Aim: The purpose of the present paper is to describe the geographical distribution at municipality level of mortality from malignant pleural neoplasms in the Campania Region, along with the distribution of former asbestos-exposed workers. A GIS (Geographical Information System) application has been developed to integrate exposure and mortality data.
Study design: The number of asbestos workers by municipality has been estimated by merging data provided by the National Institute for Insurance against Occupational Accidents (INAIL), the Ministry of Labour and an association of formerly exposed workers (AUSER Flegrea). The number of deaths from malignant pleural neoplasms by municipality has been derived from published studies regarding two consecutive periods: 1988-1994 and 1995-1997.
Results: In the first period most deaths occurred in areas with a high number of formerly exposed asbestos workers, whilst in the second period mesothelioma mortality increased extending to other areas without registered exposed workers.
Conclusion: This finding may be attributable to the presence of atypical occupational exposures, not reported by the current information systems, or to environmental, non occupational exposure patterns.