Why the PANDORA project

A study group, that of Pandora, born spontaneously with the aim of correct technical-medical-scientific information that is clear and transparent, and which sees numerous professionals in the field.

"The project was born from the idea of Paola Dama, a Neapolitan researcher who works as an oncologist in a research center in the United States, who for several years has been fighting for correct scientific information, especially on social networks - explains Di Nardo. In Italy we do not have a consolidated culture of cross-checking data and sources and the press too often use only parts of information. Often technical, medical or scientific news, even sometimes false, is in fact amplified (for better or for worse) without any more control, with the risk of dangerous consequences on a cultural, social and economic level. Often these news, the result of an extreme journalistic synthesis, are decontextualized and generalized, distancing them from their scope of application, from their experimental validity and the scientific community does not always intervene to clarify, also because some issues are complex and require a dissemination effort that is not always possible."

The name Pandora draws inspiration from James Cameron's science fiction film, in which the precious primordial world of Pandora, symbol of the symbiotic relationship between man and nature, finds itself under attack by terrestrial speculators. "In recent months Campania has been the subject of enormous media attention based on a series of technical, medical and scientific information that is not always truthful, sometimes imprecise and incomplete - clarifies the expert - which can add further social and economic problems to a region that already has many. The attempt with Pandora is precisely this, we want to inform correctly and, if necessary, counter-inform, based on the analysis and verification of the data".

Engineers, geologists, chemists, agronomists, doctors, researchers, teachers and scientific communicators, these are some of the professionals involved, in an on-focus team with the aim of making a real contribution to the redevelopment of the territory. "It is often better, and also easier - continues Di Nardo - to stay in one's own research laboratories, to let only one's publications speak without ending up in the grinder of the real world with citizens, administrators, journalists who, each in their own way, ask questions about complex problems for which even Science does not always have answers. Those who have joined PANDORA have accepted the challenge of putting themselves in the grinder, with the humility of first listening and then trying to give some answers after having analyzed data and information".

The various activities include the creation of an internet portal with a forum open to citizens, the establishment of a non-profit association and an international conference on the topic of pollution of the Tierra dei Fuegos. "As regards the pollution situations in our region, we have known about various problems for some time - states the teacher -, certainly there are waste and air quality, but also the purifiers that function poorly, polluting the sea, as well as the various waterways and the well-known Regi Lagni which have been polluted for some time, which represent a major environmental problem. But the Pandora group hopes that, in addition to waste, we will also talk about many other sources and possible risk factors for the health of the environment and its inhabitants, to for example the air quality which in many city centers is bad, in fact almost all the historic centers of our cities do not have a temporary or permanent ZTL (Limited Traffic Zone). However, I do not believe that the situation is compromised to the point that we cannot go back, if everyone will do their part: if the institutions make good calls for the clean-up; the press will provide correct information and carry out in-depth investigations; the citizens will conscientiously vote for the ruling class and monitor all the actors in the process."

Finally, adds the prof. Di Nardo, "I always tell my students a little story, that of the desperate young man who needs to eat, who doesn't know the risks to his health and that of his people, who perhaps doesn't love his land, and who spills a trunk into the ground or sets a tire on fire. They give him a few tens of euros. He doesn't know the environmental damage of this gesture, the effects on human health, even that of his family members. And he doesn't know the costs for the reclamation: that is, to bring that land back to its natural condition. That cost can sometimes be up to ten thousand or one hundred thousand times higher than the few euros "earned". Economic resources that we do not possess, that no community or nation in the world can afford. Therefore the main weapon we have for environmental reclamation is the growth of sensitivity for the defense of the environment and love for one's land, therefore: School and Training".