It is a sentence that is qualified as historical, because there will be a before and after in Italy on a very serious environmental problem and the fight against pollution. The European Court of Human Rights (CEDH) has condemned the Italian State for not having protected the health and life of the inhabitants of the call ‘Land of fires’ (Terra Dei Fuochi). It is an extensive area located between Naples and Caserta, in the Campania region, to southern Italy. It includes a territory of 1076 km², in which 57 municipalities are located, where approximately 2.5 million people reside. It is also known as the triangle of death, by the appearance of numerous cases of cancer.
For the court, there is a “real and verifiable” danger that can be described as “imminent.” This implies a violation of the right to life by the authorities, who did not acted with the speed and forcefulness that the situation demanded. The Camorra -Mafia Napolitana- won billions of euros Buying millions of tons of toxic waste, many of them from the chemical or pharmaceutical industry, mainly from northern Italy, which got rid of them at a low price.
For decades La Camorra has found a lucrative business In the illegal management of these industrial waste, charging companies from all over the country to get rid of MDangerous Aerials with clandestine methods And often, simply burning open -pit garbage. Precisely, the denomination Fires It is due to the constant columns of smoke that emerge from the burning of garbage and hazardous waste in clandestine landfills. The fires have decreased, but still in 2022 there were 1049 fires.
In the land of fires, during the last 30 years, thousands of cases of cancer and other diseases that residents attribute to prolonged contact with toxic substances have been documented. Some areas, according to several reports, present levels of dioxins or heavy metals well above the established limits, also affecting the local food chain.
For many years, numerous factories acted in hiding and poured toxic waste. That area became greatly destroyed, contaminated, poisoned, forced to absorb waste for years and years. Behind was organized crime, the camorra, but had the complicit silence of politicians, businessmen, citizens and institutions that they should control, monitor, protect and guarantee public health, but did not. In the Italian media it has been described to the land of fires as “the greatest mass poisoning in a western country.”
A geologist report Giovanni Balestri It leaves no doubt about the destiny of highly toxic waste that “flows from reservoirs”: in 2064, the lixed (residual liquid, generally toxic, which filters from a percolation landfill) will have penetrated completely into the aquifer below of the Toba layer on which the landfills are located. The poisons will contaminate tens of square kilometers of earth and everything that inhabits it «. For years the toxic waste had even poured authorized landfills, but “perhaps on the invoice one thing was written and in the truck another,” some associations denounced.
The complaints
The judgment establishes that the Italian authorities have breached for decades their duty to take adequate measures against pollution and illegal discharge of toxic waste, thus putting the lives of thousands of citizens at risk. Since the 1990s, neighborhood associations and priests, such as the popular priest Maurizio Patriciello, threatened with death by the camorra, publicly denounced the environmental and sanitary disaster that was producing before the inaction of the institutions. Priest Patriciello himself recalled on several occasions that among the Cancer victims In their surroundings there are two of his brothers and other relatives sometimes, even, who raised his voice received mafia threats or insults of those who denied the situation or minimized their effects.
The ELDH sentence occurs after the resources filed by 41 individuals and five associations, who alleged violations of the right to life and healthcontemplated in the European Human Rights Agreement. The Judges of Strasbourg ruled that the Italian State, despite recognizing the severity of pollution in the region, did not adopt the necessary precautions to stop illegal discharges or to provide clear and truthful information to the population.
Specifically, the Court denounces the absence of a “complete and accessible” communication strategy that warned citizens of potential or real health risks. Some official documents, emphasizes the ruling, were covered by a long time for a long time, which prevented citizens from knowing the true magnitude of the problem. According to the European Court, «The Italian State has not responded to the seriousness of the situation with the diligence and speed required, despite being aware of the problem for many years ».
“My family was decimated”
Those deep wounds have marked the people of this extensive territory. He suffered it in his own Alessandro Cannavacciuolo family, a graduate in Criminology, the first signatory of the appeal presented at the Strasbourg Court: «My family was decimated and also our farm of sheep that fed on the cultivated fields. Many members of my family suffer from cancer ».
A report from the Higher Institute of Health and the La Sapienza University of Rome offered data that leave little to the imagination: the incidence of tumors in men who live or have lived in the risk areas considered of the ‘land of fires ‘, is 11% higher. that the national average, while among women is 9% higher. Data related to neoplasms mortality in resident children throughout the area of the provinces of Naples and Caserta are alarming.
The oncologist Antonio Ivella, director of the National Institute of Cancer Fundación Pascale denounced: «Children born here have between 20 and 30% more possibilities of childish cancer. And children’s tumors represent a specific marker of environmental tension ». It knows it well Marzia Caccioppoli, a mother who lived in Casalnuovo (Naples), with more than 40,000 inhabitants, one of the municipalities of the land of fires: «My son was a healthy child, swam. At night the air was disappointed. One day, when I was eight and a half, he suffered a engulf slowdown. We took him to a specialist and then to the Gaslini hospital in Genoa (one of the most important in Italy), where they discovered that Antonio had been attacked by a tumor that does not affect children but older people. Given the results of the biopsy, the oncologist asked: ‘Lady, where do you live? Near industries? ‘ I didn’t understand. Because around us there were fields … ». But they were poisoned and the air was disappointed. The risk is that they will last a long time.
Reactions
The opinion of the Strasbourg Court underlines that, given the complexity of the phenomenon, a coordinated plan was required, with effective criminal actions to combat traffic and illegal discharge of waste, as well as sanitation measures and constant monitoring of the quality of the air quality , of water and earth. The Italian state, according to the ECHR, has not been able to demonstrate that it made all the criminal efforts necessary to prosecute, condemn or prevent environmental crimes that have aggravated the catastrophe. For the Court, “the progress in the evaluation of the impact of pollution has been too slow, when speed was required.” It is now granted two years “to elaborate a strategy.”
After hearing the sentence, the priest Maurizio Patriciello, pastor in Caivano, has recalled on several occasions that among the victims of cancer in his surroundings are two of his brothers and other relatives. With remarkable forcefulness, the priest has lamented the “slander” he suffered when he began to denounce the situation, as well as the personal attacks of those who accused him of alarmism. Now, after knowing the sentence, Patriciello has expressed a “painful relief” to see that Europe confirms that it was not exaggerations, but a true tragedy silenced for a long time.
The neighborhood and environmental associations operating in the land of fires consider that the pronouncement of Strasbourg marks a before and after in the fight against pollution in Campania. Although CEDH rejected the resources of some organizations because they were not directly affected, it has recognized the legitimacy of residents to demand responsibility to the State. One of the lawyers who has led the lawsuit, Valentina Centonze, qualifies the resolution of “historical” because it is not limited to verifying the violation of rights, but specifies a series of duties that Italy must fulfill from now on. Among them, the need to design an effective strategy of public communication and to introduce corrective measures that ensure the health of the population within two years is mentioned. The ruling does not include direct compensation to the plaintiffs, but it does entail a firm obligation for Italy: it has to act without delays to stop the problem.
Political reactions have not been waiting. From the Government, the preliminary statements recognize the seriousness of the sentence and promise “a renewed effort” to implement the recommendations of the ECHR. The Deputy Minister of Justice, GEROLAMO Cangiano, of Brothers of Italy, has stated that “under the current government of Giorgia Meloni, the fight against environmental crimes and the safeguard of public health are an absolute priority.” For its part, the Democratic Party, of the left, through its representative for southern Italy, Marco Sarracino, has demanded an emergency plan that involves both local entities and the national executive. The way to solve the problem can be long, because, among other things, of the complex bureaucratic tangle that still characterizes the transalpine country.
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