On a clear day, above, Mount Vesuvius can be seen towering over Naples, Italy but smog often hides the volcano, as shown below. If you live in Naples, you’re breathing in the equivalent of nine to 11 cigarettes’ worth of pollution per day, according to a recent medical study. (Jason Chudy / S&S)
On a clear day, above, Mount Vesuvius can be seen towering over Naples, Italy but smog often hides the volcano, as shown below. If you live in Naples, you’re breathing in the equivalent of nine to 11 cigarettes’ worth of pollution per day, according to a recent medical study. (Jason Chudy / S&S)
NAPLES, Italy – How many cigarettes do you smoke in a day?
Don’t answer just yet.
If you live in Naples, you’re breathing in the equivalent of nine to 11 cigarettes’ worth of pollution per day, according to a recent medical study released by the Sesto San Giovanni Hospital’s occupational health department and reported by The Associated Press.
That’s a half-pack-per-day habit you’ll have to kick when you leave, even if you never light up.
The study, presented in northern Parma at a conference on a rise in respiratory diseases, ranked Naples as the fourth- worst city in Italy for its air pollution.
Ranking worse were: Milan; Palermo, Sicily; and Trieste in the country’s northeast corner. There, residents breath in the equivalent of about 15 cigarettes per day.
“Since I’ve lived here all my life I didn’t realize it,” said 18-year-old college student and nonsmoker Gloria Bradshaw, whose mother is Neapolitan and father is American.
“But what can you do about it?” she said. “You can tell the air is different here (than in the United States). It just feels different.”
Petty Officer 3rd Class Tim Martinez, who has been in Naples since March, said he doesn’t know if he believes the study, but can sure tell when the pollution’s bad.
“I live in the barracks and sometimes can’t see (Mount) Vesuvius,” he said after finishing a cigarette at an outdoor smoking area. “It’s right there — only about five miles away.”
Martinez, a corpsman at the base clinic, said he believes that pollution here is worse than it is in the States because of the large numbers of people who burn their trash.
“Even in Chicago it wasn’t this bad,” he said.
The pollution, he believes, has affected his allergies.
“I’ve always had them a bit, but here they’ve gotten worse,” he said.
Those at other U.S. military bases in Italy can breathe a little easier, but not much.
Nonsmokers in Livorno are getting the equivalent of only five or six cigarettes per day, as do residents of Naval Air Station Sigonella, Sicily, who live in Catania, about 15 miles east of the base.
Don’t hold your breath, Vicenza. Any base personnel who live in Padova take in four to five cigarettes per day.
Aviano residents can breathe a sigh of relief, as none of the nearby cities made the list.
