5 employees died on Monday afternoon whereas working in a sewer related to a water therapy plant within the city of Casteldaccia close to Palermo, Sicily, in line with firefighters who recovered the our bodies. A sixth employee was severely injured and in intensive care, native officers stated.
Girolamo Bentivoglio, chief of firefighters in Palermo, stated the employees had breathed in hydrogen sulfide, a fuel usually current at waste therapy vegetation that’s poisonous in excessive concentrations. Ranges had been so excessive on the web site the place the employees had been killed, “that fatality is instant,” Mr. Bentivoglio stated in a televised interview on RaiNews24, the nationwide broadcaster’s information channel.
The accident raised a brand new spherical of shock over the incidence of office deaths in Italy. In April, seven employees had been killed in an explosion in a hydroelectric plant close to Bologna, whereas 5 died in Florence through the building of a grocery store in February.
Based on the European statistics company Eurostat, Italy ranks eighth amongst European nations in deadly accidents at work, with an incidence of two.66 per 100,000 employed, which is increased than the European Union common of 1.76, however decrease than France’s 3.32.
“Had they adopted all of the precautions, all the security measures, together with private protecting gear, we wouldn’t have been confronted with this situation,” Mr. Bentivoglio stated.
Based on Inail, the Nationwide Institute for Insurance coverage Towards Accidents at Work, there have been 191 work-related deaths within the first three months of 2024.
“The tragedy of Casteldaccia responds to a sample that has been repeated too usually in latest months,” the leaders of three Sicilian commerce unions stated in a joint assertion revealed by Italian information shops.
The causes of the accident must be verified, in addition to the duties of the businesses concerned and the query of whether or not security rules had been complied with, the unions stated.
Whereas office deaths continued to happen, the workplaces that monitored office security remained understaffed, they added.
“Sicily as soon as once more mourns its lifeless within the office,” they wrote.
In a submit on the social community X, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy known as for “full light to be shed on this tragedy.”
The Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, stated “this newest unacceptable office bloodbath,” should serve to reiterate the necessity for frequent dedication involving unions, entrepreneurs and establishments, the Italian information company ANSA reported.
The 5 employees who died Monday had been finishing up work for Amap, which manages the built-in water service — together with water purification and distribution for residential use, and waste water therapy — for the Metropolis of Palermo and the smaller municipalities that gravitate across the Sicilian capital. Solely one of many 5 employees was an Amap worker; the others labored for a corporation that had subcontracted the work, Italian information media reported.
Giovanni Di Giacinto, the mayor of Casteldaccia, stated in a phone interview that investigations into the accident had been underway. “It’s an immense tragedy,” he stated.
