Some regions of Italy have a very bad reputation for pollution. The 'Triangle of Death' is an area of Italy in which toxic waste is dumped without regard for its impact on the local environment.
The effects of this have been known for some time - cases of some cancers are much higher in the region than in others. This week, the Italian government was forced to reassure the European Commission that contaminated food from the region had not been exported.
Reports had shown that four farms and 23 dairy farms were contaminated with levels of dioxins at much higher levels than EU regulations allow.
The Italian government insists they are not very high, but the worry was that locally produced cheeses, including mozzarella, had been exported elsewhere in Europe or to other parts of the world from th Campania region.
The reassurance was not offered freely, as the EC had to issue a deadline for full information on the fate of the cheese before the Italian government responded by confirming that none of the contaminated cheese had been exported.
Plenty had been sold in the local markets though, which is something that should be of great concern to consumers in the region.
Links
Italian Triangle of Death (article in The Lancet Oncology, 2004) | 
