[Environmental justice promotion in the Italian contaminated sites through the national epidemiological surveillance system SENTIERI]

Abstract

Conceptual and operational aspects of studying and promoting environmental justice and the results from assessments on environmental justice carried out within the epidemiological surveillance SENTIERI focused on communities living close to main Italian contaminated sites are here summarized. The communities under SENTIERI surveillance often have environmental injustice conditions associated with the cumulative impact of environmental pressures due to contamination and a high socioeconomic deprivation and mortality risk. In Italy, a North-South divide gradient is present, with the worst conditions in the South&Island, where most communities affected by contaminated sites are socioeconomically deprived. The main mechanisms of development and maintenance of distributive injustice in contaminated sites are attributable to procedural injustice conditions, with marginalization and misrecognition of disadvantaged communities or subgroups in decisional processes regarding both the location and permanence of polluting industrial plants and the interventions on remediation and reduction of hazardous exposures and health-related impacts. Within SENTIERI, strategies have been developed to produce participative territorial communication plans and to strengthen the environmental health literacy of local institutional and social actors. SENTIERI contributes in promoting environmental justice through the empowerment of social capacities of local communities.

Keywords: community capacity; contaminated sites; environmental justice; epidemiological surveillance.