Environmental status of an Italian site highly polluted by illegal dumping of industrial wastes: the situation 15 years after the judicial intervention

In 2008 the Italian government classified the Bussi sul Tirino area (Central Italy) as Site of National Interest des tinedtoremediationwhich,unfortunately,hasnotyetbegun.Thedecisionfollowed>20yearsofillegaldumping of industrial wastes, lasting from 1984 to 2005, that generated the biggest illegal toxic waste disposal site in Europe. The contamination profile of the site was mainly characterized by PCDD/Fs, PCBs, PAHs, chlorinated sol vents, Hg, andPb.Duetothehealthconcernof thepopulationandlocalauthorities,anextensive monitoringand biomonitoring campaign was carried out in 2017–2018, checking the site-specific pollutants in local food (free range hens'eggs, milkfrom grazingsheep andgoats,wild ediblemushrooms, and drinkingwater), environmen tal (air andfreshwaters)andbiological(humanurine)matrices.Atotalof314sampleswereprocessed,obtaining 3217analytical data that were comparedwithregulatorylimits,when available, and valuesreported byinterna tional literature. The sumPCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs ranged from 0.24 to 3.6 pg TEQ g−1 fat, and from 0.46 to 8.3 pg TEQ g−1 fat, re spectively in milk in eggs, in line with the maximum levelsestablished by CE Regulations except for an egg sam ple. As regards PAHs, all our results were lower than the literature data, as well as for Hg and Pb. Outdoor air showed levels of chlorinated solvents ranging from