abstract: Italy after 30 years of denuclearization: what are the effects on the health? a review of the literature

Italy has developed its own nuclear program from 1963 to 1990, including the most powerful Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in the world and the second most powerful Magnox central. However, the nuclear growth was interrupted with the 1987 and the 2011 referendums which phased out Italy from the nuclear development: currently, on the Italian ground, there are old nuclear power plants and five reactors still active for various research purposes. However, the inappropriate or inexistent waste disposal caused the arising of the maintenance costs and the occurring of negligent accidents, and the whole system has been heavily criticized during the last years. To understand the possible effects on the health, we reviewed the current literature, evaluating the Italian studies and the European ones. Since in Italy very high levels of radioactivity never occurred, we excluded the literature regarding Chernobyl, Fukushima and other regions affected by nuclear disasters. We found clusters of genetic abnormalities around specific sites associated with NPPs, as well as an increased rate of cancer around some of them. However, those abnormalities might also be explained by the presence of different chemicals or environmental pollutants, but only a few shreds of evidence have been found. Given the current knowledge, we cannot exclude the possibility that living in proximity to NPPs can cause a moderate risk of cancer. We conclude that the risk of cancer caused by NPPs should be better monitored and that larger international studies are needed to assess whether there are any elements of increased genetic abnormalities and pathologies in the surroundings of NPPs.