From Measuring Environmental Toxins to Drugs as Contaminants

Abstract

On Saturday, July 10, 1976, at 12:37 p.m., a large explosion occurred at a chemical factory in Seveso, 15 kilometers from Milan, releasing a whitish cloud over several small towns downwind to the south.¹ How toxic was the fallout? No one knew. Within the first days, however, many birds and domestic animals kept by residents in their small plots and homes began to die, and some children had to be treated in hospital for skin rashes or blisters from chemical burns.² The company, ICMESA, a subsidiary of the Swiss company Givaudan, which was owned by Hoffman-La Roche, immediately started to look into the accident. However, they kept workers on the job, and they did not communicate much with public officials or residents in the area about the explosion or subsequent risks. As Luciano Manara and Silvio Garattini wrote, “No mention of the TCDD [2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin] risk was made to the local authorities before the disaster and even after it. Roche took almost two weeks to admit that TCDD had escaped from the plant.”³