Syracuse, Priolo, Melilli, Augusta: the quadrilateral of death

From a scientific point of view – explains Lo Verso – there are analyzes capable of providing significant information on the link between diseases, deaths and industry, but «without the possibility of distinguishing which source has more or less contributed to the pollution and the effects on health related”. «In the gigantic bowl of contaminants that the Syracuse area has become over the years, it is not known, with the exception of EniChem’s mercury, which pollutants belong to a given factory. The promiscuity of the plants is the reason why the identification has so far remained uncertain: with this motivation, on three occasions in 2007, 2008 and 2012, the Sicilian Regional Administrative Court rejected the environmentalists’ requests. According to the judges, it was not possible to establish the exact origin of the poisons, in short the specific responsibility of this or that industry. For the record, in the TAR documents, they had all claimed “their non-involvement in the contamination of marine areas”.

A recent study, for example, cross-referenced the health data of deceased and hospitalized residents (including those who had sought treatment in Northern Italy), with the mapping carried out by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, which indicates the geographical spaces of relapse of contaminants emitted into the atmosphere, and obtained an indicator of the causes of death and diseases in relation to pollution concentrations in the area. A notable step forward – states Lo Verso – «capable of providing a catalog of diseases and deaths from emissions but “without the possibility of distinguishing which source has more or less contributed to the pollution and related health effects”».

But why was mercury damage more evident and easier to correlate to the source in Minamata? «According to some scientists, if a drama has not yet broken out in Minamata, it is because the same environmental conditions do not exist in Augusta. Nor even social: in the fishing villages of the Yatsushiro sea, the diet was exclusively based on fish caught in the bay. For others, however, the explosion has already occurred, but at low intensity. The faint shock wave is perceived by following the mercury which escapes from the toxic sediments, slowly rises to the surface, in still light doses, and is exposed to the sea winds. But it is felt above all by the impact on the marine food chain, on those fish that absorb the fearsome toxic substance that has been intercepted, we must always remember this, well beyond the limits of the harbor, in the open sea”. According to Fabio Cibella, epidemiologist from the CNR, one of the leading figures of Cisas (International Center for Advanced Studies on the Environment, Ecosystem and Human Health): «If you are looking for the gun with the smoking barrel like in distant Minamata, you won’t find it here». Lo Verso explains that the scientist has been observing the escape of methylmercury from the seabed for some time, and has so far found “relatively low” values ​​compared to those recorded in Japan. «To understand what is really happening, the most relevant metaphor is that of the multi-bladed knife – continues Fabio Cibella -. It’s as if people had received many stab wounds all over their bodies.” The multiplication of injuries is the effect of the host of pollutants, methylmercury, arsenic, dichlorobiphenyl, lead, hexachlorobenzene, dioxins and pesticides, which one following another penetrate the human organism through the air, water, food or skin contact. «Simultaneous exposure to multiple contaminants, even if in small doses, exerts a toxic action on the cells of the body» explains Paolo Colombo, researcher at the Institute for Biomedical Research and Innovation of the Cnr in the book: «Even if each of the pollutants for its part remains below the legal threshold of harmfulness, there is nothing to worry regarding at all, the sum of the long-term effects can lead to very serious health outcomes”.

Fabio Cibella and Paolo Colombo have started a project that will make it possible to follow the trace of contaminants from the initial state of fetal development up to adolescence and adulthood. With the aim of identifying the causal relationship “between a given pollutant of industrial origin and a given tumor victim”. To do this they use the placenta, which is «a real logbook, a sort of “black box of pregnancy”. It records the moment a toxic substance enters the body. And it also indicates, in our case, the place where the contamination occurred, i.e. the area where the mother who never traveled during pregnancy lived.” In addition to analyzing newborns. A study conducted on eight hundred and fifty pregnant women, of which five hundred and sixty in Augusta alone and which “might overturn the balance of power between the industries and the populations of the contaminated sites”.

Meanwhile, in 2019, the Syracuse judiciary which was investigating the quality of the air – since an improvement in performance had been imposed by law on the factories which included the obligation to use “the best techniques available to bring emissions into the atmosphere back within the limits” – did trigger the seizure of the plants of four well-known companies, Versalis, Sasol, Priolo Servizi and Industria Acqua Siracusana. With attached warranty notices for top management. The investigation, started by the deputy prosecutor Fabio Scavone, with the name No Fly, has concluded the preliminary phase and is now in the evidentiary phase.