A moment from the press conference. From left: Viola Cereda, Mirella Benazzo and Giuseppe Ungherese
ALEXANDRIA – In all the blood samples of the 36 people who – in May – voluntarily underwent the test, Pfas values higher than 2 nanograms per milliliter have been founda warning threshold also taken into consideration by the Piedmont Region for its biomonitoring in Fraschetta.
However, data relating to Adv and cC6O4 are missing.
The statistics
Although statistically the figure – thirty-six – is very low, for the associations that promoted an independent test (Ànemos, Greenpeace Italia and Comitato Stop Solvay) it is the third piece of evidence that proves it.
In the blood of the population of Fraschetta and the surrounding towns (exposed for decades to pollution from the chemical plant of Spinetta) there are chemical substances, some carcinogenic, although in variable concentrations that increase with the age of the participants and which, as already highlighted by scientific literature, are higher in males.
Third analysis
The analyses carried out by a laboratory of the German University of Aachen (because in Italy no one has taken responsibility for it…) and paid directly by the people of Alessandria, arrive after the Liège report and that of the Piedmont Region and essentially confirm, for the third time, high levels of Pfas in the blood of the inhabitants who drank the water, breathed the air and lived on polluted land.
Because carcinogenic substances were found both in the wells (some closed as a precaution), in the air and underground.
And in an area much larger than Fraschetta – up to Litta Parodi, Castelceriolo and Piovera – which had not even been taken into consideration by the regional sampling, which is still underway.
“Free access to analyses”
«Cirio could be my dad’s age – he began spokesperson for the Ànemos association, Mirella Benazzo – I think no parent would want their children’s blood to be contaminated.”
The environmentalist asks the President of the Region to come and talk to the people, because the fear of getting sick is real and trust in the institutions, “as we have been able to see, is very low”.
From a short survey submitted to the 36 volunteers by the associations, it emerged that neither the hospital or general practitioners, nor the municipality or public bodies, would have properly informed them about biomonitoring and on the risks to which they were exposed.
Viola Cereda, of the Stop Solvay Committee, addresses the new regional council.
«We ask for free access to the analysis, for everyone – underlines Cereda – And then concrete actions to solve the problem. It’s true that it’s not just this industry’s fault, but it’s clear to everyone that it is now obsolete and will continue to pollute. What do the institutions want to do? They never express themselves and this is no longer tolerable.”
The Committee’s position is clear from its name: closing the plant. “There are no conditions to keep it open, but if the Region has a different opinion, at least let us know.”
The employment blackmail
“We have understood that that industry cannot produce without releasing toxic substances into the environment,” he reiterated. Giuseppe Ungherese of Greenpeace – Institutions must do something to block harmful production without delay. Spot interventions are useless“.
And he continues: “They are playing with matches near the gasoline.”
Closure or partial suspension of production could mean, as has often been feared, loss of hundreds of jobs: «At this point, after the third analysis, the logic of employment blackmail must no longer apply. Polluting production must be stopped and that’s it».
Concrete actions
Greenpeace asks the new health councilor, the Casalese Federico Riboldito take action in a pragmatic way.
The three organizations underline «how this data can help justice to nail polluters. If this is not done, it will mean that the Piedmont Region will have turned its back on a population that has been the victim of decades of pollution.”
