The Research and Innovation Department (DAIRI): an example of multidisciplinary team working on environmental and health research in Piedmont (Italy)

In environmental research, the synergic collaboration of different experts is very important, e.g.: clinicians, pathologists, epidemiologists, biologists, mineralogists, chemists. For example, in Piedmont region (Italy) an area was deeply interested by a heavy pollution of a very dangerous pollutant, asbestos. In fact, in the Casale Monferrato municipality (Alessandria, Piedmont), an Eternit factory produced asbestos-containing materials since 1907 until 1986, employing about 5000 workers. Unfortunately, this material showed its negative effects on the health of the people who underwent a working, environmental, or familiar exposure. In the National Priority Contaminated Site (NPCS) of Casale Monferrato, the research was (and nowadays is) very active to face the problems generated by asbestos pollution, thanks to the synergic work of experts in different fields.

Asbestos was the first and most studied pollutant in Casale Monferrato area by the researchers of the Alessandria province, considering both respiratory and extra-respiratory diseases. Moreover, these studies considered different aspects, such as mineralogical characterizations combined with histological, clinical, and epidemiological information.

Starting from these works, in 2020, the Research and Innovation Department (Dipartimento Attività Integrate Ricerca e Innovazione, DAIRI) of the University Hospital SS. Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo of Alessandria was born, with an important headquarters in Casale Monferrato, where the research on asbestos related diseases is very dynamic. Nevertheless, in the whole Department, research is carried out considering different diseases and different environmental issues (e.g.: heavy metals, PM, microplastics, heat waves) related to different benign and malign pathologies affecting the population. In fact, in addition to an Integrated Laboratory for Asbestos Research (Laboratorio Integrato Ricerca Amianti, in collaboration with the Department of Science and Technological Innovation of the University of Eastern Piedmont) and a Documental Center on Asbestos (Centro Documentazione Amianto, CEDOAM, www.cedoam.it), in 2024 a Study Center on Environmental Pathologies (Centro Studi Patologie Ambientali, CSPA) was established. Lastly, Casale Monferrato hospital hosts the Regional Center for the research, monitoring, and prevention of asbestos risks (Centro regionale per la ricerca, sorveglianza e prevenzione dei rischi da amianto) since 2007.

In these last years, the Department is growing both in internal personnel of different scientific backgrounds and in external collaborations to be able to give back to the local and international populations the best scientific results. For example, there are scientific networks with the Interdepartmental Centre for Studies on Asbestos and Other Toxic Particulates “Giovanni Scansetti” of Turin (Italy) and the Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center of the Ramazzini Institute of Bologna (Italy). Moreover, researchers of the DAIRI are part of different COST actions and national and international scientific networks.

In this work, we present the DAIRI organization, a department where the different knowledges are put together starting from the environmental point of view to deal with the health issues that the population lives every day.