Taranto. The director of the Epidemiology and Care Intelligence area of Aress Puglia, on the issue of updating the epidemiological study on Taranto also relating to the emissions of the former Ilva, confirms that in relation to the statements of the prof. Marescotti regarding the update of the cohort study, the activity is ongoing, as planned.
The activity has recently been included in the broader framework of initiatives to protect health and the environment envisaged by the Program of Interventions on Contaminated Sites as part of the National Plan Complementary to the PNRRwhich involves 14 regions and 22 SINs, coordinated by the Puglia Region.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to ignore that the pandemic led to a reduction in diagnostic activity in the two-year period 2020-2021, throughout Italy, and it was therefore appropriate to provide for an extension of the observation period to include at least 2023.
However, this aspect also represents an opportunity, since the Taranto study will be accompanied by a coordinated plan of cohort studies, in many of the sites involved in the national project, in order to be able to define a shared framework of reference, including methodological ones.
However, it should be noted that the update of the cohort study concluded in 2016 and the subsequent difference in difference study published in 2019 have already supported, unequivocally for us, the existence of a causal link between steel emissions and mortality due to lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases, also suggesting the association with other outcomes, both tumoral and non-tumor.
The ongoing research activities aim to extend the observation to other health effects, to contribute to building evidence between exposure to industrial pollution and diseases.
