Italian Footballers' Pesticide Death
Italian Footballers' Pesticide Death
Interesting article from the Guardian website:
The deaths of a growing number of Italian footballers from a rare and debilitating disease may be due to pesticides and fertilisers used in the 80s and 90s, an Italian magistrate has claimed. Fifty one professional and amateur players have now died from it, six times the average in the general population, said the Turin magistrate Raffaele Guariniello, who has run checks on every man who played in the top three divisions from the 60s to 2006.
Tonight Roberto Baggio, Ruud Gullit and Franco Baresi will play a charity game in Florence organised by the latest sufferer, the former Milan, Fiorentina and Italy striker Stefano Borgonovo, 44.
Now paralysed and speaking with a computer-generated voice, Borgonovo is raising funds for research into the nerve-wasting condition known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or more commonly Lou Gehrig's disease after the US baseball player who died of it in 1941. "I want to find the penicillin of 2008," said Borgonovo, who scored the goal that put Milan into the 1990 European Cup final.
In Turin investigators have identified heading the ball as well as doping, including the use of legal anti-inflammatory drugs, as possible triggers for the disease among the footballers, typically those who played for more than five seasons in Italy during the 80s and 90s.
But Guariniello said the fertilisers used to treat pitches are also in the spotlight. "We are interviewing retired groundsmen and analysing chemicals they used, including those containing formaldehyde," he said. "There could be a connection with the incidence of this disease among agricultural workers." Further research is to be carried out by a group led by Paolo Zeppillo, a former doctor to the Italy team, who will be given funding of �150,000 (�116,000) by the football federation.
"We shall be looking at a genetic predisposition among sufferers, set off by something in football, although I have doubts about current theories," he said. "Other sports are played on grass, involve head trauma and have doping, so why don't we see the disease there?"
As research continues, the disease is cutting a swath through a generation of players, including the former Genoa captain Gianluca Signorini and former Como midfielder Adriano Lombardi, leaving tonight's players wondering if they are raising money to fight an illness that will one day take them. "We need to find out about this," said Celeste Pin, Borgonovo's former room-mate at Fiorentina. "It is striking down footballers, which does not leave you feeling very serene."
Magistrates have also looked into the high number of Fiorentina players suffering tumours and heart attacks, amid suspicions that performance-enhancing drugs may have had an influence. "Our survey shows a higher than average rate of thyroid, colon, pancreatic and liver cancers among footballers generally," said Guariniello. But Lou Gehrig's disease remains the most serious affliction, he said, adding that he hopes help will come from other countries, particularly the UK.
Yesterday the Football Association said it was already looking into the matter, although only considering the impact of heading the ball. A group of 18-year-old academy players have been selected to undergo MRI brain scans and other checks, to be repeated after one, five and 10 years, said Alan Hodson, head of medical and exercise science at the FA. "We are now in the sixth year and clearly no findings can be reported until the completion of this project."
Hodson said there was no use in checking on retired players to assess the danger of heading due to the use of modern, non-porous plastic-coated balls. "You must compare eggs with eggs," he added.
The deaths of a growing number of Italian footballers from a rare and debilitating disease may be due to pesticides and fertilisers used in the 80s and 90s, an Italian magistrate has claimed. Fifty one professional and amateur players have now died from it, six times the average in the general population, said the Turin magistrate Raffaele Guariniello, who has run checks on every man who played in the top three divisions from the 60s to 2006.
Tonight Roberto Baggio, Ruud Gullit and Franco Baresi will play a charity game in Florence organised by the latest sufferer, the former Milan, Fiorentina and Italy striker Stefano Borgonovo, 44.
Now paralysed and speaking with a computer-generated voice, Borgonovo is raising funds for research into the nerve-wasting condition known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or more commonly Lou Gehrig's disease after the US baseball player who died of it in 1941. "I want to find the penicillin of 2008," said Borgonovo, who scored the goal that put Milan into the 1990 European Cup final.
In Turin investigators have identified heading the ball as well as doping, including the use of legal anti-inflammatory drugs, as possible triggers for the disease among the footballers, typically those who played for more than five seasons in Italy during the 80s and 90s.
But Guariniello said the fertilisers used to treat pitches are also in the spotlight. "We are interviewing retired groundsmen and analysing chemicals they used, including those containing formaldehyde," he said. "There could be a connection with the incidence of this disease among agricultural workers." Further research is to be carried out by a group led by Paolo Zeppillo, a former doctor to the Italy team, who will be given funding of �150,000 (�116,000) by the football federation.
"We shall be looking at a genetic predisposition among sufferers, set off by something in football, although I have doubts about current theories," he said. "Other sports are played on grass, involve head trauma and have doping, so why don't we see the disease there?"
As research continues, the disease is cutting a swath through a generation of players, including the former Genoa captain Gianluca Signorini and former Como midfielder Adriano Lombardi, leaving tonight's players wondering if they are raising money to fight an illness that will one day take them. "We need to find out about this," said Celeste Pin, Borgonovo's former room-mate at Fiorentina. "It is striking down footballers, which does not leave you feeling very serene."
Magistrates have also looked into the high number of Fiorentina players suffering tumours and heart attacks, amid suspicions that performance-enhancing drugs may have had an influence. "Our survey shows a higher than average rate of thyroid, colon, pancreatic and liver cancers among footballers generally," said Guariniello. But Lou Gehrig's disease remains the most serious affliction, he said, adding that he hopes help will come from other countries, particularly the UK.
Yesterday the Football Association said it was already looking into the matter, although only considering the impact of heading the ball. A group of 18-year-old academy players have been selected to undergo MRI brain scans and other checks, to be repeated after one, five and 10 years, said Alan Hodson, head of medical and exercise science at the FA. "We are now in the sixth year and clearly no findings can be reported until the completion of this project."
Hodson said there was no use in checking on retired players to assess the danger of heading due to the use of modern, non-porous plastic-coated balls. "You must compare eggs with eggs," he added.
sounds like the agent orange of football.