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ALESSANDRIA – After the interview with the head of Occupational Medicine of the Department of Public and Pediatric Health Sciences of the University of Turin, Professor Enrico Pira, on the environmental situation of the Spinetta area and in particular the epidemiological studies of the population of the hamlet, Professor Pira himself replied to some questions from some listeners, always on the same theme.
What are the main features of the epidemiological studies carried out at Spinetta Marengo?
These studies are descriptive and do not allow conclusions on cause and effect to be drawn. These are important studies that record what happens in an area but do not identify the determinants, that is, those factors that can change the health of a population. Among other things, in order to identify a cause, especially for some chronic degenerative pathologies such as tumors, it is not enough to identify a source but it is necessary that a long time elapse, even several decades at times, so that the observed effect is referable to the source. identified. Moreover, it is the authors of the studies themselves who say that the investigated territory has a complex history and has seen the presence of various productive settlements which over the years have also changed the type of their activities which may have determined non-existent previous causes. fully definable.
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Is it true that in the Asl and Arpa studies it is said that in Spinetta Marengo people get sick and die of cancer more than in other communities?
This is a conclusion that is not contained in the epidemiological studies carried out at Spinetta Marengo. The data may arouse some concern, but comparing the two studies by Arpa and Asl, on morbidity and mortality, the effects do not coincide. The data indicate that no pathology that presents a higher incidence in the population has also recorded a higher mortality and vice versa, with the exception of hypertension which studies indicate that should be explored with an individual assessment of the individual risk factors because it could result from renal distress. or of other nature. From the data present in the Regional Environment and Health Atlas of Arpa, relating to hospitalizations for liver and biliary tract tumors, it emerges that several municipalities have excesses indicated as statistically significant, with risk values even significantly higher than those found in Spinetta Marengo. Among other things, in most of these municipalities there is no chemical pole.
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How do you explain that there has been such an important increase in the risk of getting sick from various types of cancer?
The pathologies found by the survey are different, too different to have a single explanation and a single cause. We can say that with regard to renal failure, for example, the increase in risk varies from 46% for residents for at least one year, to 36% for residents for at least 10 years and this would indicate a lack of temporal correlation for which if I live longer in one area, the risk of getting sick would also increase. There is also no spatial correlation between exposure level and effect. The same percentage of risk, among other things, is also observed in other localities that are not close to the industrial pole and about 200 other localities in the Piedmont area have higher risk increases of 46% up to about 429% as in Balmuccia, small village in the province of Vercelli on the banks of the Sesia river. As far as pancreatic cancer risk is concerned, it is true that a significant increase is observed in the high exposure zone, but only for men while women always present risks below the population average. It is another evidence that these data cannot be explained by environmental exposure but must be interpreted on the basis of risk factors and personal histories that were not actually taken into account in the study. The analysis of regional territorial maps shows that the risk of pancreatic cancer for males has greater incidences in another hundred municipalities. Moncenisio, for example, reaches the maximum risk peak of 25.27, while Spinetta’s high level is 2.38.
What do epidemiological studies say about the importance of environmental pollution on the increase of diseases in Spinetta Marengo?
Surely the pollution of the environment has a negative effect on health but remaining at the purely descriptive value of the studies, an environmental exposure should produce similar consequences in both sexes, without making distinctions between genders. While taking into account the physiological differences between males and females, if it were environmental exposure, the trends should be similar while they are not. As stated by Arpa itself, many of the identified increases are mainly borne by men and this all the more reason requires a more in-depth assessment of any individual risk factors not related to environmental exposures.
Is it dangerous for health to live near the chemical pole?
From the complete analysis of the data, a correlation was not always observed between increased risks in both sexes and space-time trends. For some diseases it is true, for others the exact opposite happens. Therefore, it cannot be generally stated that those who live closer to the Chemical Pole, or stay there longer, are more likely to get sick than others.
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