Air Pollution and Health Risks: A Statistical Analysis Aiming at Improving Air Quality in an Alpine Italian Province

Abstract

This paper analyses air pollution levels in an Italian mountain province in order to understand how they can affect air quality and therefore have significant negative effects on health. The analysis considers intra e inter-annual variability in air quality in the province of Trento, after taking into account meteorological conditions. The main purpose is the proposal of an analytical procedure that, starting from the statistical properties of the observed time-series for each of the seven monitoring sites, controls for that part of air pollution that is explained by the meteorological variables using a panel data model, and then moves to analyse its unexplained part and how it is affected by the three main pollutants.