Radioactive Sardinia

Comitato Sardo Gettiamo le Basi, 18 April 2004

The tourist season is near, while a clear and reliable information about the eventual contamination, and the risks for the inhabitants and the tourists, caused by the devastating USA and NATO war-like activities in Italy, is far from being present.

The accident occurred on last October to the nuclear submarine of the II U.S.A. Fleet and the long series of death and pain happenings centred around the Interforce Shooting-range of Salto di Quirra (place of military training in the Cagliari city countryside) have underlined the bare evidence of the inadequate, or careless cure (which one is the worst behaviour?) of the authorities to guarantee the safety to the environment and the right to the safety and health of the Sardinian people and their hosts.

The absence of certainties about the environmental and sanitary impact of the U.S. military base of La Maddalena (Sassari province) and the endless experimentation and military training in the area of Quirra (Cagliari) has caused an irreversible damage to the image of our island and the risk to endanger the alredy fragile economy of Sardinia, based upon the healthiness and environmental quality of its territory and products and the beauty of its coasts and sea.

Since too much a long time, we insistently asked for independent and serious investigations, for a reliable scientifical control of the huge Sardinian areas used by world-wide armies, aviations and marines (*).

The military and political heads have answered with a flood of chatters and common places to deny the evidence and try to persuade us that everything is normal: the terrifying percentage of 20 tumors of the emolymphatic system on 150 inhabitans of Quirra, the 30% of birthrate of children with genetical modifications and serious malformations during the year 1998 in Escalaplano town (Cagliari), the 28 children with serious malformations born and the 30 new cases of tumors registered during just one year around the military base of La Maddalena.

These authorities, pushed by the public opinion, has made a fantastic scene of self-called scientifical researches; these investigations haven’t investigated at all, and furthermore they sound like a burning offence to the dignity, intelligence and sensibility of the Sardinian population. An example of this was the attempt of the Public Health System ASL n.8 to demonstrate that the emolymphatic tumors in Escalaplano were due to the sudden presence of arsenic in the well water. Another ridiculous example was the visible research of the DRs CUCU-RICCOBONO to detect traces of Depleted Uranium in n. 03 shovelful of soil. Continuing the series: the improbable report of the military Procura (attorney), presented in advance by the ex-commander of PISQ Gen. Carlo Landi, talks about the Quirra area: “there is no trace of any kind of Uranium”, element that is notoriously present in every part of the soil; missiles, rockets and radio-targets fall freely on the beaches, sheep stables and vineyards “because of the Mistral wind”. The monitoring system about the Maddalena has been judged unreliable by the Health and Defence ministry since the year 1988. Furthermore there have been amazing discoveries of “natural” deposits of Thorium 234 and seaweeds incredibly greedy of radioactive Thorium (**) nearby the U.S. atomic base of La Maddalena.

Basta! Stop! The time of chatters and of the scientifical slapstick must be ended now!.

The authorities have to demonstrate now, before the tourist season too is compromised, that living together with nuclear propelled submarines and nuclear weapons does not expose the population to any kind of risk, they have to show us how the Quirra area is not the centre of leaukemia.

They have to show it with verifiable data, numbers, percentages; they have to indicate the metodologies, analysis types and name of laboratories, giving to the scientific community the possibility to verify the results.

We invite all the Councils and the tourist operators to calculate how much the damage cost because of the endless shadows about this matter. We invite all the people and economic operators to present the bill to the responsibles of the lacking controls and of the contamination and to ask for:

• The immediate stop of all the deadly activities taking place on the Quirra Training area, at least until the science has not found a satisfying explanation of all the anomalies.
• The accomplishment of the Regional Council Of Sardinia document that asks for the dismantling, in reasonable and agreed time, of the U.S. Military basis of La Maddalena.

Comitato Sardo Gettiamo Le Basi Phone n. 0039 070 82 34 98—0039 338 61 32 753