VEHICLE EMISSIONS, URBAN AIR-QUALITY AND CURRENT ITALIAN LEGISLATION - THE CASE OF MESSINA

A two year-long research has been carried out by means of three base a nd two mobile stations to evaluate the urban air quality in the town o f Messina, which suffers the presence of about twenty million vehicles yearly ferried in because of its geographical position on the homonym ous strait. The monitoring network involves continuous automated appar atus measuring carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, par ticulate suspended matter and both methane and non methanic hydrocarbo ns, in order to control the observance of Italian legislation. The sys tematic presence of certain pollutants, whose values often exceed the legal attention (and sometimes alarm) limit, even in zones quite dista nt from the traffic road to and from continental Italy, causes some pr eoccupation as to the possibility of having to stop totally or partial ly urban traffic and, on the other hand, suggests the necessity for co ntrolling zones not yet monitored.