00.02:00 Images RC commemoration service: church, believers
Commemoration reader:
02:05
10th July 1976. A scorching, hot day. Now 20 years ago. A sudden fact changes the lives of many people: numerous city councils, evacuation of hundreds of people, torn down houses, uncountable damage to the broadcastings, many incorrect articles looking only for sensation...
For those who didn't live through the disaster: it is impossible to understand the terrible anxiety for the people of Seveso.
02:51 Images: houses at the "wood of oaks" where formerly was the Icmesa plant
Voice
02:56 Behind these trees Icmesa was situated. Then it was the property of Givaudan, a subsidiary company of the Swiss chemical giant Hoffman - La Roche. In 1976 after the release of dioxine into the Seveso air the plant is demolished together with many houses in the neighbourhood. These houses remained. But the people who live here haven't come to terms yet with the past.
Woman at house:
03:20 Q: Did you live here at the time of the disaster?
A: Listen. It is twenty years ago. It's a terrible fact I rather forget. I don't want to hear anything more about it.
Q: Why is it that the people don't want to talk about it?
A: It's over and done.
Q: Did you find any loss? Did you lose any money?
A: I lost my husband with it!
03:50 Press releases on the disaster
Voice
03:53
It is in Seveso that mankind is confronted with dioxine for the very first time. It is one of the most dangerous poisons ever conceived by man. A lot of animals die because of inhaling the fumes. The effects of dioxine on man is less evident. It was only after two weeks that the authorities decide to evacuate the people. Even at the present moment nobody knows the exact effects of dioxine on man.
Emanuela Dianin, inhabitant, resident Seveso
04:24
It was almost noon and suddenly there was this noise like something exploding. Then we saw this cloud emerging, a white cloud. There was this stench, something very acrid. That was all. It didn't seem important.. That was it. Later in the day the smell was gone . And nobody knew anything.
Q: And what did you do?
Nothing. It was Saturday. We went to the lake with some friends. We had planned that. We didn't leave the place because of that cloud. We went, as planned , to the lake. In the evening we had some dinner with friends. Nobody talked about what had happened, because nobody knew anything.
Images Emanuela working in her garden.
Voice
05:18 For Emanuela Dianin it is hard to understand that the people of Seveso today still don't get any information about the disaster.
Emanuela Dianin, resident Seveso
05:24
Anyway, there never was much information. Up to the present moment we don't know what the consequences could be for those who got "Chloracne" on their faces. We still don't know whether our houses are 100% safe.
Three years after the dioxine explosion, it was no longer necessary to get our blood examined. We did of course, at our own expense.
Images Emanuela working in her garden.
Voice
05:55
It may take another 10, 20 or even 30 years before science establishes the exact effects of the dioxine disaster. Epidimiological research takes time . Scientist have to acknowledge a large amount of different parameters. And with dioxine in particular it takes many years before the effects show themselves.
Images professor Paolo Crosignani working with his students
06:12
For many years now Professor Crosignani of the National Cancer Institute has taken special interest in Seveso as a case study. It was in '93 that the 1st and only study got published by which the development of cancers in the Seveso region was examined. The results at that time were amazing. Inhabitants of Seveso have up to six times as much chance to get cancers. But even this news ,which was published only in specialised magazines never reached the people of Seveso.
Paolo Crosignani, vice-president National Cancer Institute
06:39
A scientist does indeed publish his study, but for him at that moment his job is done. The scientist doesn't go back to the population, in this case the object of his study. There is no chance of telling the people what the risks are. For the majority of the scientists it is enough to get published so they add that publication to their curriculum...I really don't know whether the population has been notified of the '93 study!
07:19 Images Massimo Donati leaving his office.
Voice
07:19 But not only the population of Seveso is being kept ignorant of the facts. The general practitioner encounters the same problem.
Massimo Donati, GP Seveso
07:26
The major problem is that we too, doctors, don't get enough information. We wait on the results of the epidemiological tests, but this information really seeps through drop by drop.
07:41
If we want to do some prevention , we should know which are the tumors and what rise in cases we can expect. What we really should have to know is what we can do for prevention.
Paolo Crosignani, vice-president National Cancer Institute
07:56
The people should get themselves united. There should be a good understanding between them and the scientists! So that they get informed.
08:05 Images of Seveso and letters of the 11,000
Voice
08:06
11.000 inhabitants of Seveso have indeed united. Through letters they demand moral damage compensation money of Givaudan, a subsidiary company of Hoffman-La Roche. Since '83 the committee is entangled in a judicial battle with Givaudan. They are still waiting on a final verdict:
Massimo Carro, president of the committee of the 11.000
08:24
In Italy, the birthplace of the juridical system and of Roman Law there is no longer law security. It could well be that they leave the rogues in peace. Those gentlemen of Givaudan , it's our view that they behave arrogantly, as crooks, brutes and frauds!
08:51 Image tilt-down house Carro to him and son
Voice
08:52
The Swiss Hoffman-La Roche doesn't want to make any comments on these opinions. They repeat that the Italian authorities have been paid 80 million UK A3 as payment for any loss. Massimo Carro declares that only a small amount of this money went into the hands of the population:
Massimo Carro, president of the committee of the 11.000
09:08
I have no respect for those who claim we want to bleed the Swiss milkcow 'till she drops! When we are confronted with people who say this then we reply: Your Swiss cows came over to shit in Italy - I believe I make myself clear! I remember very well how a responsible of Givaudan answered in court, without any trace of shame, to the question why they didn't make these poisonous products in Switzerland: in Switzerland we don't have such unpopulated zones where we can make trichlorophenol. For people such as these I have no respect!
Gaetano Carro, son of Massimo Carro
09:56
On these stairs there were 11,000 people waiting to sign, not only because of the money, but because they were truly angry at Givaudan. Here it was full of cars. Each one of those 11,000 people passed these stairs. It was really very impressive. And inside, upstairs, was my father totally unconscious of the crowd outside.
10:21 Images remaining wall ICMESA, new sport facilities and the "Wood of Oaks"
Voice
10:23
This is the only physical evidence that ICMESA plant of Hoffman La Roche really did exist : a wall and a street name.
Where once was a plant are now extensive sports facilities. They were paid with what the authorities got as compensation from Hoffman La Roche. Young football players of AC Milan will commence their training here in the very near future.
10:46
With another part of the money the authorities planted a huge oak forest. The places where the dioxine cloud has passed over the houses have been destroyed. Only a small part of the motorway crosses the neighbourhood where once the chemical plant stood.
Alessandro Fiume, National Forest Administration
11:03
On the spot where we actually find ourselves there were 20 years ago many houses. Something like 700 people lived here. The houses were torn down. The debris ( ruins ) lays in a huge dumping site together with some 30 to 40 cms of terrain that was carried off.
11:20 Images wood, forbidden to enter, tunnel
Voice
11:22
What is even unknown to a large section of the population of Seveso is that all off the ruins of the plant and the houses , lay under the forest. The woods are for this reason seldom open for the public and only on very special occasions. It is through a tunnel which runs across the woods by which the dioxine danger can be controlled on a continuous basis.
Alessandro Fiume, National Forest Administration
11:42
The tunnel is located right under the bowl where the ruins of the houses from the contaminated zone are buried. The remains of the animals who died are up there as well. This amounts to some 200 thousands cubic meters of waste material right under the forest.
From here, from this tunnel we are able to check the groundwater. Through this pipe the water is pumped outside. Through this tap we check the dioxine level of the water. When the water is contaminated, we cleanse the water. The cleansed water is then being pumped out and the polluted water remains in the bowl.
12:36 Images Antonio Colombo working, construction site
Voice
12:44
Not only the water has traces of contamination left. Some residents of Seveso are 20 years later still testing their soil.
12:56
Antonio Colombo regularly takes samples of his contaminated soil. He still hopes to get compensation money. And with this money he could get his garden centre off the ground. For 20 years now Antonio lives on this hope. The rough outline of the garden centre is already there, but to continue he needs the money of the Swiss multinational.
Antonio Colombo
13:16
It's a vicious case! This is too large for the human mind to understand! I've wasted the work of a generation to make my motives clear. They are being confirmed by the verdicts in court. But the Swiss laugh in my face, they make fun of the verdicts of the court. They have the economic capacity and the power to destroy whole families. Today, they destroy my family , tomorrow they destroy other families. All Europeans should have a conscious attitude towards possible ecological disasters. The idea should grow that a moral and social reality is more important than the economic reality of the multinationals.
14:22 images church
reader in church
14:26
Save us, Holy Spirit, from a multinational that destroyed us, save us from a science that denied life.
Take care, O Holy Spirit, that never again on this earth we may have disasters like those of Seveso.
14:50 ENDS