In Veneto almost four thousand people have died due to PFAS

One additional death every three days:This is how we can summarize what emerges from a new study that he calculated the increase in mortality from 1985 to 2018 within the Veneto red area:the area which includes 30 municipalities and the provinces of Vicenza, Padua and Verona where PFAS substances have poisoned hundreds of thousands of people.The research - conducted by scientists from the University of Padua, subjected to peer review and published in the scientific journal Environmental Health – was commissioned by the Veneto region and thanks to the contribution of the Statistical Service of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità and the NO PFAS Moms group, it highlighted how in 34 years it is as if the total population of the municipality of Orgiano and Asigliano had disappeared, demonstrating for the first time the causal association between exposure to Pfas and elevated risk of death from cardiovascular diseases.“The result was heavy,” commented a spokeswoman for the Moms NO PFAS group.

THE Pfas they are a group that collects over 10,000 synthetic molecules not present in nature, used in various industrial processes for the manufacture of products such as non-stick pans or some food packaging.Being highly stable molecules, they are not degraded briefly in the environment and have been defined as "eternal pollutants".Exposure to PFAS has been associated with thyroid problems, diabetes, damage to the liver and immune system, kidney and testicular cancer and negative impacts on fertility and since November 2023 the substances have also been recognized as carcinogenic.Pfas have already been detected in Veneto – where the issue is so serious that even the UN High Commissioner sent a delegation years ago – to the drinking waters of Lombardy and Piedmont.

As explained by Annibale Biggeri, professor of the Department of Cardio-thoracic-vascular Sciences and Public Health of the University of Padua, the research took place in collaboration with the Emilia-Romagna Cancer Registry, the Statistical Service of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità and with the contribution of citizen science of the NO PFAS Moms group and found that, for the first time, the data provided formally demonstrate an association between exposure to PFAS and mortality from cardiovascular diseases, also highlighting the correlation between kidney cancer and testicular cancer and PFAS in Venetian population of the contaminated area.«In the 34 years between 1985 – taken as the start date of water contamination – and 2018 – last year of availability of cause-specific mortality data – in the resident population of the Red area we observed 51,621 deaths against 47,731 expected» explains Biggeri, who he added:«This is an excess of 3890 deaths compared to expected, that is, one more death every 3 days.We found evidence of increased mortality from cardiovascular diseases, particularly heart disease and ischemic heart disease, and malignant neoplastic diseases, including kidney cancer and testicular cancer.And the trend is growing especially among the younger ones, where we found an increase in cancer mortality.Also noteworthy is the fact that a protective effect is found in women of childbearing age, probably due to the transfer of PFAS to their offspring."

This evidence, according to the NO PFAS mothers group and some critical consumer magazines, should be decisive for starting the cohort study already promised by the Region in 2016, but never started.Michela Zamboni, of the NO PFAS Mothers, declared:«The result was heavy.We already had the doubt that there was an increase in mortality, and not only that.The incidence of some diseases also seems to have increased:thyroid problems, attention deficit in children, low birth weight infants, pregnancy losses, tumors, heart attacks.We have sometimes said to ourselves that this is how it goes all over the world, but then this study, at least on mortality, compared to nearby areas, tells us that this is not the case, and that the cause is Pfas contamination.For this reason it would be important to unblock the cohort study approved by the Region in 2016 and never started, to do the same work on the incidence of pathologies".Regarding anti-PFAS filters and the inauguration of new pipelines with the aim of bringing water from clean aquifers, he then added:«First of all, there are still families who are not connected to the aqueduct and use water from wells, perhaps they don't drink it but they use it for cooking or washing.And then even regarding the new pipelines, we are not certain that we have completely replaced the old supplies everywhere.It is true that anti-PFAS filters are active, but remember that they have detection limits of 5 nanograms per liter, smaller quantities could however deposit little by little in the body of those who drink the water.This is why we ask for a complete ban on the production of Pfas in Europe."

[by Roberto Demaio]