Alpen-Initiative
Environmental pollution
The environmental effects of transport are enormous – transport pollutes Alpine valleys and makes them ever noisier. A lorry or freight train are more of a threat to people’s health when they travel through the Swiss Reuss or Leventina valleys than when they drive across the prealpine lowlands. This is due to special problems as regards noise and air pollution – in narrow valleys, pollutants disperse more slowly and frequent thermal inversions lead to pollution levels which, even when there is little traffic, are already as high as in big towns.
