Air Pollution Over Rome Has City Fathers Gasping for Solutions to Traffic Woes

When newspapers recently ran pictures of traffic policemen wearing surgical masks to screen out the noxious fumes generated by the million or so motor vehicles that daily clog the streets of central Rome, they drew chuckles of disbelief.

Rome, after all, has long been celebrated for its unusually clean air. For centuries the clarity of the air has attracted artists to work in the city’s extraordinarily unobstructed daytime light. Even asthmatics have found comfort here.

But the publication of a few sketchy and possibly alarming air samplings last month, coupled with a chorus of stinging political tirades concerning automotive pollution, have brought Romans up short: Maybe the fabled Roman air is not so good after all.

A Judicial Ultimatum

The alarm provoked a judicial ultimatum from City Magistrate Gianfranco Amendola, who ordered the city fathers to reduce automobile emissions by 60% before the end of November or face closing off the city to incoming traffic, at gunpoint if necessary. Amendola threatened to mobilize the Carabinieri, the national police, to enforce the order.

“He doesn’t have the legal power to do such a thing--it’s outrageous,” thundered Sen. Francesco D’Onofrio, chief of Rome city affairs for the Christian Democratic Party, which ended nine years of Communist rule here in 1985. “This is all a terrible exaggeration stirred up by the Communists, who resent their loss of control of the city.”

Christian Democratic Mayor Nicola Signorello quickly calmed the irate magistrate, pointing out that under Italian law, a magistrate does not have the power to issue such drastic orders to elected city officials.

Agrees to Cooperate

Amendola, chastened, not only withdrew the ultimatum but agreed to cooperate with municipal authorities in solving the air and traffic problem, Signorello said.

But the problem remains, because no one appears to be sure just how bad the air pollution is, or how to go about coping with it.

According to traffic policemen at the city’s busiest intersection, near the Roman Forum, air pollution from automobiles that choke the circular Piazza Venezia is downright dangerous.

To draw attention to the problem, the small group of traffic policemen who donned the symbolic surgeon’s masks also set up carbon monoxide monitors at key points around the piazza. They said the monitors showed levels of 500 parts per million, and this, they said, is eight times the level that scientists consider hazardous to health.

“We vigile (traffic police) may be more exposed, but everyone who works in the city center runs the same risk,” one of the traffic officers, Marco Ciaffi, said.

Take Off the Mask

Ciaffi, along with his white-masked comrades, was ordered by police authorities to take off the mask or face disciplinary action.

“They put them on just to capture attention, and it is an outrage,” Sen. D’Onofrio said.

He acknowledges that Rome has severe traffic problems, and probably air pollution problems, but he insists that they are not as bad as they have been portrayed.

“That picture of the masked policemen was published throughout the world and may cause incredible damage to our reputation and our tourist industry,” he said. “People will think we are choking to death here on the streets of Rome.”

While the situation is not that bad, there are at least a few indications that air pollution is increasing, and anyone who walks or tries to drive the streets knows that the traffic problem is completely out of hand. Noise pollution, which goes hand in hand with the choked traffic, is demonstrably growing to intolerable levels.

Marble Surfaces Affected

In one of the recently published readings of air pollutants, the Italian National Research Council reported that noxious dust, which affects not only the breathing of humans but also the deteriorating marble surfaces of many of Rome’s irreplaceable ancient monuments, is approaching unacceptable levels.

A scientist with the council, Domenico Brocco, said his readings showed 110 millionths of a gram of noxious dust per cubic meter of air, and he said this is dangerously close to the limit of 130 millionths of a gram set by the European Communities.

Another report, from the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, cited Rome as the only major European city in which air quality is deteriorating rather than improving. The study said that between 1976 and 1982 no other city in the world registered such a sharp increase in sulfuric anhydride, a fuel byproduct. While the level of sulfuric anhydride has gone up here by 43 points in that period, it has fallen 18 points in New York City and 14 points in West Berlin.

It’s Noisy as Well

Yet another report, ordered by Magistrate Amendola, found noise pollution to be far in excess of maximum levels set by the World Health Organization. The Amendola report said that 55 decibels at night and 65 decibels in daytime are acceptable but that Rome ranks high on the list of the world’s noisiest cities, with levels of 73.5 in daytime and 66 at night. Most of the noise, the report said, is produced by auto traffic.

The 1 million to 1.5 million cars, trucks and buses on Rome’s streets every day are generally acknowledged to be at the core of the problem, but steps taken over the past decade have had little effect. For example, one must have a special permit to drive a car into central Rome, yet everyone seems to have such a permit. People who venture into the central city without it are seldom punished, except for a reprimand.

Parking on most city streets is illegal, yet many motorists double-park and park on sidewalks and the center lanes of parkways--often with impunity.

Electric Shuttle Buses

A program to reduce pollution from exhaust-belching city buses by replacing at least some of them with electric shuttle buses has been in the testing stage for more than three years, but the new shuttles, still undergoing tests, are not permitted to pick up passengers.

In near-despair over pollution from large, oil-fired heating plants at hospitals and other public buildings, Mayor Signorello signed an order last June instructing them to convert to natural gas or other cleaner fuels. But few have responded.

D’Onofrio said the new city administration, a five-party coalition headed by his Christian Democrats, has a three-stage plan to solve the problem.

First, he said, the city will force the biggest polluters, the heating plants of large buildings, to change to natural gas.

Another City--the Vatican

“You must remember,” he said, “that Rome is unique in having so many huge buildings. We are not only the capital of a nation, but we contain another whole city within our limits, the Vatican. This is a huge problem.”

Next, traffic in central Rome will be reduced by the addition of more walkways and an 80,000-car parking garage scheduled to start going up in 1987.

Finally, he said, the city plans to build a satellite business center, to the east of central Rome. Many city and national government offices will be moved there, close to a new circumferential highway.

Meanwhile, the city’s newspapers continue to publish alarming reports, including one in the daily La Repubblica that quoted cancer specialist Renato Zito as saying people who live and work here are three times more likely to develop lung cancer than are suburban Romans.

The article prompted a heart-rending letter from the daughter of a traffic policeman.

“Papa is dying of cancer of the lungs,” she wrote. “The doctor says it’s the fault of the smoke, because Papa stood all day directing traffic.”