Inquinamento e costi sociali: una prima stima dei risparmi potenzialmente ottenibili con l'applicazione di materiali nano strutturati in ambito urbano

Because nowadays more than 200 kind of diseases are to some extent connected to atmospheric pollution, with a very significant impact on the social cost of a community, it can be important to study the effect that plans for using technologies able to treat urban areas atmosphere as a whole (in particular public areas), may have on reducing social and economic costs. The relationship between the increment of air pollutant concentration and morbidity/mortality due to natural, heart, encephalovascular and respiratory causes has been widely documented in national and international scientific literature. A technology based on nano-structured materials (TiO2 based nanocompounds) which, under ultraviolet radiations, presents photocathalytic effects, can be able to decompose a wide variety of atmospheric pollutants as nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and nano-powder (PM10). In this paper we study and set up a model for the economic and social impact assessment of a large scale implementation of this technology in the field of urban and building construction. The paper assumes that the estimates of economic-social costs of air pollution, can be used as a starting point for a preliminary determination of the savings, which can be realized by employing photocatalytic pigments and mortars on a wide urban scale. This analysis has been applied to data referred to the town of Turin and has highlighted the possibility of a considerable level of saving in terms of social and economic costs.