What is the Land of Fires

It was Roberto Saviano to make this infamous name, the Land of Fires. He did it in his book "Gomorra," the book of denouncement of criminal activity in and around Naples that made ​​him famous, but at the same time, a condemned to death just for what he has revealed.

Saviano has brought to light a fact that, unfortunately, in many knew but no one has ever complained, fear or interest. After Saviano, to reveal what happened in that area was the Carmine Schiavone, who told the truth to the forces of Order between July and September 2013.

The book and then the statements of regret have uncovered the heavy blanket of silence: the drama of the Land of Fires, ecocide, as it was then called by many, is now under the spotlight.

What is the Land of Fires
The Land of Fires is a large area that encompasses most of the municipalities in the provinces of Naples and Caserta. The name comes from the fires hung waste of any kind in the countryside and on the edge of the roads in these areas, which include every type of waste material, the normal garbage to industrial waste and special waste should be treated in a special way for their their danger.

The burning hanged to these materials generate highly toxic fumes and, moreover, toxic substances generated permeate into the ground: the pollution caused, therefore, is not only air, but also of the earth - a land, that bell, considered by always among the most fertile in Italy - and the underlying aquifers, causing contamination of the food chain.

Responsible for this environmental disaster, first and foremost, organized crime bell, the Camorra, that with this system of waste disposal, so if you want to call it, has failed to generate a turnover of very large, but they are also responsible all those who knew and did nothing, then businesses, both Italian and foreign, who have continued to send their hazardous waste, including, according to statements by Schiavone, there would also lead and nuclear waste in the Campania region designed according to the plans of the Camorra to become an open dump.

The history of the Land of Fires
Although the drama of the Land of Fires has become the subject of public discussion only recently, the illegal disposal of waste in Campania going on for more than thirty years, a long time when you consider the serious consequences that this brings to the health of citizens .

It is at least the 90 that started the first investigation of these facts, but none of these has never led to anything concrete. The reasons are many and they all have to do with the economic interests associated with the disposal of waste and the resulting connivance of politicians and government commissioners who have been silent about what was happening in Campania: the first was to say Gaetano Vassallo, mafia turncoat linked to the Casalesi clan, but not in reference to the Land of Fires, but the Triangle of Death, another sadly evocative name, which is the area between Acerra, Nola and Marigliano that for years has been the target of toxic waste that were not burn but underground.



This was the beginning of the Camorra that showed how much you could earn from waste disposal by burial and, subsequently, by burning. The situation has become particularly acute between 2007 and 2008 in conjunction with the waste emergency in Campania. The Camorra took the opportunity to increase their turnover: between the huge piles of waste accumulated along roadsides bells was easy to mix the most dangerous and toxic, so the mafia did not have to worry about even trying to hide what he was going on.

From the '90s to now (in 1997 there was the first complaint of this fact) it is estimated that in Campania have arrived some 10 million tons of waste of all kinds.

The Land of Fires, the municipalities involved
Difficult to define exactly how wide the Land of Fires. Despite the many investigations, in fact, it is difficult to say with certainty where they were burned toxic waste that arrived in Campania and how far the contamination has spread.

The area most exposed, as explained in September last year, the regional manager of the Green Ecologists Francesco Emilio Borrelli, is the one between the Domitian coast-Campi Flegrei and the agro Aversa, practically the whole province of Naples and Caserta. It would, therefore, of the municipalities of Acerra, Arienzo, Aversa, Bacoli, Brusciano, Caivano, Camposano, Gate Arnone, Capodrise, Capua, Carinaro, Carinola, Casagiove, Casal di Principe, Casaluce, Casamarciano, Casapesenna, Casapulla, Caserta, Castel Volturno, Castello di Cisterna, Cellole, Matterhorn, Cesa, Cicciano, Cimitile, Comiziano, Curti, Falciano Massico, Francolise, Frignano, Giugliano in Campania, Grazzanise, Gricignano di Aversa, Lusciano, Macerata Campania, Maddaloni, Marcianise, Mariglianella, Marigliano , Melito di Napoli, Mondragone, Monte di Procida, Nola, Orta Atella, Wall, Pomigliano d'Arco, Portico di Caserta, Pozzuoli, Qualiano, Quarter, Recale, Roccarainola, San Cipriano d'Aversa, San Felice a Gate, San Marcellino, St. Mark the Evangelist, St Nicholas Road, San Paolo Bel Sito, San Prisco, San Tammaro, San Vitaliano, Santa Maria a Vico, Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Santa Maria la Fossa, Sant'Arpino, Saviano, Scisciano, Sessa Aurunca , Succivo, Teversal, Trentola-Ducenta Tufino, Villa di Briano, Villa Literno, Villaricca and Visciano.



The Land of Fires, the risks to health
Among the most controversial topics that relate to the Land of Fires are the consequences on the health of the population of these territories: in Naples and Caserta there is an incidence of tumors was much higher than the Italian average, but since there is in Italy a cancer registry, it is difficult to make an accurate and reliable estimate of how many and which of these tumors can be connected directly to the burning of toxic waste.

According to the National Institute of Health to continue the illegal disposal of waste, and the consequent dispersion of pollutants in the air and soil and pollution of ground water used for irrigation of cultivated land, are in close correlation with the 'increase of various forms of cancer, which is among the eight municipalities with the highest number of landfills: Acerra, Aversa, Bacoli, Caivano, Castel Volturno, Giugliano, and Marcianise Villaricca.

This, then, according to other studies conducted in recent years, shows a causal relationship between the fires of the Land of Fires and the increased incidence of tumors.