SHRO on Le Figaro: Professor Antonio Giordano and the Battle for the “Land of Fires”

Professor Antonio Giordano on Le Figaro: The French newspaper published a powerful investigative report on this tragedy, featuring Prof. Giordano’s key testimony about this contaminated heartland.

As an oncologist, geneticist, and founder of SHRO (Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine), Professor Antonio Giordano stands as a leading scientific authority connecting Southern Italy’s “Land of Fires” (Terra dei Fuochi) toxic waste crisis to a silent cancer epidemic affecting local communities.

The report describes the cemetery of Acerra, near Naples, where rows of graves of young men and women tell the story of unusually early deaths from aggressive cancers. Families recount how their children or spouses died in their teens, twenties or thirties. Often after rapid disease progression.

The “new” cemetery opened in 2016 into an almost full resting place. It’s almost full in less than a decade. 

The area known as the “Terre des feux” (Terra dei Fuochi) covers around 90 municipalities and 1,500 km², with about two million residents exposed to illegal waste burning and buried toxic waste.

“We’ve even found traces of heavy metals in young men’s sperm,” says Professor Antonio Giordano.

Studies cited in the article indicate that more than one in three residents lives within 100 meters of a contaminated site.

The government has since appointed a special commissioner, and announced a remediation plan for 293 sites. An estimated cost of 2 billion euros over ten years. 

Professor Antonio Giordano is quoted for highlighting these biological markers of contamination and their link to increased cancer risk in the region. 

The original reportage featuring Professor Antonio Giordano on Le Figaro is “Près de Naples, dans la ‘Terre des feux’, les vies trop courtes des jeunes gens contaminés par les déchets toxiques”, by Camille Jayr, was published in Le Figaro, International section, on 4 December 2025.

You can read the full article (in French) here: Le Figaro – International