Triangle of death (Italy)

The triangle of death is an area in the Italian province of Campania comprising the municipalities of Acerra, Nola and Marigliano. The region has recently experienced a considerable increase in the number of deaths caused by cancer and other diseases that exceeds the Italian national average. The rise in the cancer-related mortality rate is thought to be mainly caused by environmental pollution from illegal waste disposal by the mafia-type criminal organization the Camorra.

Definition

The term "The triangle of death" was first used in August 2004 by the international scientific medical review The Lancet Oncology (edit by Elsevier) who published a work by two researchers: Kathryn Senior and Alfredo Mazza (researchers in Pisa's CNR),^[1][2][3][4] called: Italian “Triangle of death” linked to waste crisis. An estimated 550,000 people live in this area. The death rate for 100,000 inhabitants (the number of deaths every year, per 100,000 inhabitants) from liver cancer is close to 34.5% for men and 20.8 % for women. On the contrary, the national average is 14%. The death rate for bladder cancer and CNS cancer is higher than in other European countries, although by a more modest increment. Campania overall has lower than the average cancer mortality rate than Italy.

The high death rate is thought to be due to the illegal hazardous waste disposal from various sources, especially from the northern Italy industries, carried out by Camorra.^[5]

Today, the difference between lawful management of waste and illegal manipulation with regard to their compliance with health regulations is very narrow, and the health risks are rising.

—Alfredo Mazza, The Lancet Oncology, vol. 5, settembre 2004

The 5000 illegal or uncontrolled landfill sites in Italy drew particular criticism; Italy has already been warned twice for flouting the Hazardous Waste Directive and the Landfill Directive, and the EU has now referred Italy to the European Court of Justice for further action.

—The Lancet Oncology, vol. 5, settembre 2004

Epidemiological research committed, in the provinces of Napoli and Caserta, by World Health Organization

In 2007, a further research^[6] committed by World Health Organization, Italian Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche and Campania Region was made; this one, has collected data on cancer death rate and congenital abnormalities in 196 municipalities around this area, between 1994 and 2002. In this statistical work, the confidence interval about the death reliability into Confidence interval are showed; it uses Bayesian inference.

The death rate for all the causes is shown below: it was significantly in excess

• between the male, the 19% of the towns in the province of Caserta, and for 43% of the towns in the province of Napoli,
• between the female in the 23 % in the province of Caserta, and in 47 % in the province of Napoli".

The authors found an elevated rate of congenital malformation, too. The work shows (in this areas with an elevated death rate or an elevated congenital malformations) almost always have got landfills or uncontrolled waste sites. From the other side, this works highlights the difficult to determinate the causality and the link between the elevated death and malformation rates and exposures related to the disposal of waste.

The presence of dangerous pollutants such as dioxin, particularly in the area of Acerra, is found,^[7] as well as illegal activities of waste disposal,^[8] even in the business of Montefibre,^[9] and as early as 1987, a decree of the Ministry of Environment called Acerra territory "at high risk of environmental crisis".^[10]

Illegal Toxic Waste Dumping in Campania

The hypothesis linking the high rate of cancer with environmental pollution in several sites in Campania is supported by the confession of the boss of the Casalesi clan, Gaetano Vassallo. He admitted to systematically working for 20 years to bribe local politicians and officials of the government commission, and gain their acquiescence to dump toxic waste.^[11][12]

Giorgio Napolitano, President of Italian Repubblic, said on June 2008:^{[13] [14]}

It is certain, not only to citizens but government as well, that the systematic transfer of toxic waste from industries in Northern Italy to Campania, was committed by the Camorra

—Giorgio Napolitano, 4-06-2008.

High levels of Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) have been detected both in the soil and the inhabitants of the region, though no obvious emitters in industry exist.^[15] It is hypothesized that industrial slurry originating from Porto Marghera (industrial docklands near Venice) were disguised as compost and spread in fields in the Acerra countryside by the Casalesi clan, often with help from the fields' owners.^[16][17]

Emblematic is the case of a company, whose assets were seized by police in an investigation started in 2006,^[18] who illegally disposed waste coming from industries in the regions of Veneto and Tuscany into the territories of Bacoli, Giuliano and Quiliano: this company disposed about one million tonnes of toxic garbage for a triennium, with an ern of € 27 millions. The company was already the subject of an investigation in 2003, but was ever acting undisturbed for many years.^[19] In Marigliano was found, in an illegal dump, a whole tank full of toxic substances buried.^[20][21]

Land of fire

Another step of this illegal activity are the fires burned to eliminate the gabbage, or to recover copper from electric wires.^[22][23] The fires, producing dioxin, have become more frequent because they could be confused with the numerous fires during the garbage crisis, where large amounts of garbage was burned. For example this one happened in Campania between the 2007 - 2008, during the garbage crisis. Between January and March 2007 were burned in agricultural land 30.000 kilograms of waste with a revenue of more than 118,000.^[22]

For the presence of fires in the north area of Napoli, Roberto Saviano first used (in his book Gomorra as title for the last and the second last chapters) the name "Land of fire" (in Italian terra dei fuochi).^[24]

Hazardous industrial waste disposal in lawfull landfill

Hazardous industrial waste disposal may happen in lawful landfill, too. In 2000, an enquiry of Parliamentary Commission about waste^[25] has discovered some muds in Pianura landfill, coming from ACNA of Cengio^[26][27] in Napoli, for an amount of about 800.000 tons. The Italian Procura della Repubblica in Napoli has found (through telephone wiretappings) some irregularities in the waste disposal into the landfill of Villaricca, managed by FIBA (a company of the group Impregilo).^[28]

Claims between population

In 2008 the waste commissioner Guido Bertolaso, (the head of the civil protection department), planned the opening of a new waste landfill. The Chiaiano's population claimed against this decision for two reasons:^[29]

• the mistrust in the governing institutions, whom, in the last years, had allowed or were lacking of strength in fighting against these illicit waste disposals.
• the consciousness of the rise in cancer death rate.

The population of Pianosa had similar claims against the reopening of the closed waste landfill, proposed by government commissioner Giovanni De Gennaro, and further given up. Between the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008~ some protests degenerated into urban violence^[30] between Napoli and the suburbs of Quarto and Pozzuoli. In these situation, same criminals^[31] acted directed of local political interests colluded with criminals linked to the building speculation.^[32]

Similarly, there were further claims, between the suburbs inhabitants, for the fear of another source of pollution, like the incinerator of Acerra.^[33]

Effect of pollution on the selling of agroalimentary products

In March 2008^[34] in buffalo milk from farms in the province of Caserta, some dioxin was found. In a first time some country like South Korea and Japan, assigned this one to environmental pollution, and stopped their import. Afterward the spread of this notice (that is related only at 2,80% of the farms in Campania^[35]) the selling of dairy products from the Campania decreased, not only in Italy but in all the world, too.^[36][37][38]

Illegal hazardous waste disposal in Campania in literature and cinema

The illegal hazardous waste disposal in Campania are treated by the book Gomorra from the writer Roberto Saviano, and the film Gomorra from the director Matteo Garrone and by the documentary "Biùtiful cauntri".

Notes

Bibliography

• (English) Kathryn Senior and Alfredo Mazza, Italian “Triangle of death” linked to waste crisis, The Lancet Oncology, Volume 5, Issue 9, September 2004, Pages 525-527.
• (Italian) Translation by The Lancet Oncology from the site of Centro Nazionale di Epidemiologia, Sorveglianza e Promozione della Salute
• (English) Fabrizio Bianchi et al., Italian “Triangle of death”, The Lancet Oncology, Volume 12, Issue 5, December 2004, Page 710.
• (Italian) Trattamento dei rifiuti in Campania: impatto sulla salute umana, report by World Health Organization, Italian Health Institute, it:Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche e Regione Campania (Italia).

In television

• Report: Terra bruciata, Tv 9-3-2008, and how finished this story in: Come è andata a finire?.
• Repubblica Radio TV: Morire di diossina in Campania, del 28-12-2007: [2], [3], [4]
• La 7: Il cancro di Napoli, del 12-12-2007; Allarme cibo avvelenato, Exit del 18-12-2007; Il posto dei rifiuti, del 22-09-2007
• Tg1: interview to Roberto Saviano at 3-1-2008 (evening ediction at 8:00 p.m.)
• Sat 2000: interview to dott. Antonio Marfella, oncologist at "Formato famiglia, 20-12-2007

See also

• Camorra
• Ecomafia
• Naples waste management issue
• Gomorrah (book)
• Gomorrah (film)
• Biùtiful cauntri
• Land of the fires
• Radioactive waste dumping by the 'Ndrangheta

External links

• La Terra dei fuochi, website showing claims on illegal waste disposal in Campania
• La Terra dei fuochi, website on "triangle of poisons" Giugliano-Qualiano-Villaricca