Seveso

On July 10, 1976, toxic vapours of dioxin escaped from the Icmesa factory in the north of Italy. The incident only led to twenty slight injuries but, a toxic polychlorinated compound, the dioxin set in throughout the whole food chain. The contamination of the soil explains the restrictions imposed over 1,800 hectares of the surrounding area (of which a large part of the commune of Seveso), whilst the buildings occupying the 110 hectares closest to the leak were razed to the ground. The contamination will only completely disappear in 2040. Following on from this, in 1982 the European Community adopted a directive which aims at preventing such industrial disasters. It bore the name of Seveso.