Milan – Between Tuesday 25 June and Wednesday 3 July one will take place new series of tests of the IT-alert public alarm system in Lombardy. The new test will also concern other regions of the country (Friuli Venezia Giulia and the Autonomous Province of Trento). The new tests, similarly to those held in recent months, are declined for specific risks. As regards Lombardy in the provinces of Pavia, Lodi, Milan and Bergamo, will be simulated a major industrial accident.
For this risk, as for those relating to nuclear accidents or radiological emergency situation and volcanic activity, the IT-alert public warning system has been operational since February 13th. Conduct periodic tests in the area it is useful on the one hand for perfecting the technological infrastructure, and on the other to increase awareness of the risks in the population.
But what will happen? What does this test mean for citizens? As in the case of previous tests, whoever receives the test message has nothing to fearAnd you won’t have to do anything except read the messagewhich refers to the web page of the IT-alert website where it will be possible to view the text of the real message that citizens would receive in the event of an alarm for that specific risk.
For “major accident” means an event such as an emission, a fire or an explosion of large magnitude, due to uncontrolled developments that occur during the activity of an industrial plant (classified as at risk of a major accident by Legislative Decree 26 June 2015, n. 105 – Implementation of Directive 2012/18/EU relating to the control of the danger of major accidents connected with dangerous substances), which gives rise to a serious danger, immediate or deferred, for human health and the environment, inside or outside the establishment, and in which one or more dangerous substances are involved.
In the event of real danger due to a major accident in an industrial plant, cell phones present in the areas near the affected plants will receive an IT-alert message of this type: Civil Protection Alarm DD/MM/YY 00:00 – Accident in the XYZ industrial plant with presence of dangerous substances, in the Municipality of XYZ (PROVINCE). FIND SHELTER INDOORS AND DO NOT GO NEAR the system. Keep up to date and follow the instructions of the authorities.
However, it should be noted that there may be devices present in areas affected by the emergency which they will not receive the message. This is due to one of the limitations of cell-broadcast technology, that of the impossibility of perfectly superimposing the area that is estimated as potentially affected by the emergency with the area covered by the antennas of the telephone operators that are used for sending of messages.
All information on the IT-alert system and the complete calendar of scheduled tests are available on IT-alert.gov.it website. The Test dates may be subject to change in the event that the regional civil protection systems find themselves engaged in activities for any weather-hydro alerts in progress or for emergency situations.
