In January, Angelo Di Ponzio lost his 15-year-old son.
Giorgio died from a soft tissue sarcoma, a degenerative phenomenon linked to
prolonged exposure to dioxin in the air.
"A genocide is unfolding before our very eyes, and the
world knows nothing about it," Di Ponzio told DW.
He says his son is just one of many to have fallen victim to
air pollution in his hometown of Taranto, in the Puglia region of Italy's deep
south.
Time was, the sea-facing city of Taranto was the pulsing
heart of Magna Graecia, as the Romans dubbed the coastal region of southern
Italy. Today, that grandeur has faded and the location has become synonymous
with something quite different.
Ten minutes from the center, in the district of Tamburi,
which translates to "drums," a factory spews thick clouds of smoke
over buildings stained in various shades of brown.
Conceived as a state-owned property in 1961, privatized by
leading steel company Riva Group in 1995, and acquired by private Indian
company ArcelorMittal last year, the Arcelor Mittal Italia steelworks, which is
known locally as ex-Ilva, sprawls over 1,500 hectares of flatland, making it
Europe's largest.
Put together by Italy's National Health Institute (ISS) and
the Italian Network of Cancer Registries, SENTIERI, has made a connection
between Taranto's cancer deaths and exposure to the emission of hazardous
gases, including dioxin, a highly toxic persistent organic pollutant (POP).
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