Italy's waste woes taking toll on citizens' health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Decades of illegal waste disposal in southern Italy may be having dire consequences for the health of people living in the area, new research shows.

People living in the most trash-contaminated areas of the Campania region have higher mortality rates than those living in cleaner towns and cities, while cancer deaths are also elevated in the dirtiest municipalities, Dr. Marco Martuzzi of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe in Rome and his colleagues found.

Campania is "known for its problematic waste situation," Martuzzi and his team note, in particular the provinces of Naples and Caserta. Breakdowns in government-run trash collection services in these provinces, as well as illegal dumping and burning of trash produced locally or even brought from elsewhere by organized crime cartels, have been making the news since the early 1980s.

Mortality, cancer deaths, and rates of birth defects are all known to be higher in Naples and Caserta than the average for the region, the researchers add. They hypothesized that mortality, cancer deaths and birth defects would be particularly high in areas that were closest to landfills and dumping sites.

To investigate, the researchers looked at death rates due to nine different causes between 1994 and 2001 in 196 towns and cities in Naples and Caserta, as well as rates of birth defects in the same municipalities between 1996 and 2002. They compared these figures with the degree of local environmental contamination from waste, and accounted for the effects of deprivation.

Mortality rates due to any cause were significantly higher for both men and women in the more contaminated areas, the researchers found. The excess risk was particularly high for death from liver cancer, with men in more contaminated areas at about 19 percent greater risk of dying from the disease, and women at nearly 30 percent greater risk.

Overall cancer mortality risk was higher for both men and women in the more contaminated areas, while men in these areas were at increased risk of stomach and lung cancer compared to those living in cleaner neighborhoods.

The researchers also found that birth defects involving the internal urogenital system and the brain and spinal cord were more common among babies born in the dirtiest neighborhoods.

More study is needed to learn which hazardous agents are most harmful and to look at whether waste exposure affects other types of health outcomes, they write.

"It is, however, more urgent that action is undertaken in the region for removing the most acute cases of waste exposures and for implementing an efficient cycle of waste management," Martuzzi and his team add.

Lessons learned from the region may have wider implications, they say, given that illegal disposal of hazardous waste has become a global problem.

SOURCE: Occupational and Environmental Medicine, November 2009