Environmental Health Education for Asbestos-Contaminated Communities in Italy: The Casale Monferrato Case Study

Our plain-English summary of Environmental Health Education for Asbestos-Contaminated Communities in Italy: The Casale Monferrato Case Study, by D. Marsili, A. Canepa, N. Mossone, et al (Annals of Global Health, 2019).

The study

• Authors: D. Marsili, A. Canepa, N. Mossone, P. Comba
• Journal: Annals of Global Health
• Published: 2019;85(1)
• Cited by: 5 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Background: Environmental health education contributes towards increasing awareness of communities to prevent exposure to hazardous substances. Casale Monferrato, the operating site for the Eternit asbestos-cement factory from 1907 to 1986, is a prioritized asbestos-contaminated site for remediation in Italy. The area is prone to severe asbestos-related diseases. About 50 cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed in Casale Monferrato annually; mesothelioma has been shown to be caused by occupational, environmental and domestic asbestos exposure.

Objectives: The goal of this paper is to analyze the Casale Monferrato case study in terms of youth engagement in environmental health education initiatives on asbestos risk and health impact. The paper aims at underlining the lessons learned in order to share the success of this initiative with other communities living in asbestos-contaminated sites in different countries.

Methods: Peer education methodology has been used through the Asbestos Classroom to involve teachers, students and other local stakeholders in training activities, in selection of the contents for educational materials and interactive tools, as well as in choosing the presentation process for the aforementioned knowledge sharing instruments.

Findings: From November 2014 to June 2018, 185 high school students and teachers were trained through the Asbestos Classroom. Through December 2018, they trained 3,241 classroom visitors. The Classroom relies on an inclusive participative process in which young people play a key role in the network of relationships within their community.

Conclusions: The paper corroborates the importance of engaging the educational system in communication efforts aimed at fostering collective awareness on environmental risk and health-related impacts for communities living in industrially contaminated sites. Considering the global dimension of the asbestos contamination and disease burden, this experience might be of relevance both in countries that banned asbestos and in those where asbestos is not yet prohibited.

© 2019 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

In plain English

This article describes the Asbestos Classroom, a school-based education program in Casale Monferrato, Italy, where the Eternit asbestos-cement factory operated from 1907 to 1986. Started in November 2014, the program used peer education: high school students and teachers took courses on local asbestos contamination and clean-up and on asbestos-related diseases, research and care, then guided visitors through an interactive multimedia room. From November 2014 through June 2018, 185 people were trained: 117 high school students, 41 high school teachers, 21 high school students trained in English and 6 middle school teachers. From November 2014 to December 2018, the classroom had 3,241 visitors, including 2,370 high school students, 264 middle school students, 183 elementary school students and 206 tourists. The authors offered these counts as one indicator of the program's impact. They concluded that the experience supports engaging schools in communication about environmental risk and health impacts, and that it might be relevant both in countries that banned asbestos and in those that have not.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Descriptive case study of an environmental health education program using peer education. It is not an epidemiological study of disease.
• Who was studied: From November 2014 to June 2018, 185 high school students and teachers (plus middle school teachers) were trained at the Asbestos Classroom in Casale Monferrato, Italy. From November 2014 to December 2018, 3,241 visitors came, including students aged 6 to 19, teachers, institution and association representatives, citizens, tourists and special guests.
• Exposure: The program dealt with asbestos risk in a community contaminated by the Eternit asbestos-cement factory (1907 to 1986). No exposure was measured. As background, the article cites earlier work reporting that most local mesothelioma cases involve people who never worked at the factory but were exposed in the environment or at home.
• Main results:
  • Of the 185 people trained (November 2014 to June 2018), 117 were high school students and 41 were high school teachers. A further 21 were high school students trained in English, and 6 were middle school teachers.
  • The training covered local environmental contamination and clean-up, and asbestos-related diseases, research and health care. Trained students then taught other students how to run the multimedia classroom.
  • The classroom had 3,241 visitors from November 2014 to December 2018.
  • Among the visitors were 2,370 high school students, 264 middle school students and 183 elementary school students. The rest were 35 teachers, 72 institution representatives, 73 association representatives and citizens, 206 tourists and 38 special guests.
  • Translations were under way (English for a second section, Spanish for the introductory section) to support twinning with communities in Colombia and Canada.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the paper corroborates the value of involving the educational system in communication about environmental risk and health impacts. They cited the 185 people trained, who in turn reached 3,241 visitors, as one indicator of impact. They suggested the experience might be relevant both in countries that banned asbestos and in those that have not.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Casale Monferrato, Eternit, Asbestos-Cement, Mesothelioma, Asbestos Exposure.

Related studies

• Cancer mortality and incidence of mesothelioma in a cohort of wives of asbestos workers in Casale Monferrato, Italy — D. Ferrante, M. Bertolotti, et al. (2007)
• Psychological Distress after a Diagnosis of Malignant Mesothelioma in a Group of Patients and Caregivers at the National Priority Contaminated Site of Casale Monferrato — M. Bonafede, A. Granieri, et al. (2020)
• Increased risk of malignant mesothelioma of the pleura after residential or domestic exposure to asbestos: a case-control study in Casale Monferrato, Italy — C. Magnani, P. Dalmasso, et al. (2001)
• A cohort study on mortality among wives of workers in the asbestos cement industry in Casale Monferrato, Italy — C. Magnani, B. Terracini, et al. (1993)
• The contribution of environmental monitoring in the epidemiological assessment of exogenous risk. The experience of ARPA in the Emilia-Romagna Region of Italy — A. Zavatti, P. Lauriola (1999)
• Para-occupational exposures to asbestos: lessons learned from Casale Monferrato, Italy — L.T. Stayner (2016)

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