Not to forget: 4 dead 25 years ago at the Livorno refinery The January 30, 1986 the refinery Stanic (now ENI) Livorno four workers died intoxicated chain hydrogen sulfide (or hydrogen sulphide). Gianluca Nardi Wladimiro Cecchetti, and Massimo Giampietro Domenico Maglione, all under thirty, were killed while working in a settling tank in the open. One of them was installing a valve between two pipes, when poisoned by hydrogen sulfide - which has particularly insidious characteristic of inhibiting the smell - was knocked unconscious. A second worker rushed to help him, but lost in turn directions, so the third and fourth. A fifth worker, in turn, tried to do something, but then walked away saving themselves for help. "The workers are spirit, and even have the strength to utter a cry," reported the news. Nardi and Cecchetti were employees of the firm Montano, Sweater and Gianpietro cooperative ACLI Labor. They worked in the tub without a mask or other protection, although incidents of this kind had already occurred often in the news Stanic.Ancora say that "the annual budget for companies to contract creates a situation of fierce competition to win contracts; auction contract may also be made within a week, with possible consequent irregularities. "And yet" In a tube can form pockets of gas .... a stagnation of the product. So it should be, before you open it, careful cleaning of the line with steam, but some rules are too often neglected is to speed up the work, both in the absence Heads of department or other expert personnel of the line. "Yet, just twenty days earlier, on January 10 there had been a similar incident of acne Cengio: two workers seriously poisoned by hydrogen sulphide, and twenty other less heavily intoxicated, all hospitalized. And just twelve days later replicated in Porto Marghera: February 12 two workers seriously intoxicated, one of whom also reported a head injury from the fall to the ground. They were the first signs of savage deregulation of work: reviewing today is impressive, when deregulation became hard and fast rule and generalized. But hydrogen sulfide (H2S) continues to kill, Livorno, even at low doses: it feels (when you can feel, that is, until the concentration does not inhibit the sense of smell) as the smell of rotten eggs, a typical area of \u200b\u200bthe refinery and in the district of Emilio and Pond Village, a suburb north of Livorno. A study in November 2007 by two researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles, Maria Rita D'Orsogna and Thomas Chou, describes the health effects of low doses of hydrogen sulphide which is mainly emitted by oil refineries, but also of municipal waste landfills and special industrial and farm animals. The study says verbatim: "The scientific evidence examined leads to the conclusion that H2S levels below the standards laid down by law have serious potential 'harmful to the population. L 'H2S, which is classified as a poison at high concentrations, at low doses can' cause neurological, respiratory, motor, cardiac and may be related to increased incorrenza of spontaneous abortion in women. Sometimes this damage is irreversible. From recent results also show its potentiality `a, at low doses, to stimulate the appearance of colon cancer." Among the non-fatal effects include neurological damage - such as dizziness, fainting, confusion, headache, somnolence, tremor , nausea, vomiting, convulsions, dlilatate pupils, learning problems and concentration, loss of consciousness, irritability, poor memory, changes in motor skills and sense of smell - and lung damage such as edema, regurgitation of blood, difficulty breathing, coughing, chest pain. These effects are often irreversible, says the study. Prolonged exposure to even low doses can cause: between 0.1 and 1 ppm neuropsychological defects, delayed verbal, motor problems, etc., between 1 and 5 ppm balance disorders and coordination, slow reflexes, confusion, etc. between 2 and 8 ppm insomnia, nausea, irritability, difficulty breathing, diarrhea, etc. and thus to worsen with the rising concentration to 250 ppm, pulmonary edema, alteration of cellular metabolism, nerve damage, etc.. "In the vicinity of the oil processing centers, including facilities for hydro-desulphurization levels of H2S can therefore be 300 times greater than in a normal city in the Western world," says the study. Also to honor the memory of four young workers died 25 years ago, is a dutiful epidemiological investigation finds that the effects on public health in the neighborhoods north of Livorno. 13.1.11 Maurizio Marchi
