The Lagrange Street story: the prevention of aromatics air pollution during the last nine years in a European city

Benzene, toluene and xylenes (BTX) air pollution is a very important topic for environmental health, due to the toxicity and/or mutagenetic or carcino genetic properties of these aromatics and the commercialisation of the unle aded gasoline containing amount of BTX. We measured BTX in the air of Turin city, the capital of Piedmont region (north-western Italy), during 10 year s, from 1989 to 1998. The sampling site selected was Lagrange Street (LS), an "urban canyon" placed in the centre of the city. The behaviour of BTX in LS was conditioned by some local and national legislative measures enforce d during 1990s for the reduction of automotive traffic and BTX air pollutio n, respectively. Taking into account the existence of similar measures unde rtaken also in several cities in the developed countries, largely described but never discussed, the aim of this study was to verify in LS the prevent ive effects of these regulatory actions by means of a longitudinal survey e xtended over 10 years. Results obtained in Lagrange Street highlight season al trends, typical of this kind of pollutants, and an important reduction ( from 42.6 to 15.9 ppbv) of aromatic hydrocarbons (sum of benzene, toluene a nd xylenes) in atmospheric air from 1990 to 1997. In particular, the annual level of benzene in air showed a mean from 9.2ppbv in 1990 to 2.0ppbv in 1 997, almost half of the 3.1ppbv imposed by law since 31 December 1998. In c onclusion, the present findings induce a consistent optimism about the usef ulness and the effectiveness of these types of regulatory actions enforced to reduce the human exposure to BTX, which could be extended also to other trafficated sites where the aromatics air pollution has to be reduced. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.