The Seveso disaster was a turning point for EU environmental safety awareness, President Sergio Mattarella said on the 50th anniversary of the calamitous dioxin industrial plant contamination near Monza Friday.
"What happened in Seveso became a turning point in the Italian and European consciousness for the culture of safety and prevention, which the Seveso emergency significantly and duly accelerated," said Mattarella, in Seveso at the official ceremony marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Icmesa environmental disaster of July 10, 1976, when a toxic cloud of dioxin was released following an explosion at the industrial plant.
" What happened was unacceptable, and the regulations subsequently developed on a continental scale had historic value because they were based on the protection of people's lives, the protection of communities, and the environment as a primary human right," he said.
Mattarella went on to say that there were serious "reticences" and cover-ups at Seveso, adding that "the intolerable irresponsibility of company management is still evident today.
"The intolerable irresponsibility of company management is still evident today, fifty years later, with their culpable delay in providing information about the gravity of what was happening.
"The presence of dioxin in the air was thus first silenced, covered up, and then downplayed.
"Equally disconcerting is the fact that only the disaster revealed that the highly dangerous trichlorophenol was being produced at the plant.
"(There were) extremely serious reticences and cover-ups." "The response to the disaster caused by the toxic cloud, and the resumption of social and economic life, bears the hallmarks of a civil resurgence that went beyond cleanup and reconstruction." "The Icmesa tragedy became a sad paradigm of what should not be done, inspiring the launch of a European project that has given rise to stringent regulations—including in Italy—such as Environmental Impact Assessments and Integrated Environmental Authorizations, to protect citizens.
These regulations are especially aimed at protecting against risks posed by industries with potentially harmful processes.
This is a path that must be pursued with determination." "Technological progress must serve humanity and communities. Any view that cynically plans a trade-off between human costs and economic benefits must be firmly rejected. Europe must be able to offer a balanced response to the world. A community grows, produces, and lives while ensuring its future if it embraces the value of sustainable environmental resources and the consolidation of social cohesion." "We owe a grateful thought to the foresight and commitment of the then Mayor of Seveso, Francesco Rocca, the President of the Regional Council, Cesare Golfari, and those who supported them, such as the extraordinary commissioners Antonio Spallino and Luigi Noè.
"The Republic remembers their work. Life and the future are back in your hands. It was a challenging, arduous journey. Full of sacrifices, when pain alternated with hope. With everyone's commitment, hope and life prevailed."
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