The Pomezia fire remains a mystery. Except for one thing: we're surrounded by asbestos everywhere.

HEALTH RISKS OF ASBESTOS –

Days, several days, after the tragic fire at the Eco-X depot in Pomezia, with devastating effects and damage reaching as far as Rome, all the questions about the blaze (starting with how it started) remain unanswered . And that's already serious. Rumors pile on rumors, uncertainties pile on uncertainties, and as usual when there's an environmental disaster in Italy, a mammoth bureaucratic machine has sprung into action. Everyone and no one.

ALSO READ: Asbestos continues to kill 4 people each year, with 2500 schools at risk.

ASBESTOS DUST IN THE AIR –

Local administrators, from mayors to various presidents and councilors, are obviously shouting in a clever attempt to shirk any responsibility. And to stand with "the people," the same people who have been breathing poison in that area for years. Then we have the ministries (Health, Environment, Education), the local health authorities, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the usual ad hoc agencies. And what do we know? What have we understood? Little, almost nothing, and in any case, speaking of collateral damage, for now, food produced within an area 50 kilometers from the disaster site has been banned from all school cafeterias in Rome.

ASBESTOS: WHEN IS IT DANGEROUS –

The only confirmed fact, however, is as serious as the fire and exponentially amplifies its damage: in Pomezia, that poison warehouse, whose list of contents is truly impressive (batteries, plastics, tires: everything, and more) is stuffed with asbestos . The hideous and deadly asbestos, with its terrible fibers it releases, which are inhaled, ending up in the bronchi and lungs, through an incubation period that can last 25-40 years. Asbestos that, after more than twenty years of proven knowledge of its damage, inflates schools, many schools , public and private buildings across half the country.

TO KNOW MORE: The Bari factory that has continued to kill people due to asbestos since 1972

RISK OF EXPOSURE TO ASBESTOS –

How much asbestos do we still have in Italy? Unfortunately, a lot. Thirty-two million tons , equal to about 5 kg per citizen . And this silent killer of our health hides everywhere: in roofing and garage panels, in offices built with a material that has since been outlawed, in water pipes, train tracks, schools and gyms. Everywhere, in short. With the catastrophic result that, according to calculations by the Ministry of Health, there are still 3 victims per year in Italy, affected by asbestos radiation.

ASBESTOS TUMORS MESOTHELIOMA –

This true slaughter of innocents manifests itself in particular through mesothelioma, a specific and deadly type of cancer that develops following exposure to asbestos. In Italy, approximately 1,000 mesothelioma cases are diagnosed each year.

ASBESTOS: DAMAGE TO HEALTH –

The absurd thing is that we are still surrounded by asbestos, with its associated damage to the environment and our health, despite the fact that its use has been banned for almost twenty years. Twenty years wasted, in a battle still losing.

TO LEARN MORE: Asbestos disposal: Udine's first fiber reuse plant