How polluted is the air Ardea after yet another waste fire last June 20th in the area between Tor San Lorenzo and Marina di Ardea?
Arpa Lazio, regional agency for environmental protection, installed on the same day a sampler for monitoring air quality, a necessary tool to verify the possible presence in the air of polluting chemical substances such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and dioxins, and carrying out all the activities foreseen in situations of this kind.
Monitoring is carried out in support of local and health bodies which are responsible for assessments regarding possible health risks and the behaviors to follow.
The results
To this end, Agency staff installed a high-volume sampler in via Valli di Santa Lucia, approximately 100 meters from where the fire started.
The instrument is necessary to verify the possible presence in the air of pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PCBs and dioxins, a short distance from the area affected by the fire. The results are now in.
As regards dioxins, sampling gave values of 0.05.
What does it mean? Arpa explains it.
«As far as dioxins are concerned, there is no regulatory reference in ambient air. The World Health Organization (in the document Air duantv Auidelines for Europe 2000) estimates toxic equivalent concentrations (TEO) of dioxins and furans in an urban environment equal to approximately 0.1 pg/m3, even if the variability from area to area is high area, while concentrations higher than 0.3 pg/m3 indicate the presence of a localized emission source, i.e. they mean that the fire actually generated dioxin.
In Ardea we are therefore below the toxicity levels.
Benzo(a)pyrene
Among the normally detectable Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), benzo(a)pyrene is the only compound for which Legislative Decree no. 155/2010 provides a limit value as an average annual concentration of 1 ng/rn; however, this Smise, precisely as an annual average, is not directly comparable with the values measured during fires, and is reported only as an informative reference. In Ardea the value is less than 0.1.
Polychlorinated biphenyls
There are no regulatory limits for Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) either. The aforementioned WHO document indicates that measurements of concentrations in environmental areas give extremely variable results oscillating between 3 pg/m3 (in non-industrial sites) and 3,000 pg/m3 (in industrial sites or urban areas). In Ardea this value is 160.
Read also: Big fire in Ardea, what burned? Health dangers. “Keep the windows closed”
