Atlas of Contaminated Sites

Site of National Interest (SIN), Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Bologna railway repair works (OGR)

A State Railways workshop built in 1908 and closed in 2018, where for decades rolling stock was insulated with and stripped of asbestos, including crocidolite. It is a Site of National Interest because of asbestos; among the 3,115 workers in the cohort, 102 died of pleural mesothelioma.

Status
Under assessment
Area
13.06 ha on land1
Activity
1908–2018
People affected
3,115 (2017)2
Media
soil, air
Kind of site
asbestos, railway works
  1. Area. 13.06 ha (ISPRA, June 2024), perimeter set by decree of 29 Jan 2019. The works, at via Casarini 25, have about 18,000 m² under roof.
  2. People affected. State Railways employees assigned to the works between 1957 and 1995 (Cervino et al. 2017 cohort). SENTIERI takes the whole municipality of Bologna as the site population (395,416 residents, 2019 census).

Contaminants

Fibres

Status

Under assessment

The environmental characterisation plan submitted by Trenitalia was approved by ministerial decree on 18 May 2021. ISPRA reports no progress figures for this site (June 2024: 'not available').

Story

The Bologna Officina Grande Riparazione carried out maintenance, refurbishment and repair of State Railways locomotives, carriages and electric trainsets (ETR). Asbestos exposure began in the early 1950s with the use of asbestos-containing materials; between 1960 and 1970 insulation with friable asbestos, mainly crocidolite, was added, and in 1971–1979 insulation and stripping work increased.

From 1980 the risk was gradually contained: from 1983 stripping was contracted out and from the mid-1990s exposure is considered sporadic. From 1998 settled dust was analysed regularly; between 2012 and 2016 tracks, skylights, the electrical maintenance room and the services tunnel were decontaminated and the workshop cleaned, with negative samples afterwards.

The 2018 budget law made the works a Site of National Interest because of the health and environmental risk from asbestos; activity stopped on 1 July 2018 and the perimeter was set in 2019. The characterisation plan, approved in 2021, is to establish which pollutants are present on the site, asbestos included.

Timeline

  1. 1908The works are built.
  2. 1960Insulation of rolling stock with friable asbestos, mainly crocidolite, begins.
  3. 1983Asbestos stripping is contracted out.
  4. 2000First mortality study of 173 workers: a large excess of pleural mesothelioma.
  5. 2012Decontamination of tracks and skylights (2012–2014), then of other rooms and cleaning of the workshop (2015–2016).
  6. 2017Law 205/2017 creates the Site of National Interest; the cohort study of 3,115 workers is published.
  7. 20181 July: the works cease activity.
  8. 2019Perimeter set by decree of 29 Jan 2019.
  9. 202118 May: the environmental characterisation plan is approved.

Health

Workers' cohort (Cervino et al., Bologna local health authority 2017, cited in SENTIERI): 3,115 State Railways employees at the works between 1957 and 1995, followed to 31 Dec 2014; pleural mesothelioma 102 deaths (SMR 287; 95% CI 236–348), peritoneal mesothelioma 5 (SMR 312), respiratory cancers 245 (SMR 155; 95% CI 137–176), all cancers 567 (SMR 117). A 2000 study of 173 workers in the most exposed jobs had found 6 pleural mesotheliomas (SMR 6,337). The SENTIERI Sixth Report (2023; residents of the municipality of Bologna, mortality 2013–2017, admissions 2014–2018) includes the site for the first time: no excess of mesothelioma in the general population; in women only, an excess of cancers of the trachea, bronchi and lung and of the ovary; in men, an excess of chronic renal failure (79 deaths, SMR 127; 90% CI 106–153). The report recommends remediation and health surveillance of former workers and their household members.

Remediation

  1. 2012asbestos removalDecontamination of tracks and skylights (2012–2014).
  2. 2015asbestos removalDecontamination of the electrical maintenance room and services tunnel; cleaning of the workshop (2016).

Nearby

Former SIN, Sassuolo (Modena) e Scandiano (Reggio Emilia), Emilia-Romagna

Sassuolo-Scandiano ceramic district

43 km

  • Lead

Former SIN, Rovigo (Mardimago) e Ceregnano, Veneto

Mardimago – Ceregnano

77 km

  • Cadmium
  • Lead
  • Chromium
  • Mixed waste

SIN, Mantova, Lombardia

Mantua Lakes and chemical complex

82 km

  • Mercury
  • Arsenic
  • Cadmium
  • Chromium

SIN, Fidenza (Parma), Emilia-Romagna

Fidenza (former CIP and Carbochimica plants)

107 km

  • Lead
  • Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
  • BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes)
  • Coal tar

MycoremediationMicrobial bioremediation

Sources

  1. Siti contaminati di interesse nazionale (indicatore, dati a giugno 2024), ISPRA, 2024
  2. Riferimenti normativi per i SIN (aggiornamento 31 dicembre 2025), ISPRA, 2025
  3. SENTIERI. Sesto Rapporto, Epidemiologia & Prevenzione 47(1-2) Suppl 1 (scheda Officine Grandi Riparazioni ETR di Bologna, pp. 133-135; SENTIERI6_Siti_informazioni), Istituto Superiore di Sanità / Epidemiologia & Prevenzione, 2023
  4. Siti di Interesse Nazionale (SIN), Regione Emilia-Romagna, 2024
  5. Via Camillo Casarini 25, Bologna (geocodifica dell'indirizzo), OpenStreetMap Nominatim, 2026

Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.