In Italy there are still 40 million tonnes of asbestos within 1 million sites and microsites, of which 50 thousand are industrial, and 42 are of national interest. Asbestos is also present in thousands of schools.”
Sixty thousand people have died in Italy in the last ten years from asbestos-related diseases. In 2023 alone, the National Asbestos Observatory recorded around two thousand cases of mesothelioma, with a mortality rate, compared to the previous 5 years, of around 93% of cases. In the same year, there were around four thousand new diagnoses of lung cancer due to exposure to asbestos (net of smoking and other carcinogens), with an estimated 5-year survival rate of 12% for a calculation of around 3,500 deaths. It should also be considered that asbestos causes asbestosis with cardiac repercussions – the Observatory reports in a note – with an impact that has been recorded at the rate of 500 deaths, to which must be added other neoplasms, including cancer of the larynx, pharynx , esophagus, stomach, colon, ovaries, and cholangiocarcinoma of the liver, with an overall impact of more than 7 thousand deaths and 10 thousand new patients.
The data were communicated on the occasion of the World Asbestos Victims Day which is celebrated today, Sunday 28 April. “On this day, when the victims of asbestos are remembered, we appeal to Prime Minister Meloni to return it to the government agenda – he states Ezio Bonanni, president of the Observatory -. We remind you that only reclamation and safety can avoid exposure to asbestos and therefore future diagnoses of asbestos-related diseases which, unfortunately, in more than 90% of cases turn into a death sentence”. The Observatory also explains , that “every year there are 10 thousand new diagnoses, mostly men”. The regions at greatest risk are “Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria and Lazio, which represent over 56% of reported cases, with an annual average of diagnosed cases between 1,500 and 1,800”.
Currently in our country there are “40 million tons of asbestos within 1 million sites and microsites, of which 50 thousand industrial, and 42 of national interest. The situation is even more dramatic – adds the Observatory – as the dangerous carcinogen is also present in the buildings of 2,500 schools (2023 estimate), within which more than 352 thousand pupils and 50 thousand teaching and non-teaching staff are exposed. Furthermore, 1,500 libraries and cultural buildings including at least 500 hospitals (estimate for defect because the Ona mapping is still in progress), have asbestos components in the structures and technical systems, in particular thermal, electrical and thermo-hydraulic”.
