feel right to publish this article by e-mail sent to me by a friend of the Faculty of Pharmacy Catania describes a situation that really on the edge of reality '.
Council to read it to honor the memory of researchers disappeared
CATANIA
He called it "the laboratory of death."
Raphael, his girlfriend, his father, Alfred, had said repeatedly: "That laboratory will also be my grave." A room of 120 square meters, three-door and three windows do not open, only two hoods old and inadequate, and all substances killer, his "companions" to study and work there left on counters, in buckets, rusted refrigerators in two : ethyl acetate, chloroform, acetonitrile, dichloromethane, methanol, benzene, with nauseous fumes and vapors and liquid waste disposed of by hand. There, in the laboratory of Pharmacy, University of Catania where he dreamed of building his future, Emanuele "Lele" Patanè, in the last two years had seen sick and dying, one after another, fellow researchers, students, administrative professors: Maria Concetta Sarva young researcher into a coma while she was at work and died a few days later; Agata Annino cut short by cancer encephalon; John Gennaro, technical laboratory, killed himself by a tumor. And then the young researcher at the sixth month of pregnancy, which had lost the baby because it does not breathe. And the diagnosis of tumors in bursts: for a student, a teacher, director of the library and an administrative assistant. Until, in December 2003, it fell to him.
For Emanuele, 29, a strong and athletic guy, who graduated with honors with 110, suitable to practice pharmaceutical, PhD, struck down in less than a year from lung cancer. His diary, now, is over the records of the investigation three weeks ago that led to the seizure and the immediate closure of the laboratory chemist at the University of alerts and notification of security for disaster negligence and environmental pollution former rector of the University and current member Mp Ferdinando Latteri and the dean of the faculty Angelo Vanella, with seven other professors and managers of the laboratory chemists. For years, the investigation has already found, chemicals and toxic waste were disposed of daily use through the drains of sinks, without any protection for those who studied and worked in that lab. Now, after reporting the family of Emanuel Patanè, the crime is committed is also the addition of multiple manslaughter and injuries. For the five dead and twelve patients in recent years have lived in those areas.
"What you describe is a harmful and disgraceful case disposal of toxic waste and the use of potentially toxic substances and chemical reagents and hazardous in a building not suitable for this purpose and without the minimum safety requirements. "So begins Emanuele five pages dated October 27, 2003, three months before the his death. It was the Saints lawyer Attorney in Newfoundland to deliver the tragic diary found on the computer of the young researcher. In recent days, after hearing of the seizure of the laboratory provided by the prosecutor in Catania Vincenzo D'Agata, the elderly father Emanuele, Alfred Patane, 70, was reminded of those pages read in the PC of the child. "That memorial Lele wanted to deliver it to a lawyer to denounce what was happening there, which one died in there - he says - But the lawyer who had applied had told him that we wanted to because the witnesses against the "barons" of the University would never checked ...". Now will be the Deputy Attorney Carla Santocono and Lucio Brisson to assess its value. Emanuele evidently was aware of the conditions of extreme peril in which he worked, but the fear of losing his career opportunities should continue doing so. So great was his bitterness, especially when the coordinator the PhD, Joseph Ronsisvalle, (and owner of the Faculty of Pharmacy, "he writes) denied him the scholarship, to him, the only participant in the competition, just because now ill with cancer. Better to keep the scholarship for the coming year by another student. "I had no recommendation - Emanuel writes - I wonder how it is possible that an open competition should be managed in this way, without any transparency, legality, without any oversight body." Lele says that his two years in the lab until July 2002 when he arrived for the terrible diagnosis. "During the doctoral degree, usually spent between eight and nine hours a day in the laboratory throughout the entire week except Saturday. There was a system suitable for the extraction and filtration, there were odors and toxic fumes very annoying and we were often forced to open the doors to ventilate to the environment. "There were two hoods fashioned" and then work down there was the same as working outside of them. "" After the diagnosis of my disease was in 2002, a This hood has been replaced with a new one. The chemicals, reagents and solvents were stored on shelves, on countertops, cabinet does not have a vacuum system and two refrigerators for domestic use in all rusty. After spending the entire day in the lab often experience headaches, fatigue, and a strange taste in the mouth like you're intoxicated. "Lele had written one by one all the sick and his colleagues disappeared:" They are all cases due to a situation serious and harmful pollution of the department and certainly not to be attributed to a fatal accident. The lack of foresight in the disposal of toxic waste and the use of substances and chemical reagents in the absence of minimum safety requirements had been harmed and may even be harmful if they are not taken diligent action. "But no one, until the presentation by dell'esposto Family of Emmanuel, he realized that the lab had been transformed by years in a factory of death.
(November 29, 2008)
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