Abstract
Background: The Italian Society of Environmental Medicine has performed a preliminary assessment of the health impact attributable to road freight traffic in Italy. Methods: We estimated fine particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) generated by road transportation of goods in Italy considering the number of trucks, the emission factors and the average annual distance covered in the year 2016. Simulations on data concerning Years of Life Lost (YLL) attributable to PM2.5 (593,700) and nitrogen oxides NO2 (200,700) provided by the European Environmental Agency (EEA) were used as a proxy of healthcare burden. We set three different healthcare burden scenarios, varying from 1/5 to 1/10 of the proportion of the overall particulate matter attributable to road freight traffic in Italy (about 7% on a total of 2262 tons/year). Results: Road freight traffic in Italy produced about 189 tons of PM10, 147 tons of PM2.5 and 4125 tons of NOx in year 2016, resulting in annual healthcare costs varying from 400 million up to 1.2 billion EUR per year. Conclusion: Road freight traffic has a relevant impact on air pollution and healthcare costs, especially if considered over a 10-year period. Any solution able to significantly reduce the road transportation of goods could decrease avoidable mortality due to air pollution and related costs.
Highlights
Health is inextricably linked to environmental exposures and climate changes
Where E indicates the emission we are looking for (PM10, PM2.5 and nitrogen oxides (NOx) expressed in mg/year); N is the number of vehicles (n = 4,539,453) registered by the public registry of transportation ACI/PRA for the year 2016 [34]; P is the average annual distance covered by trucks in the year 2016 (282.36 km according to the National Institute for Statistics (ISTAT), representing the average value between 265.44 km estimated for national traffic and 299.28 Km estimated for international transport [35], and FE is the emission factor
We have assumed that the PM2.5 and NOx generated by road freight transportation of goods in Italy would be responsible for 0.5% of total Years of Life Lost (YLL) in Italy, estimated by the Environmental Agency (EEA) in 593,700 for PM2.5 and 200,700 for NO2, for a total of 794,400 [24]
Summary
Health is inextricably linked to environmental exposures and climate changes. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollutants (Figure 1) represent a primary risk factor for human health [1]. According to data from the European Environmental Agency (EEA), over 518,000 premature and avoidable deaths have been estimated to have occurred in Europe in the year 2015 (Figure 2), and at least 84,000 of those (16% of the total) occurred in Italy [24]. We set three different healthcare burden scenarios, varying from 1/5 to 1/10 of the proportion of the overall particulate matter attributable to road freight traffic in Italy (about 7% on a total of 2262 tons/year). Any solution able to significantly reduce the road transportation of goods could decrease avoidable mortality due to air pollution and related costs
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