Mesothelioma, Franco Di Mare's cancer and the oncologist's j'accuse: “Asbestos everywhere and no one intervenes”

“In Italy asbestos is still present everywhere and even in an unsuspected way, without anyone intervening“. This was reported by Antonio Giordano, an Italian oncologist working in the USA, where the testimony of the journalist Franco Di Mare was strong, revealing the disease he contracted presumably in the years he spent as a war correspondent in the Balkans. His story “has also shaken the 'America. We are at his side”, the scientist, president of the Sbarro Health Research Organization (Shro) and professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, declares to Adnkronos Salute. On the one hand “it is urgent to definitively eliminate the asbestos present in the environment”, on the other “we need to develop an adequate monitoring system for the ex-exposed”, urges Giordano, convinced that instead “economic interests slow down scientific research”.

“Pleural mesothelioma – explains the oncologist – is a silent killer, but at the same time it is one of the few tumors for which the etiology is almost certain: the development of this neoplasm is certainly related to exposure to asbestos fibres”. Giordano knows this well, both because “I have been studying mesothelioma for many years” and because “I can define myself as a 'son of art'. My father Giovan Giacomo Giordano – he says – was one of the first scientists, together with Professor Cesare Maltoni of the Collegium Ramazzini of Bologna, to study and discover the very serious damage resulting from exposure to asbestos fibers and also thanks to his research asbestos was outlawed in Italy in 1992”. A call adopted “at European level since 1999”.

Yet people continue to die of mesothelioma and it happens “for two reasons”, reasons the scientist. First of all for the “long clinical latency of the tumor, considering that up to 30 years can elapse between exposure to the mineral and the development of the disease”. And then because, “despite the fact that every activity of extraction, trade, import, export and production of asbestos, asbestos products or products containing asbestos has been prohibited, the material is still present in large quantities – warns Giordano – in places where it is not remediation and disposal is carried out”.

“The poisoned air, even from asbestos, continues to hurt” so much so that “now the risk of developing mesothelioma has become environmental – specifies the oncologist – rather than professional. The peculiar physical-chemical characteristics of asbestos justify its widespread use in construction so, if it is present in large quantities in areas such as Italy, one can only imagine how many fibers of toxic residues there may be in areas affected by actions war: residues deriving from the destruction of buildings, from the combustion and oxidation of pollutants which remain suspended in the air, which penetrate into aquifers and cultivated land. Scenarios that involved the journalist Franco Di Mare”.

Giordano has several works focused on pleural mesothelioma, “since despite enormous progress in the scientific field – he points out – this neoplasm is still an orphan of diagnostic and prognostic markers and above all of effective therapeutic approaches”. The scientist, a true Campanian born in Naples, also experienced the battle of the workers of the former Isochimica plant in Avellino on the front line: “A real ecological bomb”, he says. “The neighborhood of Borgo Ferrovia, in the city center – he recalls – has breathed air poisoned by asbestos for years. This is certified by the assessments ordered by the prosecutor's office, in which I participated”.

“To date there is no test that alone or in combination with others can be used for prevention campaigns that can be started at a population level”, points out the oncologist. It would therefore be necessary to refine the diagnostic tools to be able to start monitoring those formerly exposed to asbestos fibres. “Instead today we are witnessing a slowdown in studies”, which for Giordano “could be caused by strong economic interests underlying the asbestos industry“. All the more reason, therefore, “in areas at high risk of asbestos-related pathologies – insists the scientist – it is essential to intervene by cleaning up as quickly as possible. We cannot stall for economic reasons and condemn thousands of people to death.”