Advisory Board
Biography
Director of the Department of Environment and Health at the Italian National Institute of Health
The activities of the Department of Environment and Health (DAMSA) are inspired by the global strategies of Planetary Health, the UN 2030 agenda, and the portfolio of the Seventh WHO European Region Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health (Budapest, 2024), which prioritizes urgent and wide-ranging action on health challenges related to the triple planetary crisis associated with climate change, environmental pollution, biodiversity loss, and soil degradation.
DAMSA carries out research and experimentation for the identification, characterization and analysis of the effects of environmental and social risk factors using a multidisciplinary approach that includes environmental monitoring studies, biomonitoring of human populations, effects on ecosystems, analysis of mechanisms and epidemiological investigation.
DAMSA gives support to Ministers and other National and Regional Authorities for regulatory issues and for environmental and health impact assessment.
A biologist, 65 years old, he served as Director General of Arpae, the regional agency responsible for environmental monitoring, control and enforcement, as well as environmental and energy-related authorizations and concessions for the Emilia-Romagna Region. He was Coordinator for environment–health issues and for activities related to “Pollution reduction for the protection of citizens’ health” within the Council of the National Environmental Protection System (SNPA), and President of the Association of Regional and Provincial Environmental Protection Agencies (AssoArpa).
He also served as Head of the “Wastewater Treatment and Water Cycle” section at ENEA, where he carried out study and research activities on innovative biological and chemical/physical treatments of wastewater, nutrient removal, treatment of organic waste, and the remediation of groundwater and contaminated soils.
He is the author of more than 100 scientific publications in the field of water treatment and the remediation of contaminated soils and sediments, as well as popular science articles in environmental sector journals.
