Dioxins from industrial emissions to the environment. The Taranto case study.

Starting from mid-2007 the Environment Protection Agency of Apulia has performed several measurement of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) stack emissions for a number of industrial plants located in a large industrial area near Taranto. Although estimates of a significant yearly mass flow for dioxins and PCBs from industrial sources and especially for the local integrated steelwork were already available and published in relevant European inventories since year 2000, the actual measurements were in exceedance of those estimates and prompted the need of a more in-depth investigation of the fate and transport of POPs from emissions and release to the various environmental compartments and ultimately to transfer to the food-chain. In early 2008 high levels of dioxin and dioxin-like PCBs were found in food samples of animal origin that were collected from farms located in the immediate surroundings of the industrial area, causing immediate alarm among citizens and authorities. As an immediate response to the events, as soon as december 2008 a Regional regulation (LR 44/2008) enforced more stringent limits on dioxin stack emissions for plants operating in the metal sector. In fact, the existing Italian emission limits were inadequate to prevent POPs accumulation in the environment and not aligned to relevant regulation already into force in other European countries. In addition, and in order to investigate the extent of the contamination, an extensive monitoring plan was set up and performed throughout the period 2008 - 2011 during which time more than 400 food and feed samples, 40 stack emission samples, 100 atmospheric deposition monthly samples, 50 soil and groundwater samples were collected and analysed. As a result of the monitoring the Local Health Autohority enforced the ban on grazing over wasteland within 20 km from the industrial area and a ban on the consumption of goat and sheep liver originating from animals grown in the same area, together with the stamping out of over 2000 sheep and goats. A first result of all of the above actions has been the enforced reduction of the yearly mass flow of POPs emitted to the atmosphere as stack exhaust gases, as demonstrated by the latest emission measurements. Nevertheless, diffuse and fugitive emissions are contributing to the overall impact on the surroundings resulting in a measurable POPs atmospheric deposition of both wet and dry matter on soils and other urban surfaces. This papers presents the results of dioxin and PCBs monitoring in stack emissions, soils and atmospheric deposition in the Taranto area during a four-year period.