00:01Italy's largest steel plant is shutting down its blast furnaces.
00:04It took years of campaigning by local residents
00:07and a ruling from the country's highest court.
00:10Here you can see the monster that killed my son Alessandro, our good warrior.
00:17We met Aurelio just before the ruling.
00:20Since losing his son, getting the plant closed has become his sole focus.
00:25But for thousands of families, their livelihoods depend on it.
00:30There will be a lot of poverty. Taranto will become more poor.
00:35People's health or jobs, what's the right call?
00:40This is Taranto in southern Italy's Puglia region.
00:44The former Ilva steel plant was once a source of local pride.
00:47It covers 15 square kilometers, just steps from residential areas.
00:52In the early 1980s, it employed more than 20,000 people.
00:56The polluted air went largely ignored for years.
01:00The Ilva steel plant has brought death and disease to Taranto.
01:05Studies have long warned about the health risks.
01:08Since 2015, Aurelio has campaigned against the plant with the group Parents of Taranto.
01:14And their efforts have paid off.
01:19We filed a lawsuit against Ilva to stop its operations.
01:26The appeals court in Milan ruled that Ilva must shut down the blast furnaces that are polluting the air.
01:34The judge decided that protecting people's health came before economic interests.
01:39And Italy's highest court in Rome has also upheld that decision.
01:43But the ruling raises another question.
01:46Of the plant's roughly 8,000 employees in Taranto, around 7,000 have seen their hours cut.
01:51And the operator is losing 3 million euros a day.
01:54Union representative Giuseppe D'Ambrosio has worked at the plant for 30 years.
02:01It's sad, really sad.
02:03All these gates used to be open.
02:05On an average morning shift, 3,000 or 4,000 people would come through this gate alone.
02:11There's going to be a lot of poverty.
02:13Taranto is going to get poorer and poorer.
02:18For many families in Taranto, it comes down to a painful choice.
02:22Their jobs or their health.
02:25In the Tamburi neighborhood, with the smokestacks in plain view, is the mini bar.
02:30Ignacio D'Andrea inherited it from his father.
02:33The place brings locals together.
02:37Every family has someone who works at Ilva and someone with cancer.
02:43So, of course, we're divided whenever the question arises.
02:47Jobs or health.
02:49Every time the topic comes up.
02:55Aurelio is a regular at the mini bar, too.
03:01Alessandro Rabuzzi's son was the first boy to protest outside the courthouse, shouting,
03:05I want to breathe clean air.
03:08And now he's gone.
03:11He's gone.
03:13Aurelio is carrying on the fight with Alessandro's strength.
03:22Thank you, thank you.
03:24This couple lost the son, too.
03:29Ignacio had had enough and took action.
03:32He sold t-shirts to fund a children's cancer ward, which Taranto didn't have, despite its many cancer patients.
03:38His campaign raised over half a million euros.
03:40The ward is now run by Dr. Valerio Cecchinati.
03:52We can't say that every case of childhood cancer is caused by pollution.
03:57But when we compare cancer rates among children and young adults in Taranto with the regional average,
04:04they're more than 30 percent higher.
04:10The steel workers breathe the same air every day.
04:14Since 2005, more than 2,000 occupational illnesses have been officially recognized among ILVA employees.
04:20Almost half were instances of cancer, and 691 of those workers have died.
04:26Giuseppe D'Ambrosio has also seen colleagues fall ill or die.
04:30He would have preferred the plants switch to cleaner production methods.
04:35You can explain there are technologies that would allow the plant and the city to coexist.
04:40But the divide is already there.
04:42It's human hatred. I understand it.
04:44But rationality won't get you anywhere anymore.
04:49The government is currently looking for investors to modernize the plant.
04:53But so far, no one has come forward.
05:00Aurelio had his son buried far from the steel plant.
05:03In death, at least to be able to breathe in clean air.
05:08Alessandro.
05:11Alessandro was born with a severe lung disease.
05:14His father believes the pollution aggravated his illness.
05:17He died at just 16.
05:31The only thing he asked me before he went to heaven was to keep fighting for Taranto.
05:39And the environment.
05:47The battle has been won.
05:49Italy's highest court ruled in their favor in late October.
05:52For Aurelio and the entire city, it's a new beginning.
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