2023-06-21 14:06:00
“With as many as 60,000 premature deaths attributable to pollution every year, Italy is the next country to be inundated with lawsuits in which the state will have to compensate citizens and account for the damage caused by smog, as is happening right now in France and Germany”. This is the comment by Massimo Tortorella, president of Consulcesi, on the news arriving from Paris: the French state has been sentenced for the first time to compensate victims of smog due to exceeding the pollution threshold in the Paris region. Two ‘unpublished and important’ sentences as defined by the French lawyers who followed the case. They concern two children who were victims of repeated bronchiolitis and ear infections in the first two years of their lives. Both reside in the Paris region less than 1 km from the Boulevard Péripherique, the ring road that surrounds the French capital.
Italy is concerned about air quality – reads a note – in many cities the PM10 limit established by the European Union has been exceeded several times (with sentence of 10 November 2020, C 644/18) as well as those recommended by the ‘World Health Organization for Pm2.5 and No2. Premature deaths, children with serious illnesses from birth, respiratory problems are some of the consequences of air pollution that emerge from numerous scientific analyses. While in France, according to the organization Santé Publique France, 40,000 deaths are attributable to fine particles every year, Italy, after France and Germany, is the country with the highest number of deaths in Europe linked to environmental pollution, with 59,641 premature deaths, according to the latest Eionet and Eea report (2022).
Unlike the legal action in France, the ‘Aria Pulita’ case conducted in Italy by the Consulcesi legal team – continues the note – extends the possibility to everyone, even to those who do not report demonstrable damage to their health, to claim the right to breathe healthy air. Consulcesi estimates that there are 3,384 Italian municipalities included in the violations ascertained by Europe for a total of more than 40 million residents. According to reports from the legal team, it is possible to request compensation equal to 36 thousand euros for each year in which he resided in the area where the EU Court ascertained the violation in the decade 2008-2018 for a total, therefore, of over 300 thousand euros .
“This collective legal action – underlines Tortorella – will not only allow citizens to protect their right to breathe healthy air but also to be protagonists of an epochal change because it has the purpose, in addition to the request for compensation, to solicit the implementation of plans measures to put an end to the continuing violations”. To join the case, it is sufficient to demonstrate one’s residence for at least 1 year in the period between 2008 and 2018, the same for which the European Court of Justice has ascertained the violation of the limits, in one or more of the territories involved. To find out if and how to participate in the collective cause, Consulcesi makes available the Aria Pulita website: www.consulcesi.it/legal/ambiente.
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