MILAN (ITALPRESS) – “Though times, in the trial offices and more generally in the publications that investigated and reflected on the incident, the facts were meticulously reconstructed. It still stands today, at a distance of fifty years, the intolerable irresponsibility of corporate leadership with the guilty delay with which they provided news of the gravity of what was happening. The presence of dioxin in the air was thus first tacit, hidden, then minimized. Equally disconcerting is the fact that only the disaster revealed that, in the plant, it was produced trichlorophenol, highly dangerous. Severe reticences and cloaks“. Thus the president of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, intervening in Seveso at the commemorative ceremony of the 50th anniversary of the environmental disaster in the Icmesa plant of 10 July 1976. “The unforgivable delay of information – which, on the other hand, would have had to come, with precision and immediacy, to institutions and to the population, became itself the cause of the protracting exposure to the dioxin of people and animals,” the Head of State pointed out.
“In this recurrence the thought is addressed first of all to those who suffered the humanly heavier consequences for the removal from the factory of that great amount of highly toxic substances – Mattarella said – To those who lost their lives following illnesses caused, or aggravated, by prolonged exposure to dioxin. To their families who, besides the shock of the first days and the forced abandonment of the houses and of the earth, cohabited with the sufferings of their loved ones. To almost 200 children of that time who were affected by a serious skin pathology. To women who were suddenly with their pregnancy at the risk of malformations of those who had yet to face life. To those who, after years, became ill with the understandable suspicion that the contamination of the air, the food and the earth was responsible for this poison.”.
“According to the most serious and painful events, it is right, on this day, to recall the women and men of solidarity, who committed themselves to alleviating the many sufferings. Those who immediately assisted the affected populations, beginning with the firefighters, who intervened when the consequences of the toxic cloud were still uncertain. Those who helped in evacuation. Who gives you control,” said Mattarella. “You renewed your gratitude and appreciation of doctors and health professionals who, in the emergency, lent themselves courageously to the care of the many who were in need and danger, or who were afraid for their families. Doctors and health personnel, once again, showed in those uncertain circumstances a firm commitment beyond the duties of professionalism. It should be remembered the precious work carried out by the Hospital of Desio”.
Moreover, he continued the Head of State, “thinking the civic sense and solidarity shown in the emergency, assumes aspect of high symbolic value the figure of Carlo Galante, who has disappeared for more than two decades, to which the Republic has given the silver medal to the civil valor. Icmesa’s worker entered the ward where the reactor had triggered the violent jet of lethal steam and inside a poisonous fog, potentially mortal, enveloping everything. With a simple mask on the face, Carlo Galante managed to operate the cooling valve and that operation allowed to limit the exit of the toxic substance, reducing damage, even if it is very serious, that, without its intervention, would become much more devastating. It was an action, his, of true heroism, which deserves perennial gratitude,” concluded Mattarella.
“In the reaction to the disaster caused by the toxic cloud, in the reparation of social and economic life are imprinted the signs of a civil levy, which went beyond the reclamation and reconstruction. It is right to emphasize and celebrate this response and this revival today, at a distance of fifty years. The resumption of local communities and, next to them, of the whole Lombard and national society is emblematicly represented by the “Bosco delle Querce di Seveso e Meda”, where we have just been, testimony of a recomposition of the ecosystem after the devastation that seemed to have erased every future. So it wasn’t. The monumental poplar who survived the disaster, defeating dioxin, became the symbol of the resilience and will of future of this community. The future has been reconquered. Plants and animals have returned to live next to people. People who have once again designed and built their families and communities tomorrow. She must accompany her unchanged attention,” the Head of State continued.
“The alarm then launched by Mayor Rocca for the isolation in which Seveso had fallen: ‘We risk being separated, expelled from the community’, he said, met solidarity, because, as President Fontana pointed out, the pact between institutions, citizens and territories was honored. It was a test bench for the institutions and, in particular, for the Region, recently entered into full activity, which he claimed and knew how to play a leading role. Permanent instrument remains the Fondazione Lombardia Ambiente, wanted and realized in those years. To the far-sightedness and commitment of the Mayor of Seveso of that time, Francesco Rocca, of the president of the Regional Junta, Cesare Golfari, of those who attached them, like the extraordinary commissioners Antonio Spallino and Luigi Noè, must face a grateful thought”. Mattarella stressed that “the Republic remembers their work. Life and the future are back in your hands. It was a challenging, tiring path. I suffer from sacrifices, when pain alternated with hope. With everyone’s commitment they have won hope and life.” “Good future wishes”, concluded the President of the Republic, addressing himself to the Greek hall.
LA GIORNATA
The Head of State, entering the tensostructure set up for the institutional ceremony in the Bosco delle Querce di Seveso, was welcomed by a long applause and, subsequently by the notes of the hymn of Mameli, played by the two bands of Seveso (La Cittadina e Santa Cecilia) and sung by the Chorus Il Rifugio di Seregno. Presents the president of the Senate Ignazio The Russian, the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, the president of the Lombardy Region Attilio Fontana, the mayor of Seveso Alessia Borroni, the prefect of Milan Claudio Sgaraglia, the prefect of Monza Brianza Enrico Roccatagliata and the president of the Province of Monza Brianza Luca Santambrogio.
Before the institutional ceremony, the president Mattarella – together with the governor Fontana, the mayor Borroni, the prefect Roccatagliata, the president Santambrogio and the deputy director of Ersaf Roberto Bettaglio – witnessed the flashmob “Il Bosco del Futuro” – staged by the young actors of the cultural association “Teatro Contact” of Baruccana di Seveso in the area only opposite to the “great”
The stele attesting to the Querce Wood of the European Heritage Site was unveiled and the three-dimensional model on the scale of the “ecological bridge” which will cross the future Pedemontana Lombarda motorway allowing the extension east of the Querce Forest.
IL VIDEO
-Photo press office Quirinale-
(ITALPRESS).
