Five workers died Monday afternoon while working in a sewer connected to a water treatment plant in the town of Casteldaccia, near Palermo, Sicily, according to firefighters who recovered the bodies. A sixth worker was seriously injured and is in intensive care, local officials said.
Girolamo Bentivoglio, chief of Palermo’s firefighters, said the workers had inhaled hydrogen sulfide, a gas frequently present in waste treatment plants and which is toxic in high concentrations. The levels were so high at the site where the workers died, “that death is immediate,” Bentivoglio said in a televised interview on RaiNews24, the national broadcaster’s news channel.
The accident sparked a new round of outrage over the incidence of workplace deaths in Italy. In April, seven workers died in an explosion at a hydroelectric plant near Bologna, while five died in Florence during the construction of a supermarket in February.
According to the European statistics agency Eurostat, Italy ranks eighth among European countries in fatal workplace accidents, with an incidence of 2.66 per 100,000 employees, higher than the European Union average of 1.76, but lower than the from France (3.32).
“If they had taken all the precautions, all the safety measures, including personal protective equipment, we would not have faced this scenario,” Bentivoglio said.
According to Inail, the National Institute for Workplace Accident Insurance, in the first three months of 2024 there have been 191 work-related deaths.
“The Casteldaccia tragedy responds to a pattern that has been repeated too often in recent months,” the leaders of three Sicilian unions said in a joint statement published by Italian media.
According to the unions, it would be necessary to verify the causes of the accident, as well as the responsibilities of the companies involved and whether safety regulations were respected.
While workplace deaths continued to occur, offices monitoring workplace safety remained understaffed, they added.
“Sicily once again mourns its dead in the workplace,” they wrote.
In a publication on the social network X, the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, asked “full light to be shed about this tragedy.”
Italian President Sergio Mattarella said that “this latest unacceptable massacre in the workplace” should serve to reiterate the need for a common commitment involving unions, employers and institutions, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
The five workers who died on Monday worked for Amap, which manages the integrated water service (which includes the purification and distribution of water for residential use and wastewater treatment) for the city of Palermo and the smaller municipalities around it. of the Sicilian capital. Only one of the five workers was an Amap employee; the others worked for a company that had subcontracted the work, Italian media reported.
Giovanni Di Giacinto, mayor of Casteldaccia, said in a telephone interview that investigations into the accident were underway. “It’s an immense tragedy,” he said.