[Short-term effects of PM10 on cause-specific mortality and the role of long-term environmental pressures in the industrial areas of Brindisi and Civitavecchia].

Objectives: the health status of people living near industrial plants is often exposed to several environmental risk factors, including air pollution. The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between daily PM10 levels and cause-specific mortality in a selection of municipalities near two industrial plants from 2006 to 2015.

Design: a time-series design with Poisson regression adjusted for a predefined set of confounders was used to quantify the association between exposure, calculated as daily PM10 levels extrapolated from machine-learning models using satellite data, and cause-specific mortality.

[The Integrated Environmental Health Impact of emissions from a steel plant in Taranto and from a power plant in Brindisi, (Apulia Region, Southern Italy)].

Objectives: to estimate the environmental and health impact attributable to PM2.5 emissions from the ex-ILVA steel plant in Taranto and the ENEL power plant in Brindisi (Apulia Region, Southern Italy).

Design: a SPRAY Lagrangian dispersion model was used to estimate PM2.

Industrial air pollution and mortality in the Taranto area, Southern Italy: A difference-in-differences approach.

Background: A large steel plant close to the urban area of Taranto (Italy) has been operating since the sixties. Several studies conducted in the past reported an excess of mortality and morbidity from various diseases at the town level, possibly due to air pollution from the plant. However, the relationship between air pollutants emitted from the industry and adverse health outcomes has been controversial.

Spatial distribution of kidney disease in the contaminated site of Taranto (Italy).

Background: Exposure to heavy metals has been associated with kidney disease. We investigated the spatial distribution of kidney disease in the industrially contaminated site of Taranto.

Methods: Cases were subjects with a first hospital discharge diagnosis of kidney disease.

Contribution of harbour activities and ship traffic to PM2.5, particle number concentrations and PAHs in a port city of the Mediterranean Sea (Italy).

In this work, an assessment of the impact of ship traffic and related harbour activities (loading/unloading of ships and hotelling in harbour) on PM 2.5 and particle number concentrations (PNC) separating the contribution associated to ship traffic from that of harbour-related activities is reported. Further, an assessment of the impact and environmental risks associated to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentrations was performed.

[Environmental indicators in EpiAir2 project: air quality data for epidemiological surveillance].

Objective: construction of environmental indicators of air pollution suitable for epidemiological surveillance in 25 Italian cities for EpiAir2 project (2006-2010) and presentation of the results from a 10 years of surveillance system (2001-2010) in 10 Italian cities.

Design: data on particulate matter (PM10 and its fine fraction PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O3), measured in the 2006-2010 calendar period, were collected.