“It is necessary to do more to reduce air pollution, aiming to reach at least the new EU limits, without resorting to the possible exceptions contemplated in the new legislation”. This is the comment of the Consulcesi lawyers, the European network promoting the collective action ‘Aria Pulita’, on the new Milano Futura Ora plan. Requests for information continue to arrive from the Lombardy capital and beyond on the collective action aimed at defending the right to health and to live in a healthy environment of residents in Italy launched last June by Consulcesi, the group recalls. “More and more concerned citizens living in Milan are asking for more incisive measures against air pollution and are deciding to join our initiative”, reports Bruno Borin, head of the Consulcesi legal team.
Only since the beginning of the year – reports a note – with around 135 thousand people who have shown interest in collective action, out of over 180 thousand who have come from the region in total, Milan has confirmed itself as a trailblazer in the battle against air pollution. “Not only that, Milan – highlights Borin – is also the first city in which the registration of the first collective action for violation of the Pm10 and NO2 limits was filed. Now the judgment is pending before the Milan court and we are awaiting the outcome of the first hearing”. The new plan on mobility and air quality for Milan is “certainly an important step towards a greener and safer city – declares Borin – However, it is necessary to pursue the WHO objectives, abandoning the idea of resorting to the possible exceptions contained in the new European directive, as repeatedly and widely hoped for for the Po Valley basin. Any further delay in achieving the 2030 air quality objectives translates into thousands more deaths and illnesses that can and must be avoided”.
According to estimates by the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) – we read in the note – the application of the exemptions provided for by the new EU directive on air quality, which would allow Regions such as Veneto, Piedmont and Lombardy to move the achievement of the levels of air pollution, could cause around 120 thousand more premature deaths in our country.
The data on Milan, as on the rest of the Po Valley, say the Consulcesi lawyers, show a critical situation that has persisted for years, continuing to expose the population to significant health risks. In our country, millions of people are still denied the right to health, recognized at an international, national and regional level. The EU Court has also confirmed this in the past, recalling and then condemning Italy for having exceeded the limits of PM10 and NO2 values in the air, damaging the environment and putting citizens’ health at risk.
According to Consulcesi, over 40 million people, out of a total of 3,384 Italian municipalities, have breathed and continue to breathe air poisoned by high concentrations of polluting particles, such as atmospheric particulate matter (Pm10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and for this reason they could join the collective action to request compensation from the State and the Regions. To join, simply demonstrate, through a historical certificate of residence, that you have resided between 2008 and 2018 in one or more of the territories involved. To find out if and how to participate in the legal action, Consulcesi makes the Aria Pulita website available: www.aria-pulita.it.
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