Immortalized in Saviano's book "Gomorrah", the reality of toxic waste ferried in by local crime syndicates is becoming a wider problem that threatens both the livelihood and the security in large, populated Italian regions.
But the extent of the problem only become patently clear after the testimony of a key figure in Neapolitan organized crime, Carmine Schiavone.
The long trial which ended in 2010, netted the police many arrests, but it also uncovered a lethal reality: large swaths of Neapolitan lands are incredibly toxic, due to years of illegal ferrying of the waste in a lucrative scheme, where industries hire the organized crime ring to dispose, cheaply, of toxic waste, which then gets dumped in open pits in the countryside outside the city.
The result of such activities have contaminated soil and groundwater that has resulted inthe highest cancer rate in the world, second even to the famous cancer villages in China. Schiavone actually mapped the areas used surreptitiously by the crime syndicate in Naples. He told of activities that span decades, and have imported to the area millions of tons of highly toxic waste, some even radioactive. Schiavone even went so far as to say that most of the people in the affected areas will be dead within 20 years.
Some of the toxic waste came from as far as Germany.
What is worse, is that the revelations of Schiavone have not resulted in a vigorous clean up effort. Almost nothing at all has been done to bonify or decontaminate the toxic areas. And the efforts that have begun for the cleanup are woefully late.
What is worse, medical researchers now claim that Schiavone was correct, but that the police authorities have known for more than two decades about these revelations, and yet no one moved to remedy the problem or stop the activities until recently.
Among the people responsible for the inactivity on restoring contaminated areas are Giorgio Napolitano, now the sitting President of the Italian Republic, and Gennaro Capoluongo, who toured the areas with a helicopter during the investigation in the early 90's and yet, today is at the head of Interpol. Many others, now sitting at the top of police and intelligence agencies, were privy to the information that should have led to a massive cleanup.
Included in the testimony offered by Schiavone, was evidence that a discreet amount of the waste illegally disposed was nuclear in origin. Some of the waste was concealed in pits dug during the process of construction, a business sector dominated by organized crime in Naples.
This problem, of gargantuan proportions, both in scope and consequence, highlights how the Mafia, of whatever provenance, has been part of the State. It is entrenched in politics and government, and leaves no doubt as to the ability of syndicates to do exactly what they want, including destroying land and killing innocent people.
Witness to this high level corruption, is the fact that Schiavone cites how an intermediary in the illegal waste ferrying, a large northern corporation, has been shielded from prosecution and from becoming public domain by none other than Giorgio Napolitano.
One of the partners of the intermediary corporation was Paolo Berlusconi, a brother of Italian Prime MInister Silvio Berlusconi.
The end result of these activities is that an area at the foot of Vesuvius and surrounding areas, once one of the most fertile agricultural land in the continent, was termed by the Lancet Oncology, a British publication of Oncology medicine, the "triangle of death". Animals are born with gross congenital defects. The presence of lethal levels of toxins was supported by a US study, done to ascertain the risk to a nearby US base occupiers who are now forbidden from using the ground water even to brush their teeth. 92% of all the wells in the area have extremely high levels of contaminants. Soldiers are even prohibited from living outside the base, unless they occupy one of the highest floors, since the fumes from the toxic deposits reaches the lower floors in higher concentrations.
Half a million people live in the area forbidden to US troops. And they still eat food that is produced in the neighboring areas.
In some areas, where waste disposal has begun, where produce is farmed above the barrels of toxic waste, some of the worker's special gloves dissolve at the simple contact with the waste.
Scientists agree that only an exclusion zone, and at least 50 years must pass before the land could be occupied again. But none of that is happening.
In the meantime, cancer incidence has risen by 50%. In particular, a pernicious type of lung carcinoma, in non smokers as well as smokers, has become a prevalent form of illness. Infertility and autism are rampant, a sing of mercury contamination.
Demonstrations and grass roots movements are trying to get authorities to address the problem. What the result of these activities will be, is still to be demonstrated.
Source : Spiegel International/ 1.16.14
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