The atmospheric impact of airport activities relates to a series of main emission sources, including vehicular traffic inside and outside of the airport grounds, means used for loading, unloading and ground handling operations and aircraft movements and their Landing and Take-Off (LTO) cycles. Airport operators are not directly involved and cannot control airline specific processes, such as the technological evolution of fleets, their emissions efficiency or the definition of flight routes and scenarios. Nor can they directly control the amount of external vehicular traffic that is closely correlated with the level of intermodality of the territorial context in which the airport is located. To ensure effective air quality control the Regional environmental protection agency of Lombardy (ARPA) monitors on a daily basis the presence of atmospheric pollutants across the entire region through 158 monitoring stations.
Malpensa surrounding area monitoring – average nitrogen dioxide (NO2) monthly values
| NO2 Annual limit: 40 µg/m³ annual average | Ferno | Lonate | Somma Lombardo | Busto Arsizio | Gallarate | Varese |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| µg/m³ | µg/m³ | µg/m³ | µg/m³ | µg/m³ | µg/m³ | |
| January | 40.3 | 47.5 | 35.4 | 30.4 | 49.1 | 47.4 |
| February | 36.6 | 43.9 | 37.9 | 41.9 | 42.5 | 48.6 |
| March | 31.1 | 39.1 | 30.4 | 40.0 | 35.8 | 46.1 |
| April | 17.2 | 29.9 | 17.7 | 21.0 | 27.7 | 33.2 |
| May | 13.8 | 21.6 | 13.2 | 15.9 | 19.8 | 23.3 |
| June | 16.5 | 21.3 | 14.9 | 18.5 | 16.5 | 22.2 |
| July | 15.5 | 23.4 | 14.2 | 22.8 | 27.2 | 27.9 |
| August | 15.5 | 39.2 | 14.9 | 22.3 | 30.2 | 25.1 |
| September | 19.9 | - | - | 48.3 | - | 29.1 |
| October | 30.1 | - | - | 51.6 | - | 34.9 |
| November | 29.9 | - | - | 35.9 | - | 32.9 |
| December | 42.1 | - | - | 46.7 | - | 56.1 |
Source: Arpa Lombardia, 2018
In the province of Varese, the air quality recording network comprises 7 fixed stations, 2 mobile stations and 4 gravimetric sampling instruments for the measuring of soft dust. The average figures, established by the daily results published by ARPA for the Malpensa area, are collated from the 3 monitoring stations in the immediate vicinity of the airport (Ferno, Lonate Pozzolo, Somma Lombardo) and from the other stations located in urbanised areas (Busto Arsizio, Gallarate, Varese).
Mono-nitrogen oxide in general (NOx) is produced during the combustion process due to the reaction which, at high temperatures, takes place between nitrogen and oxygen in the air.
Therefore, these oxides are directly emitted into the atmosphere following all high temperature combustion processes (heating plant, vehicle motors, industrial combustion, power stations, etc.), by oxidization of the atmospheric nitrogen and, only to a small degree, by oxidization of the oxygen particles contained in the combustible utilized.
Monitoring of the areas surrounding Malpensa – average particle (PM10) monthly values
| PM10 Annual limit: 40 µg/m³ annual average | Ferno | Busto Arsizio | Gallarate | Varese |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| µg/m³ | µg/m³ | µg/m³ | µg/m³ | |
| January | 40.0 | 36.1 | 41.7 | 32.9 |
| February | 37.3 | 34.3 | 37.6 | 37.1 |
| March | 28.0 | 26.9 | 29.6 | 30.5 |
| April | 22.5 | 22.3 | 22.3 | 23.0 |
| May | 15.3 | 13.2 | 13.5 | 17.7 |
| June | 15.6 | 15.7 | 14.7 | 16.2 |
| July | 16.6 | 16.7 | 15.2 | 16.6 |
| August | 16.3 | 14.7 | 18.5 | 14.4 |
| September | 22.3 | 21.7 | - | 21.4 |
| October | 24.0 | 24.1 | - | 25.9 |
| November | 27.8 | 24.9 | - | 22.3 |
| December | 44.2 | 41.3 | - | 37.3 |
Source: Arpa Lombardia, 2018