April 28th marks World Asbestos Victims Day, a moment of reflection launched by the National Asbestos Observatory (ONA) to turn the spotlight back on a phenomenon which, unfortunately, is anything but confined to the past. Despite regulations and greater awareness, asbestos continues to represent one of the most serious and silent health and environmental emergencies in Italy and in the world.
The numbers of the asbestos emergency in Italy
The data provided by the ONA are dramatic and, year after year, remain almost unchanged. In our country, there are approximately 10,000 new cases of asbestos-related diseases and 7,000 deaths every year. These figures do not show any significant decline, highlighting a stable curve that is worrying and confirms the persistence of the problem.
The main pathologies linked to exposure to asbestos include mesothelioma (around 2,000 deaths per year), lung cancer (over 3,800) and asbestosis (around 500), as well as other forms of cancer that affect the gastrointestinal tract and ovaries. Numbers that remind us how the threat is by no means exhausted, but continues to insinuate itself into the social and environmental fabric.
The invisible enemy: where asbestos lurks today
Asbestos is not a faded memory, but a concrete and pervasive presence. We still find it in thousands of homes, schools, hospitals, libraries and sports facilities. Even water pipes and numerous industrial sites and operational contexts, including the Armed Forces (Navy, Army, Air Force), still hide this material. Millions of citizens are exposed daily to an invisible but real risk, which often manifests itself decades after exposure.
At a territorial level, the most industrialized regions continue to pay the highest price. Lombardy, for example, records over 2,000 deaths per year, followed by Piedmont (around 1,000), Emilia-Romagna (around 650), Liguria (over 600) and Lazio (around 500).
Remediation too slow: a future of uncertainty
Although regional plans and clean-up interventions have been launched, the overall speed and pace of removals remains insufficient. Although realities such as Lombardy, which has disposed of 33.2% of the national total of asbestos, and Friuli Venezia Giulia, considered a virtuous model, are doing their part, the general picture is anything but reassuring.
Below is a map with the status of remediation of sites contaminated by asbestos by 2024:
As underlined by the lawyer Ezio Bonanni, President of the National Asbestos Observatory: “The stability of the numbers demonstrates that we are not faced with a solved problem, but with an ongoing health crisis. Asbestos continues to be present in places of daily life and continues to cause illnesses and deaths. We need an extraordinary removal plan, widespread and structured, which involves the entire national territory and puts the protection of public health at the centre”.
Without a decisive and concrete acceleration in reclamation, the asbestos emergency will continue to claim victims for decades, perpetuating a tragedy that could have been avoided. It is not enough to remember the victims of the past; It is essential to act urgently in the present to protect future generations.
Act now for an asbestos-free future
World Asbestos Victims Day must not just be a moment of commemoration, but a strong call to action.
The ONA continues to offer concrete support to victims and their families through a free legal and medical consultancy service, which can be contacted on the toll-free number 800 034 294 or by visiting the website www.associazioneamianto.it. In 2025, the Observatory implemented the mapping activity of contaminated sites in Italy through the ONA App, a fundamental tool for primary prevention that allows citizens to report the presence of asbestos. The app is designed to monitor the area and facilitate cleanup, protecting public health.
Only with collective commitment and targeted actions can we hope for a future in which asbestos truly becomes a problem of the past.
