Atlas of Contaminated Sites

Site of National Interest (SIN), Casale Monferrato (AL), Piemonte, Italy

Casale Monferrato (Eternit)

Italy's largest asbestos-cement plant, under the Eternit brand, ran in Casale Monferrato from 1907 to 1986. Fibres spread through the town and the surrounding municipalities, where mesothelioma also strikes people who never worked at the factory.

Status
Remediation under way
Area
73,895 ha on land1
Activity
1907–1986
People affected
79,477 (2019)2
Media
soil, air
Kind of site
asbestos
  1. Area. The perimeter is the whole territory of 48 municipalities (45 in the province of Alessandria, 2 in Vercelli, 1 in Asti), about 738 km². The coordinates mark the former Eternit plant, now the Eternot park.
  2. People affected. Residents of the site's 48 municipalities, 2019 census (SENTIERI, Sixth Report).

Contaminants

Fibres

Status

Remediation under way

The plant and the Po riverbank have been cleaned up; by February 2019, 170 of about 180 recorded 'polverino' sites had been remediated and more than 1 million m² of private asbestos-cement roofing removed out of 1.5 million on the grant lists (Regione Piemonte). ISPRA gives no progress percentages for this site (June 2024: 'not applicable', since the project covers roofs and polverino across the whole territory). In November 2025 the Region approved a new 2.5 million euro agreement for the remaining polverino sites and the Lanza canal.

Story

The factory opened in 1907, the first in Italy to use the Hatschek process for asbestos-cement sheets and pipes. The asbestos came from the Balangero mine and from abroad. In the early 1970s the plant employed about 1,500 people; about 5,000 worked there in all. Production stopped in April 1986, when the company went bankrupt.

The asbestos did not stay inside the gates. Production scrap was given away to residents and used to surface courtyards and paths or as loft insulation: this is the so-called 'polverino', friable asbestos. A survey in 2001–2003 found almost 800,000 m² of asbestos-cement roofing in Casale and the nearby towns. The plant also discharged onto the bank of the Po.

In 1983 a medical-school thesis reported a series of mesothelioma cases among residents, many of them women and many never exposed at work. In 1987 a mayoral order banned asbestos-cement materials in the town. Clean-up began in the early 1990s; the project for the whole site, approved in 2004, was the first remediation project for a Site of National Interest authorised in Italy. Demolition of the plant was completed in 2010, and the Eternot park opened on the site in September 2016.

The Municipality of Casale carries out the work: remediation of polverino sites, grants to private owners for removing roofs, and a dedicated landfill in operation since 2001. ARPA Piemonte measures airborne fibres every three years at about 170 points.

Timeline

  1. 1907Italy's first Eternit-brand asbestos-cement plant opens in Casale.
  2. 1983A medical thesis reports a series of mesothelioma cases among residents.
  3. 1986April: the plant closes on bankruptcy.
  4. 1987Mayoral order bans the use of asbestos-cement materials in the town.
  5. 1998Law 426 lists Casale Monferrato among the remediation Sites of National Interest.
  6. 200429 November: the final remediation project for the site is approved.
  7. 2010Demolition of the Eternit plant is completed.
  8. 2016September: the Eternot park opens on the former factory site.
  9. 2025November: new 2.5 million euro programme agreement for the remaining polverino sites and the areas along the Lanza canal.

Health

In the cohort of Eternit blue-collar workers (3,434 people, follow-up 1965–2003) there were 135 deaths from pleural and 52 from peritoneal malignancy, with standardised mortality ratios of 32.0 and 27.9 in men and 62.1 and 25.7 in women, and 186 deaths from asbestosis against fewer than one expected. Among the workers' wives there were 21 deaths from pleural cancer against 1.2 expected (SMR 18.0; 95% CI 11.1–27.5). Occupational and household exposure explain only about half of the pleural cancers in the area (Magnani et al. 2023). A population-based case-control study (2001–2006, 200 cases) found a peak of mesothelioma incidence near the factory, with risk falling with distance (Airoldi et al. 2021). SENTIERI, Sixth Report (2023; mortality 2013–2017, hospital admissions 2014–2018; 48 municipalities, 79,477 residents at the 2019 census): mortality is in excess in both sexes for mesothelioma, pleural mesothelioma and asbestosis, with imprecise estimates; admissions are in excess in both sexes for all natural causes, all malignant tumours, malignant tumours of the pleura and asbestosis.

Remediation

  1. 2001dedicated landfillMunicipal landfill with separate cells for polverino and for bonded asbestos, in operation since 2001 for waste from the site's clean-up.
  2. 2005asbestos removalMunicipal grant schemes, from 2005, for removing private asbestos-cement roofing: more than 1 million m² removed by 2019. Public buildings were mostly dealt with in the early 2000s.
  3. 2010demolitionDecontamination and demolition of the Eternit plant (completed in 2010) and clean-up of the Po riverbank that received its discharges.
  4. 2019excavationRemediation of polverino sites in courtyards, roads and lofts, using a method developed for the purpose: 170 of about 180 sites by February 2019.

Nearby

Italy, Spinetta Marengo, Alessandria, Piemonte

Spinetta Marengo (Solvay, now Syensqo, chemical plant)

34 km

  • Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances
  • Hexavalent chromium
  • Chlorinated solvents (TCE, PCE, chloroform)
  • Fluoride

SIN, Serravalle Scrivia (AL), Piemonte

Serravalle Scrivia (former Ecolibarna)

56 km

  • Petroleum hydrocarbons
  • Mixed waste

Italy, Serravalle Scrivia (Alessandria), Piemonte

Serravalle Scrivia (land next to the KME works)

56 km

  • Copper
  • Zinc

PhytoremediationMycoremediation

Former SIN, Torino, Piemonte

Basse di Stura (Turin)

60 km

  • Mixed waste

Sources

  1. SENTIERI. Sesto Rapporto, Epidemiologia & Prevenzione 47(1-2) Suppl 1: risultati Nord-Ovest (scheda Casale Monferrato), Istituto Superiore di Sanità / Epidemiologia & Prevenzione, 2023
  2. Siti contaminati di interesse nazionale (indicatore, dati a giugno 2024), ISPRA, 2024
  3. Riferimenti normativi per i SIN (aggiornamento 31 dicembre 2025), ISPRA, 2025
  4. Sito di interesse nazionale ex stabilimento Eternit di Casale Monferrato (scheda aggiornata al febbraio 2019), Regione Piemonte, 2019
  5. D.G.R. 10 novembre 2025, n. 15-1807: accordo di programma per la bonifica da amianto nei siti con presenza di polverino e nelle aree in prossimità del Canale Lanza, Regione Piemonte, 2025
  6. Magnani C. et al. The Italian Experience in the Development of Mesothelioma Registries. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 20(2):936, MDPI, 2023
  7. Airoldi C. et al. Environmental asbestos exposure and clustering of malignant mesothelioma in community: a spatial analysis in a population-based case-control study. Environmental Health, BMC, 2021
  8. Parco Eternot (coordinate), OpenStreetMap Nominatim, 2026

Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.