Italian cities are still far off this limit, and the Environment Minister is about to sign a decree which will give local administrations carte blanche in measures which aim at reaching ten micrograms.

Anything will be possible, from letting only cars with even-numbered license plates drive on even dates, to banning cars without catalytic converters, banning red cars for that matter, or anything else. The only obligation will be to get benzene down to European levels.

What is new is that town halls can now really do something, a feeling that the old ways are just not good enough.

This probably has less to do with the European directive than recent research carried out by the Censis Institute: this showed that in the five years from 1991 to 1996 fewer and fewer firms were investing in city centers, and employment levels - except in local government - went down by 7%. The drop was due to the pollution levels.