Living Organisms Involvement in Environmental Remediation of a Dismissed Asbestos Mine

This research develops around the management of a post-industrial residue by describing the processes enacted to heal a geological wound. It results from the author’s effort to add a modest contribution to the troublesome story binding mankind and asbestos. Scientific literacy concerning asbestos is wide and deep, depending on focus and approach of its various instances, it encompasses many divers research fields, ranging from geology to mineral toxicology as well as history, other social sciences and law studies. Such multiplicity originates from the essential complexity of the relation holding humans and this mineral, a relation enacted over a global scale and throughout uncoordinated temporalities. Amidst the heterogenous panorama issuing from asbestos as a research subject, the scope of the present thesis narrows onto the management of a material legacy deriving from the mineral extraction phase’s impact on the environment, hence onto the specific circumstances of the remediation works occurred in the former asbestos mine of Balangero. Author’s approach belongs to the environmental humanities research field, interdisciplinary and aimed at producing a fruitful balance between scientific references and subjective interpretations. The methods implied are varied, they comprehend author’s personal commitment, resulting in multiple on-the-spot investigations as well as in profitable contacts with technical personnels and scholars involved. Moreover, consultation of administrative documents and data reports pertinent to the case study were fundamental for the thesis’ redaction, so was the wider bibliographical research for historical insights and for the evaluation of literary sources. The core text is divided into two chapters, followed by a section for conclusions. First chapter consists of a historical dissertation about the rise and flourishing of asbestos’ extraction industry in contemporary Italy with particular focus on the vicissitudes of the Balangero mine. The historical overview concerning economic and normative circumstances surrounding and permeating the emergence of industrial asbestos extraction is nuanced with critical reflection about asbestos’s appeal for modern industrial society. Second chapter deals with the environmental remediation works carried out in the site of the former asbestos mine in Balangero. More specifically, it dwells onto the naturalistic engineering projects implied for the permanent containment of the mine tailings deposits in the affected area. The data monitoring reports concerning airborne asbestos microfibers concentration are consequently took under consideration. Also, a corollary paragraph approaches the question of asbestos containing wastes management in reference with the state of the art. Conclusions are built upon the encounter with two literary sources, notably a metaphor by chemist Primo Levi and an allegory by literary critic Walter Benjamin. This final section aims at convoying philosophical interpretation of the case study’s significance.