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Chapter 9 Dealing with Industrial Pollution in Italy, 1880–1940 Simone Neri Serneri Industrial production has been a crucial theme of contemporary environmental history for some time. There has been a profound transformation in the way resources are used, both in the enormous quantity of raw materials mobilized and waste produced and in their manipulation by developing technologies.1 The role of industries in changing the territorial and environmental foundations of increasingly vast areas has been no less relevant.2 In general, industrial development has paralleled urban development because industrial products radically modified ways of constructing contemporary cities, along with living and working conditions of urban society. The placement of factories, in particular, steered the adaptation of infrastructural networks and the functional division of surrounding areas, together with the requirements of waste disposal.3 The Italian Case This essay considers the environmental impact of industrial plants in Italy during the first decades of industrialization. The Italian case is fully  | Simone Neri Serneri representative of a larger European experience that shares a twofold peculiarity : the contemporary urban network is an extension of that which came before it rather than being a recent and original formation (as in the American or Australian experience), and environmental pollution problems have existed since the early modern age.4 Relationships between industrialization and urban development were therefore particularly important in Europe and in Italy specifically, especially given the large role of the industrial sector in European economic development. But this simultaneous industrial and urban development also created strong controversy. The scientific culture of the epoch, dominated as it was by the hygienist paradigm and oriented toward urban reform, was largely responsible for this controversy.5 Central and local authorities were also involved, concerned as they were not only with guarding public health but also with encouraging nascent industrial activities that were supposed to improve social welfare. Finally, numerous other influential actors were involved, including industrial entrepreneurs, technicians, and citizens whose health, personal property, or economic activities were threatened by emissions. The Italian case, however, shows some peculiarities, since industrialization and urbanization proceeded later and less intensively than in central and western Europe. Moreover, Italian legislation, despite its centralist approach, was not as cogent as elsewhere, and public opinion rarely mobilized on the issues of industrial pollution. The environmental impact of industry became a concern in the 1880s when the rate of industrial production enlarged, ushering in a period of still greater expansion between 1896 and 1909.6 Thereafter, industry gradually became more widespread up until the 1950s, at which time a second wave of rapid, intense industrialization considerably changed the parameters of environmental issues and the reactions to them. Legislation governing industrial emissions was introduced in the late 1880s (following similar legislation in central and western Europe), at a time when their effects on public health were becoming increasingly relevant. It was precisely this health perspective that pushed environmental issues to the forefront. Although industrial effects on health were already attracting some attention, by the early twentieth century, they assumed much greater proportions. In those years, mechanical advances and the appearance of water turbines and advanced chemical industries coupled with urban transformation became an opportunity for testing the cultural and legislative approaches formulated a couple of decades earlier. In the 1930s, industry progressed further, particularly when it arrived in certain technologically advanced sectors.7 These latest developments were Dealing with Industrial Pollution in Italy, 1880–1940 |  also reflected in the state and in perceptions of environmental issues, as well as in the cultural and regulatory instruments that were quickly becoming obsolete. Legislation Governing “Unhealthy Industries” The public health measures issued by the Francesco Crispi government in 1888 also introduced regulations regarding so-called unhealthy industries . Until then, the consequences of industrial activity had been regulated by a complicated network of legislation. The heterogeneity of these various statutes and directives, and their limited application, underlined the need for a more general legislative mandate, comparable to that of other European countries.8 The provisions of 1888 reflected a health-based perspective that sought to prevent direct harm to public health. Such provisions considered natural resources (such as water or air) as goods to be protected in a healthful state and destined for direct and immediate use by the public. The provisions did not aim to mitigate large-scale ecological imbalances. They were simply meant to ensure the sufficient supply of natural resources for sanitary and dietary uses. This explains the founding criteria of the legislation (within and beyond...

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