Pollution : Rome to ban diesel cars
Sports •
the city regularly tries to ban older more polluting vehicles from roads on days when pollution reaches critical levels1 the mayor of rome virginia raggi has said that rome will ban diesel cars in an attempt to combat air pollution1 raggi announced the decision on her facebook page on tuesday saying if we want to intervene seriously we have to have the courage to adopt strong measures1 her comments followed a court ruling in germany that cities there can ban the most heavily polluting diesel cars from their streets1 about two-thirds of the 1.8 million new cars sold in italy last year were diesel according to industry figures1 the italian capital is one of the most traffic-clogged cities in the world. but the damage done by those engines is threatening the thousands of historic monuments that are found there1 rome has no major industries so nearly all of the air pollution in the italian capital is caused by motor vehicles1 now cars with diesel engines will be banned from heading into the centrethe mayor said1 it has also tried to reduce pollution by allowing only cars whose number plates end in either odd or even numbers to circulate on alternate days1 but both regulations are widely flouted and lightly enforced by traffic police. to skirt the alternate days regulation many families buy a used car with a different number plate1 apart from health issues pollution from combustion engines causes severe damage to romes many ancient outdoor monuments1 according to a study last year by a branch of the culture ministry 3600 stone monuments and 60 bronze sculptures risk serious deterioration because of air pollution1 ahead of celebrations marking the start of the new millennium in 2000 the darkened facade of st. peters basilica at the vatican was cleaned as part of a project that lasted several years1 but fresh signs of pollution-related stains are visible again1 before the german courts ruling on tuesday officials in highly industrialised milan in northern italy had already announced plans to make the city diesel free by 20301