implementing various legal instruments. Also at regional level, air quality strategies were actuated to ensure good life quality to citizen, especially the ones living close to industrial areas and exposed to pollutants high levels. The aim of this paper is to evaluate pollutants concentration from 2005 to 2012 in Apulian urban areas, in order to estimate PM10, benzene and dioxide nitrogen trends and efficiency of environmental regional policies. In industrial area of Taranto, special attention will be turned to benzo (a) pyrene. It must be pointed out that trend detection can be considered a key aspect of understanding the state of air quality on the basis of past data (Blanchard, 1999; Klemm and Lange, 1999). It also aids the development of air pollution control policy and provides a reference for making further evaluations. Exposure to pollutants such as benzene, nitrogen dioxides and particulate matter is associated with increased mortality and hospital admissions due to health outcomes such as respiratory and cardiovascular diseases (Pope and Dockery, 2006). Benzo (a) pirene is classified in Group 1 by IARC as carcinogenic for human; cancers associated with exposure to PAHs containing mixtures in humans were predominantly lung and skin cancers, following inhalation and dermal exposure, respectively (USEPA, 2010). The pollution criticals of particular sites in Apulia Region were already evaluated in some other studies; Amodio et al. (2008) performed a statistical analysis on Taranto city highlighting an important contribution of industrial facilities on the air quality, especially in terms of concentrations of micro pollutants such as PAHs and metals. Caselli (Caselli et al., 2010) evaluated BTEX pollution in urban areas of Bari, confirming the presence of a single source, the vehicular traffic, having a strong impact on air quality. Mangia et al. (2011) analyzed sixteen years of air quality data (NO2, SO2 and TPS) in Brindisi area, revealing the influence of industrial area and of harbor on pollution levels and high correlation between pollution levels and wind blowing from eastern sectors.

Ester Rita Alessandrini,1 Annunziata Faustini,1 Monica Chiusolo,2 Massimo Stafoggia,1 Martina Gandini,2 Moreno Demaria,2 Antonello Antonelli,3 Pasquale Arena,4 Annibale Biggeri,5 Cristina Canova,6 Giovanna Casale,7 Achille Cernigliaro,8 Elsa Garrone,9 Bianca Gherardi,10 Emilio A.L. Gianicolo,11 Simone Giannini,10 Claudia Iuzzolino,12 Paolo Lauriola,10 Mauro Mariottini,13 Paolo Pasetti,14 Giorgia Randi,15 Andrea Ranzi,10 Michele Santoro,16 Vittorio Selle,17 Maria Serinelli,18 Elisa Stivanello,19 Riccardo Tominz,20 Mariangela Vigotti,16,21 Stefano Zauli-Sajani,10 Francesco Forastiere,1 Ennio Cadum;2 Gruppo collaborativo EpiAir2* e&panno 37 (4-5) luglio-ottobre 2013 Rassegne e Articoli

The air quality 2008/50/EC directive allows providing evidence of PM10 daily limit value exceedances due to natural sources, which are not to be considered for the purpose of the directive. In this work the African outbreaks, affecting the PM10 exceeding events occurred in Apulia region during 2010, are identified as follows. The PM10 daily concentrations were measured by the regional air quality monitoring stations, and complemented with meteorological maps, air mass back-trajectories, aerosol satellite retrievals, dust model simulations, ground measurements of aerosol optical properties. To quantify the daily net African dust load in PM10, we applied a methodology designed by the European Commission and based on the analysis of PM10 levels time series from regional background stations.

The more frequent usage of passive sampling techniques in air quality monitoring campaigns demands for more control of the results obtained. This can be achieved by employing this sampling methodology in field studies, or at least by its comparison with reliable techniques, commonly used for monitoring of atmospheric pollutants. In this paper we evaluate the reliability of the results obtained by using radial symmetry diffusive samplers. In particular, we test Radiello((R)), radial symmetry samplers for determining BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, (m+p)-xylene, (o)-xylene). The tests have been also performed to evaluate the reproducibility of measurements carried out with Radiello((R)) and to verify their constant uptake rate versus sampling time. BTEX analyses were performed by chemical desorption and GC-MS. Differences between benzene, toluene and o-xylene concentrations simultaneously measured with passive samplers and conventional automatic analysers (Chrompack CP-7001) were 16.5% on average. Concerning toluene and o-xylene, the differences were 24.0 and 22.5% lower, respectively.