title: Evaluation of the temporal variation of air quality in Rome, Italy, from 1999 to 2008.
abstract: The main objective of this study was to asses the temporal variation (1999 trough 2008) of air quality in Rome, focusing on airborne concentration of selected pollutants (PM10 and PM2.5 mass concentration and particle number concentration, PNC, carbon monoxide, CO, nitrogen oxides, NO and NO2) used for health effects assessment in epidemiological analyses. Time series analysis using Seasonal Kendall test has been applied. A statistically significant decreasing trend was found for primary gaseous pollutants and total particle number concentrations. Moreover a decreasing trend was assessed for PM10, PM2.5 and NO2 measured at traffic oriented sites even if the estimated reduction was lower compared with NO, CO and PNC. The urban background PM10 and NO2 concentrations seem to be practically unchanged since 1999 as no statistically significant trends were found. All the pollutants show higher slope of the estimated trend line at traffic oriented sites compared with those observed at the urban background. Thus a reduction of the intra-city concentration variability throughout the years occurred.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, Rome, Italy. giorgio.cattani@isprambiente.it
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cattani
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Menno di Bucchianico
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dina
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Inglessis
authors.forename: Carmelo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Notaro
authors.forename: Gaetano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Settimo
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Viviano
authors.forename: Achille
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marconi
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000465:Algorithms; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010316:Particle Size; D052638:Particulate Matter; D012384:Rome; D012621:Seasons
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D000395:Air Pollutants, Occupational; D052638:Particulate Matter