INHALE final meeting

The final results of INHALE project have been presented in Milan on the 14th of June, 2023, during the  “Agricoltura e qualità dell’aria – dai dati alle decisioni” Conference, organized by CMCC, Legambiente and Bocconi University.

Air pollution is Europe’s top environmental threat to health, as recently reminded by the European Environmental Agency. Italy is the second EU country for premature deaths from air pollution (PM2.5), with the highest concentration in the affluent and highly populated Po valley. The COVID-19 pandemic has made air pollution more salient, by raising awareness of its devastating effects and amplification of concurrent diseases, including viral ones. However, it has also made clear the extent to which agriculture and livestock are part of the problem and should likewise be part of the solution.

Starting from these premises, the AgriAir, INHALE, D-Dust and Agrimonia projects – all financed by Cariplo Foundation – studied the impacts of air pollution on the agricultural sector and presented their results during the  “Agricoltura e qualità dell’aria – dai dati alle decisioni” Conference, on the 14th of June, 2023.

The INHALE (Impact on humaN Health of Agriculture and Livestock) project focused on air pollution exposure and impacts attributable to the agricultural sector, to deliver actionable and effective strategies. These objectives were achieved through newly collected data, from ARPA Lombardia, on PM10 composition to pin down the air pollution part attributable to agriculture, using data science and spatial econometric methods.

Furthermore, INHALE developed a “smart spreading window” policy support tool to complement the methods used by the local authorities in scheduling the agricultural livestock effluents spreading on the fields. This tool, soon available online, can provide smart scheduling of the livestock effluents spreading, minimizing the impact on human exposure.

Overall, the AgriAir, INHALE, D-Dust and Agrimonia projects developed data driven tools and methods dedicated to deepen the knowledge on the impacts of the agricultural sector on air quality and ultimately human health. The outcomes of these set of projects can be used to support air pollution mitigation and/or management decisions iming at improving human health through better air quality.

Download here the presentations of the day.