“Asbestos continues to claim victims and 5,000 people die every year. The National Asbestos Help Desk was created in 2017 in an attempt to create an information circuit dedicated to citizens. For this reason, through the participation of the associations founded by the relatives of the victims, who studied the problem in depth due to the pain they suffered, it was possible to help people in difficulty by providing them with useful information. Officially today we are 30 volunteers, supported by professionals and technicians from INPS and INAIL. We are more structured than in 2017. We involved 4,000 municipalities out of 8,000, but it wasn’t easy to do the counters, in fact we knocked on every mayor’s door without ever hesitating.”
Who speaks to the editorial staff of Panorama.it he is the international manager Fabrizio Prottia man who, in addition to doing his job, is committed daily to the battle against asbestos. Every day he dedicates about 2 hours of his time to defeat the lethal mineral. Protti is the President of National Asbestos Help Desk and fights courageously, involving the world of business, institutions, politics and research. He is convinced that the asbestos problem can only be solved if everyone actively participates to find the right solution.
What was done in Italy during the battle against asbestos?
Asbestos was banned in 1992 thanks to the trade union struggles that arose in the Casale Monferrato area, where Afeva was born, the first association movement of family members and victims of asbestos, which was then a derivation of the CGIL. This means that the unions contributed to the drafting of law 257/92 and that the victims’ association and the unions contributed to winning the battle to put an end to the production and marketing of asbestos.
How long would you have to be exposed to asbestos to get sick?
From 1940 to 1992 in Italy real estate assets were built with asbestos. The coefficient calculated for contracting diseases is the long exposure evaluated only in the workplace. For an illness of occupational origin, 8 hours a day for 10 years and at least 100 fibers breathed are calculated.
You are an international industrial manager and have worked in the sector for over 40 years. What is your experience?
My interest in the damage caused by asbestos was born after having conducted an analysis of the entire world linked to this mineral with the aim of understanding why the problem in Italy was not being solved and what could be done to find the right solution . Mine was not a disinterested analysis because in the years 2010 – 2011 I was director of development on behalf of a French public company. This company proposed a method of inertizing Asbestos which made it and still makes it practically harmless.
What is meant by asbestos inertization method?
Inertising means making asbestos harmless through a treatment that acts directly on the mineral fibres. These are extremely dangerous for public health, however after applying the treatments on the materials, they become practically harmless, removing the danger from the mineral.
Thanks to the Asbestos Desk, research was carried out on Italian territory. What did you discover?
With the National Asbestos Help Desk we have mapped 24,000 kilometers of Italian territory and therefore, in fact, we have mapped 1/10 of the Italian territory. We estimate that on Italian roofs there are 1 billion and 200 million pieces of asbestos to which friable asbestos must be added. So there are 30 million tons of asbestos. This means that to dispose of all the asbestos present we would have to open 30 landfills of 1 million tons each.
How many landfills are there in Italy today?
There are 19 of which only 6 are active. The others are seized due to administrative problems or mafia infiltration. Of these, none receive friable asbestos, but only compact asbestos. The crumbly all goes abroad. So the famous pipes, the plasters when they are damaged, then in Italy we don’t know where to put them.
How many landfills should there be in Italy?
We need local landfills, so there is a need for at least one landfill for each region. Each region must manage its own asbestos waste without sending it around the country.
Every year 5000 people die from asbestos. What actions do you want to take to avoid further deaths?
We can’t do anything for the next 30 years because unfortunately related diseases have a latency of 20 to 30 years. But if we start doing well today, we could see the first results in 15 or 20 years.
What are the activities to be implemented with the National Asbestos Help Desk?
The steps to be taken are the following: mapping and census of asbestos sites. Then it is important to act on the landfill plan for the disposal of the mineral. But there is a need to do more dissemination activity through conferences. Training needs to be done in schools. Then there would be a need to institutionalize the asbestos desk to welcome and inform citizens. Today we are 30 people and we answer all calls. If the institutions helped us, I could easily go back to just doing my job.
What do you think about worker training?
It is not of secondary importance. Worker training is among the priorities. Let us remember that there will be countries to rebuild as will happen in Ukraine, for example, which only banned asbestos in 2022. This means that the rubble we see on TV is all contaminated by asbestos.
What is the worst situation you have seen in Europe regarding asbestos management?
Eastern Europe is totally behind. Asbestos is collected with bare hands, without protection. It’s very sad to watch all this. But the problem depends on who manages the work activities and who does the things to. Let us remember that politics must be stimulated and it is precisely the leaders who must do their best to stimulate politics.
