It seems to be so. This is the alarm that comes from the “Mal’aria di città 2023” report by Legambiente, the annual analysis about the state of atmospheric pollution in Italy’s provincial capitals. Air pollution endangers the health of citizens who are chronically exposed to excessively high pollutant concentrations. Starting with official data from the monitoring stations installed by the competent authorities in different municipalities, the report provides as complete a picture as possible of what air pollution was like in the year just ended. The year 2022, in fact, showed acute criticalities for some cities represented by the days on which the daily limit for PM10 (set at 35 days in a year) was exceeded, with a daily average concentration of dust exceeding 50 micrograms/cubic metre as required by current legislation As many as 29 cities have at least one control unit above the legal limit of permitted exceedances.
Although every year the concentration of PM10 is reduced by 2% (Verona is vaguely better with – 4%), the time needed to fall within the new limits would be in the order of about 15 years. Too long to avoid incurring new infringement proceedings and fines from Europe and to protect citizens’ health more incisively.

(below the diagram of the most polluted cities in Italy)