In 2014, Ilva has still produced 99.4% of all P.A.H. (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, powerful air pollutants) emitted in Taranto

Precisely: all P.A.H. issued in Taranto are estimated at 3490 Kg/year. The sole ILVA plant is responsible of 3469 Kg/year''. This is the serious statement made by the president of Peacelink Taranto, Mr Alessandro Marescotti, presenting a new study prepared by the same environmentalists, made - it was explained - using the same calculation model of A.R.P.A. (Apulian Regional Environmental Agency). In 2010, the report of the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection, which confirmed 99.8% of the P.A.H. emissions being produced by ILVA, was also the subject of a phone call (July 6) between the President of the Apulia Region, Mr Nichi Vendola, and the former ILVA head of PR Mr Girolamo Archina’. The latter, reminds Marescotti referring to the findings of the investigation named ‘Undersold environment', ''speaks of 'a blunder' made by A.R.P.A’s general director, who had signed such a severe report towards ILVA the previous month. Why was ILVA’s top brass so worried during the summer of 2010? Because of benzo (a) pyrene emissions''. At that time, adds Peacelink’s President, ‘'the embarrassing data of the first five months of 2010 bursted out: they had exceeded three times the legal limit. ILVA’s coke ovens, which are the main source of benzo (a) pyrene and P.A.H emissions, were running the high risk to be shut down (as requested by the environmental movement). A.R.P.A. proposed a decrease of the production, but this idea was not accepted by ILVA''.

The president of the environmental association recalled then the email sent on June 22nd 2010 by Archina’ to ILVA’s former owner Mr Emilio Riva, in which the then head of institutional relations, talking about A.R.P.A’s report, discussed at a subsequent technical meeting, argues that the same Mr Vendola (Apulia’s region Governor), decidedly annoyed said: 'as it is, ARPA Apulia can go home because they have broken our balls'. ''That model of computation ('attribution to the sources of emission') had become - Mr Marescotti pointed out - an indictment and was creating a lot of problems. It touched a nerve and laid bare a sensitive issue’. 'During the press conference, the president of Peacelink has recognised that the levels of P.A.H.s decreased from 8200Kg/year to about 3500Kg, '' but it's still - he added - a substantial amount comparable to the amount that was issued by ‘Genoa’s ILVA steel plant, that the same town did not want’. 'PeaceLink has launched a project to make measurements of the P.A.H. using the same instruments implemented by A.R.P.A., namely the PAS 2000 Ecochem system. It has also been observed that the data processed within the last 12 months (August 2013-July 2014) provide an average of P.A.H. of ''less than 28nG/m3 in the Orsini Road control unit in which the Ecochem PAS 2000 was installed, while in the Machiavelli Road one the average was 20nG/m3 in the period of 2009-2010'.

Finally, Marescotti revealed ''the strange situation of monitoring in the coke oven, which, according to the recorded data of 22nG/m3 of P.A.H., would be even less polluted of the Drums district (28nG/m3). How could one define this data reliable?”, he concluded.