Editing Polychlorinated biphenyl (section)

===Italy===
The Italian company Caffaro, located in [[Brescia]], specialized in producing PCBs from 1938 to 1984, following the acquisition of the exclusive rights to use the patent in Italy from Monsanto.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-05-11 |title=Effetto PCB |url=http://www.faustosalvi.net/en/portfolio/effetto-pcb/ |access-date=2022-06-17 |website=Fausto Salvi |language=en-US}}</ref> The pollution resulting from this factory and the case of Anniston, in the US, are the largest known cases in the world of PCB contamination in water and soil, in terms of the amount of toxic substance dispersed, size of the area contaminated, number of people involved and duration of production.

The values reported by the local health authority (ASL) of Brescia since 1999 are 5,000 times above the limits set by Ministerial Decree 471/1999 (levels for residential areas, 0.001&nbsp;mg/kg). As a result of this and other investigations, in June 2001, a complaint of an environmental disaster was presented to the Public Prosecutor's Office of Brescia. Research on the adult population of Brescia showed that residents of some urban areas, former workers of the plant, and consumers of contaminated food, have PCB levels in their bodies that are in many cases 10–20 times higher than reference values in comparable general populations.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Turrio-Baldassarri L, Abate V, Battistelli CL, Carasi S, Casella M, Iacovella N, Indelicato A, La Rocca C, Scarcella C, Alivernini S | display-authors = 3 | title = PCDD/F and PCB in human serum of differently exposed population groups of an Italian city | journal = Chemosphere | volume = 73 | issue = 1 Suppl | pages = S228–S234 | date = August 2008 | pmid = 18514762 | doi = 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2008.01.081 | bibcode = 2008Chmsp..73S.228T }}</ref>{{medical citation needed|date=May 2015}} PCBs entered the human food supply by animals grazing on contaminated pastures near the factory, especially in local veal mostly eaten by farmers' families.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = La Rocca C, Mantovani A | title = From environment to food: the case of PCB | journal = Annali dell'Istituto Superiore di Sanità | volume = 42 | issue = 4 | pages = 410–416 | date = 2006 | pmid = 17361063 }}</ref> The exposed population showed an elevated risk of [[Non-Hodgkin lymphoma]], but not for other specific cancers.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Zani C, Toninelli G, Filisetti B, Donato F | title = Polychlorinated biphenyls and cancer: an epidemiological assessment | journal = Journal of Environmental Science and Health. Part C, Environmental Carcinogenesis & Ecotoxicology Reviews | volume = 31 | issue = 2 | pages = 99–144 | date = 2013 | pmid = 23672403 | doi = 10.1080/10590501.2013.782174 | bibcode = 2013JESHC..31...99Z | s2cid = 5294247 }}</ref>