Read the full article by Spinetta Marengo (AFP)
“After years of protests by local campaigners, two former directors of the plant in the Piedmont region in northern Italy are to stand trial next month for involuntary environmental disaster.
The area near Alessandria, in the industrial triangle between Milan, Genoa and Turin, is ‘deeply affected by a social and health crisis caused by the plant’, local activist Spineto told AFP.
Residents near the Syensqo site in Spinetta Marengo have significant levels in their blood of ‘forever chemicals’, or PFAS, which have been found in both the air and local aquifers.
Locals suffer a much higher-than-average level of kidney, liver and bladder cancers, according to a 2019 study by the Piedmont region’s environmental protection agency (ARPA).
While blood tests have so far been limited to people living in the immediate vicinity, ‘at least 90,000 people’ in the surrounding areas could be affected, said Spineto, who teaches at a local school.”…