LIFE Monza: comparison between ante and post-operam noise and air quality monitoring activities in a Noise Low Emission Zone

AbstractLIFE MONZA project (Methodologies fOr Noise low emission Zones introduction And management) aims at defining an easy-replicable method for the identification and management of theNoise Low Emission Zones(Noise LEZ), urban areas subject to traffic restrictions, usually introduced in order to ensure compliance with the air pollutants limit values, prescribed by the European Directive on ambient air quality 2008/50/EC, whose impacts and potential benefits regarding noise issues have been taken into account, tested and analysed in a pilot area of the city of Monza, located in North Italy. Noise LEZ has been established in Libertà district, introducing infrastructural interventions carried out by the municipality (top-down actions) and encouraging an active involvement of the citizens, in the definition of a more sustainable lifestyle (bottom-up actions). The analysis of potential effects on noise reduction due to the Noise LEZ can contribute to the implementation of the EU Directive 2002/49/EC, related to the assessment and management of environmental noise (Environmental Noise Directive – END), which introduces noise action plans, designed to manage noise issues and their effects, suggesting the adoption of urban and mobility planning. Noise and air quality monitoring activities have been carried out in pilot area inanteandpost-operamconditions. The monitoring methods, the measurement techniques, the analysis procedures, able to describe the effects due to Noise LEZ establishment, for both the main environmental issues are reported in this paper, as proposals to be applied in other different contexts. Results of monitoring activities highlight a reduction of noise, in term of sound pressure levels, betweenanteandpost-operam, during the day and particularly during the night period, and it is essentially due to the interventions realised. The effect of the Noise LEZ on air pollution seems to be negligible for combustion related pollutant and carbon fractions of PM, due both to the moderate spatial effects of the measures undertaken and confounding factors due to concomitant emission sources and meteorology

A PM10 chemically characterised nation-wide dataset for Italy. Geographical influence on urban air pollution and source apportionment

: Urban textures of the Italian cities are peculiarly shaped by the local geography generating similarities among cities placed in different regions but comparable topographical districts. This suggested the following scientific question: can such different topographies generate significant differences on the PM10 chemical composition at Italian urban sites that share similar geography despite being in different regions? To investigate whether such communalities can be found and are applicable at Country-scale, we propose here a novel methodological approach. A dataset comprising season-averages of PM10 mass concentration and chemical composition data was built, covering the decade 2005-2016 and referring to urban sites only (21 cities). Statistical analyses, estimation of missing data, identification of latent clusters and source apportionment modelling by Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) were performed on this unique dataset. The first original result is the demonstration that a dataset with atypical time resolution can be successfully exploited as an input matrix for PMF obtaining Country-scale representative chemical profiles, whose physical consistency has been assessed by different tests of modelling performance. Secondly, this dataset can be considered a reference repository of season averages of chemical species over the Italian territory and the chemical profiles obtained by PMF for urban Italian agglomerations could contribute to emission repositories. These findings indicate that our approach is powerful, and it could be further employed with datasets typically available in the air pollution monitoring networks

Seasonal and Spatial Variations of the Oxidative Properties of Ambient PM2.5 in the Po Valley, Italy, before and during COVID-19 Lockdown Restrictions

This study describes the chemical and toxicological characteristics of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the Po Valley, one of the largest and most polluted areas in Europe. The investigated samples were collected in the metropolitan area of Milan during the epidemic lockdown and their toxicity was evaluated by the oxidative potential (OP), measured using ascorbic acid (OPAA) and dithiothreitol (OPDTT) acellular assays. The study was also extended to PM2.5 samples collected at different sites in the Po Valley in 2019, to represent the baseline conditions in the area. Univariate correlations were applied to the whole dataset to link the OP responses with the concentrations of the major chemical markers of vehicular and biomass burning emissions. Of the two assays, OPAA was found mainly sensitive towards transition metals released from vehicular traffic, while OPDTT towards the PM carbonaceous components. The impact of the controlling lockdown restrictions on PM2.5 oxidative properties was estimated by comparing the OP values in corresponding time spans in 2020 and 2019. We found that during the full lockdown the OPAA values decreased to 80–86% with respect to the OP data in other urban sites in the area, while the OPDTT values remained nearly constant

Seasonal and Spatial Variations of PM10 and PM2.5 Oxidative Potential in Five Urban and Rural Sites across Lombardia Region, Italy

Oxidative potential (OP) of particulate matter (PM) is gaining strong interest as a promising health exposure metric. This study investigated OP of a large set of PM10 and PM2.5 samples collected at five urban and background sites near Milan (Italy), one of the largest and most polluted urban areas in Europe, afflicted with high particle levels. OP responses from two acellular assays, based on ascorbic acid (AA) and dithiothreitol (DTT), were combined with atmospheric detailed composition to examine any possible feature in OP with PM size fraction, spatial and seasonal variations. A general association of volume-normalized OP with PM mass was found; this association may be related to the clear seasonality observed, whereby there was higher OP activity in wintertime at all investigated sites. Univariate correlations were used to link OP with the concentrations of the major chemical markers of vehicular and biomass burning emissions. Of the two assays, AA was particularly sensitive towards transition metals in coarse particles released from vehicular traffic. The results obtained confirm that the responses from the two assays and their relationship with atmospheric pollutants are assay- and location-dependent, and that their combination is therefore helpful to singling out the PM redox-active compounds driving its oxidative properties

The Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown Strategies on Oxidative Properties of Ambient PM₁₀ in the Metropolitan Area of Milan, Italy

This research investigates the impact of controlling pandemic measures on the characteristics of atmospheric particulate matter (PM), with specific concern to its toxicity, measured by its oxidative properties. The investigated PM10 samples were collected in the metropolitan area of Milan during the epidemic lockdown, and their oxidative potential (OP) was assessed using ascorbic acid (AA) and dithiothreitol (DTT) acellular assays. During the full lockdown, we estimated reductions to 46% and 60% for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and black carbon (BC) concentrations, respectively, based on the aggregated 2018–2019 data of NO2 and BC levels, used as baseline conditions. To quantify the impact of lockdown restrictions on PM oxidative activity, we studied the OP data measured in our laboratory on PM10 filters and directly compared the results from 15–30 April 2020 with those from the same time span in 2019. The OPAA values dropped to nearly 50%, similar to the concentration decrease in Elemental Carbon (EC) and traffic related metals, as well as to the variation in NO2 level. Otherwise, the OPDTT responses decreased to nearly 75%, as described by the corresponding reduction in Organic Carbon (OC) concentration and BC level

Impact of a European directive on ship emissions on air quality in Mediterranean harbours

Ships have been found to be major sources of air pollution in harbours. However, from January 1, 2010, a European Union directive requires that all ships at berth or anchorage in European harbours use fuels with a sulphur content of less than 0.1% by weight while previously, outside of Sulphur Emission Control Areas, up to 4.5% were allowed. The impact of this directive on air quality in some Mediterranean harbours was investigated based on observations made from August to October 2009 and 2010 at a monitoring station placed on a cruise ship, Costa Pacifica, following a fixed weekly route in the Western Mediterranean. The concentrations of SO2 were found to decrease significantly from 2009 to 2010 in three out of the four EU harbours; the average decrease of the daily mean concentrations in the different harbours was 66%. The decrease of SO2 was not statistically significant in the harbour of Barcelona because of large day-to-day variations, however measurements from monitoring stations in the harbour zone of Barcelona as well as downwind of the harbour of Palma de Mallorca confirm a strong decrease in the SO2 concentrations from 2009 to 2010. No decrease was observed in the non-EU harbour of Tunis. Neither NOx nor BC concentrations showed significant changes in any of the harboursJRC.H.2-Air and Climat

Impact of a European directive on ship emissions on air quality in Mediterranean harbours

Ships have been found to be major sources of air pollution in harbours. However, from January 1, 2010, a European Union directive requires that all ships at berth or anchorage in European harbours use fuels with a sulphur content of less than 0.1% by weight while previously, outside of Sulphur Emission Control Areas, up to 4.5% were allowed. The impact of this directive on air quality in some Mediterranean harbours was investigated based on observations made from August to October 2009 and 2010 at a monitoring station placed on a cruise ship, Costa Pacifica, following a fixed weekly route in the Western Mediterranean. The concentrations of SO2 were found to decrease significantly from 2009 to 2010 in three out of the four EU harbours; the average decrease of the daily mean concentrations in the different harbours was 66%. The decrease of SO2 was not statistically significant in the harbour of Barcelona because of large day-to-day variations, however measurements from monitoring stations in the harbour zone of Barcelona as well as downwind of the harbour of Palma de Mallorca confirm a strong decrease in the SO2 concentrations from 2009 to 2010. No decrease was observed in the non-EU harbour of Tunis. Neither NOx nor BC concentrations showed significant changes in any of the harbours

Source apportionment of PM10 in the Western Mediterranean based on observations from a cruise ship

Two intensive PM10 sampling campaigns were performed in the summers of 2009 and 2010 on the ship Costa Pacifica during cruises in the Western Mediterranean. Samples, mainly collected on a hourly basis, were analysed with different techniques (Particle Induced X-Ray Emission, PIXE; Energy Dispersive – X Ray Fluorescence, ED-XRF; Ion Chromatography, IC; Thermo-optical analysis) to retrieve the PM10 composition and its time pattern. The data were used for obtaining information about the sources of aerosol, with a focus on ship emissions, through apportionment using chemical marker compounds, correlation analysis and Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) receptor modeling. For the campaign in 2010, 66% of the aerosol sulphate was found to be anthropogenic, only minor contributions of dust and sea salt sulphate were observed while the biogenic contribution, estimated based on the measurements of MSA, was found to be more important (26%), but influenced by large uncertainties. V and Ni were found to be suitable tracers of ship emissions during the campaigns. Four sources of aerosol were resolved by the PMF analysis; the source having the largest impact on PM10, BC and sulphate was identified as a mixed source, comprising emissions from ships. Ship emissions were observed to have a dominating impact on sulphate in aerosol for the leg Palma-Tunis, crossing a main ship route, and strong impacts also in some other parts of the route. However, looking at the entire dataset these impacts were much less pronounced and showed large spatial and temporal variations.JRC.H.2-Air and Climat

Analysis of atmospheric aerosol collected by multi-stage cascade impactors by Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometry

Size segregated elemental concentration in atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is commonly measured by cascade impactors. The use of these powerful device is actually limited by the relevant request of work during sampling and laboratory analyses. As a matter of fact, sampling campaigns using impactors often last a few days with a quite limited number of samples collected. We present here the results of Energy Dispersive X Ray Fluorescence (ED-XRF) analyses performed on impactor collecting media used by two different devices: the low-pressure 12-stage SDI by Dekati and the 13-stage rotating NanoMOUDI by MSP. ED-XRF has several advantages: it is a multielemental, easy-to-use and sensitive technique, which does not require any preparation of the samples. This speeds up the laboratory analyses however the particular geometry of the samples poses some problem. The two devices (SDI and NanoMOUDI) produce samples with different deposit extension and distribution. In both cases, we used a specific geometry to irradiate the whole sample; indeed, ED-XRF systems had to be properly optimised for the analysis of this type of samples, which have non-uniform deposits. For the analysis of the SDI supports, an area (diameter about 1cm) of uniform sensitivity, big enough to fully enclose the sample deposit, was identified using a small probe material and used for sample irradiation. This ensured the possibility to accurately measure also non-uniform deposits. Each sample was analyzed before and after the sampling to subtract possible contaminations in the coating material. Minimum Detection Limits ranged from 1 ng/sample to 40 ng/sample. The analysis of cascade impactor samples by ED-XRF is not common therefore, as consistency tests, series of samples were also analyzed by PIXE at the external beam facility of the Tandetron accelerator at the I.N.F.N. LABEC laboratory in Florence (Calzolai et al., 2006), where it was possible to scan with a narrow proton beam (1 mm x 2 mm in size) the PM deposit area. PIXE spectra were fitted for 25 elements and the elemental concentrations were obtained via a calibration curve from a set of thin standards of known areal density. In Figure 1 the correlation between concentration data obtained by ED-XRF and by PIXE is shown for some elements in the case of the SDI impactor. A similar agreement has been obtained for the other elements and in the analysis of the NanoMOUDI collecting media. The ED-XRF spectrometry has been applied to samples collected during campaigns at sites with different characteristics (in Genoa and Milan) and these results will be also shown. Data inversion was performed using MICRON, to gather information on the size distribution of the different elements

Heat shock protein 70-hom gene polymorphism and protein expression in multiple sclerosis

Immune-mediated and neurodegenerative mechanisms are involved in multiple sclerosis (MS). Growing evidences highlight the role of HSP70 genes in the susceptibility of some neurological diseases. In this explorative study we analyzed a polymorphism (i.e. HSP70-hom rs2227956) of the gene HSPA1L, which encodes for the protein hsp70-hom. We sequenced the polymorphism by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), in 191MS patients and 365 healthy controls. The hsp70-hom protein expression was quantified by western blotting. Wereported a strong association between rs2227956 polymorphismandMS risk,which is independent fromthe association with HSP70-2 rs1061581, and a significant link between hsp70-hom protein expression and MS severity