Asbestos is now banned in 52 countries. Although Italy banned asbestos in 1992, up until that date it had been one of the main producer nations of asbestos and asbestos-containing materials, and asbestos-related contamination is still widespread in the country. To reduce asbestos-related health effects, Italy has adopted many laws and regulations regarding exposure thresholds and remediation tools. Even so, there are legislative gaps that are making it difficult to manage related risks especially in the operative phase. The lack of standard procedures at a national level regarding emergency shutdown and remediation as well as reference thresholds for specific risk situations creates difficulties and different actions when dealing with the cleanup of Italian asbestos superfund sites. The authors propose operative guidelines for asbestos remediation at Italian superfund sites. INAIL, the reference national organization for asbestos-related matters, acting as an advisor to a number of state, regional, and local authorities, examined the main asbestos-related risk situations in Italy and proposed the most appropriate actions to take. The detailed analysis of many actual cases of risk, in part through inspections and the management of cleanup actions at asbestos Italian superfund sites, resulted in proposals to modify existing procedures and thresholds, which were subsequently discussed with all national, regional, and local scientific bodies. After more than two years of work and discussion at a national level, INAIL-DIPIA-Asbestos Group drafted new Guidelines for Asbestos Remediation at Italian Superfund sites, and officially submitted them to the Environment Ministry. The Ministry then adopted the document in regard to all asbestos Italian superfunds. This recently released document is also a useful reference for contaminated sites at a regional and local level. The operative Guidelines for Asbestos Remediation at Italian Superfund sites may also be of use at an international level for countries that have already banned asbestos and are engaged in remediation activity and for countries that have not yet banned asbestos but wish to adopt risk prevention measures.

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Biancavilla town has been included by the Italian Environmental Ministry in the Italian Superfund to remediate over the problem of contamination. The contamination is produced by fibrous fluoroedenite, a carcinogen mineral.Since the 1990s many environmental monitoring campaigns have been made in Biancavilla town by private and public Institutions charged to guarantee the safety of human health and environmental protection, such as Italian INAIL-EX-ISPESL, National Institute of Health (ISS), Regional Environmental Agency (ARPA), Local Health Agency (AUSL), University of Catania, Circum-Etna Railway.The Environmental Ministry charged INAIL-EX-ISPESL to create a specific Geographic Information System (GIS) dedicated to the management and consultation of all data collected in Biancavilla town (Catania Sicily), in order to properly handle the large amount of data, in continuous acquisition. The GIS is a tool based on a continuously evolving repository, i.e. an alphanumeric database and digital map updated in real time, through which managing the information about the different monitoring campaigns. GIS Basic function is to associate a geo-referenced location to a descriptive alphanumeric database and to relate such information to events that have happened in the territory. It is also possible to process all data with a complex query associated to geographic position. This paper discusses the GIS, specifically made to collect all monitoring data in Biancavilla town regarding: excavation activities; street cleaning; building operations; human activities. Using this GIS, it is possible to detect trends and increases in the concentration of dangerous fibres in Biancavilla. With this tool it is possible to highlight any exceeding the threshold limit value, concerning the concentration of fibrous airborne particulate. The aim of this paper is to present a useful instrument to quickly identify risk situations and to adopt prevention measures of diffusion of hazardous contaminants. Finally the GIS, using some standardized formats, ensures the continuous updating of data and the information exchange among all subjects involved (institutions, experts, citizens).