An Italian parliament-mandated health survey has confirmed higher-than-normal incidents of death and cancer among residents in and around Naples, thanks to decades of toxic waste dumping by the local Camorra mob.
The report by the National Institute of Health said it was "critical" to address the rates of babies in Naples and Caserta provinces who are being hospitalized in the first year of life for "excessive" instances of tumors.
The report, which updated an initial one in 2014, blamed the higher-than-usual rates on "ascertained or suspected exposure to a combination of environmental contaminants that can be emitted or released from illegal hazardous waste dump sites and/or the uncontrolled burning of both urban and hazardous waste."
Residents have long complained about adverse health effects from the dumping, which has poisoned the underground wells that irrigate the farmland that provides vegetables for much of Italy's center and south. Over the years, police have sequestered dozens of fields because their irrigation wells contained high levels of lead, arsenic and the industrial solvent tetrachloride.
Authorities say the contamination is due to the Camorra's multibillion-dollar racket in disposing of toxic waste.
