The Risk Map
In Italy, the North and the Po Valley are the areas where the pancreas falls ill the most. Here the incidence is higher. It is a land where industry is strong and agriculture is intensive.

Lombardy and Veneto are the regions with the highest rates. In provinces like Mantua, Cremona, and Verona, where corn and rice dominate the landscape, the use of herbicides has been massive. Local epidemiological studies have highlighted a greater risk for those living close to areas treated with glyphosate and atrazine—the latter banned long ago, but still present in deep aquifers.

Emilia-Romagna: here the fight is against pesticides used in orchards. The incidence is consistently above the national average, especially in areas where the fog holds atmospheric pollutants and agricultural chemicals close to the ground.

Provinces like Varese, Novara, and Vercelli are often cited in studies because they combine air pollution with the heavy use of chemicals in the fields.

The Viterbo area and Tuscia represent an emblematic case where hazelnut monoculture has transformed a paradise into a district at risk. At Belcolle Hospital in Viterbo, surgeries for hepatobiliary-pancreatic tumors rose from 3 to 26 in just three years. An almost ninefold increase in a very short time. Lake Vico, suffocated by fertilizers and pesticides from the hazelnut groves, is the symbol of this imbalance. Water analyses have revealed chemical residues exceeding safety limits.

Environmental associations define the Vico basin as "biologically dead." The accumulation of pesticides has favored the growth of toxic and carcinogenic red algae. To drink that water or live nearby means exposing oneself to a cocktail of poisons that the pancreas, a sentinel organ, cannot filter.

The province of Viterbo holds a sad record in Lazio: the highest general mortality rate (ISTAT data). Every day in this province, about three people die of cancer. The highest incidence is recorded in District C (which includes areas like Civita Castellana and Vetralla). It is precisely here that hazelnut monoculture is most aggressive. ISDE doctors have highlighted how exposure to pesticides and herbicides (such as glyphosate) is linked not only to pancreatic cancer but also to an abnormal increase in melanomas and blood diseases. These are not just numbers; they are people who have decided not to bow their heads.

The South and the Islands have lower indices, sometimes 20% or 25% lower than the North. It was said that the Mediterranean Diet—with more fresh fruit and vegetables, fewer processed foods, and a less industrial lifestyle—acted as a shield. However, in the last five years, this shield has been cracking.

Even here there are "spots"; in some areas of Capitanata and the Ragusa region, where greenhouses and intensive agriculture never rest, cancer registries report abnormal "clusters." Here the suspects are organophosphates, used to fight parasites, which act as powerful endocrine disruptors on the pancreas.

The ISPRA Report: every year the Institute for Environmental Protection and Research finds pesticides in over 77% of surface water monitoring points in the North. It is a constant, chronic, silent exposure.

The Sentieri Project: this study analyzes the most polluted areas of Italy (Sites of National Interest). It confirmed that in areas near chemical hubs or illegal agricultural waste disposal sites, diseases of the digestive system, including the pancreas, show inexplicable peaks.

How the Poison Acts
It is not just the poison itself; it is how one encounters it. Those who live near the fields suffer the "drift" of pesticides in the air. Those who live far away encounter them on the plate.

The pancreas is an organ of extreme precision, a guardian that regulates life through enzymes and insulin. When the poisons of agricultural chemistry enter the body, they do not strike like a sledgehammer, but like a thin rain that corrupts the deepest mechanisms of the cell.

Pesticides and herbicides enter man through water and food. Once in the blood, they reach the pancreas via two routes: systemic circulation and bile. The pancreas, being a secretory organ, concentrates these substances in its ducts, exposing delicate acinar cells to toxic doses for prolonged periods.

Molecules like glyphosate and neonicotinoids trigger the production of free radicals. The pancreas has fewer antioxidant defenses than the liver. Cell membranes oxidize, proteins degrade, and the organ enters a state of chronic inflammation. An inflamed pancreas is a pancreas that is about to mutate.

Many insecticides are hormonal "mimics." They deceive cell receptors, sending false growth signals. This confuses the cells, which begin to multiply in a disorderly fashion. This is where the tumor is born: in a wrong command given by a synthetic molecule that the body mistakes for a natural hormone.

Certain chemical compounds, especially when combined (the so-called "cocktail effect"), directly strike the cell nucleus. They break DNA strands or prevent the repair of tumor suppressor genes, such as p53. When the repair gene is broken, the diseased cell becomes immortal and begins to form the tumor mass.

It is not just cancer. These poisons damage the Islets of Langerhans, where insulin is produced. The increase in diabetes in areas of high agricultural impact, such as the Po Valley or Tuscia, is often the prelude to the worse evil. A pancreas that no longer manages sugars is an organ that has lost its battle for balance.

The 1+1 = 11 Paradox
In classical science, one studied one poison at a time. But the earth does not receive only one poison. In the hazelnut groves of Tuscia or the rice fields of Vercelli, plants are sprayed with a mixture of herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides. This is what researchers call multi-chemical exposure, and for the pancreas, it is a multiplied sentence.

We must abandon the fallacy of arithmetic summation in environmental toxicology. The interaction between pesticides in the pancreas follows a synergistic logic where 1+1 becomes 11. This figure is not just a mathematical paradox, but a representation of how the simultaneous presence of multiple molecules exponentially accelerates the processes of carcinogenesis, rendering safety parameters based on single substances obsolete. One chemical can block the liver enzymes that should neutralize a second substance. Thus, the second poison reaches the pancreas with a doubled destructive power because the body has lost the ability to "defuse" it.

While an herbicide like glyphosate creates inflammation in the acinar cells, an organophosphate insecticide acts simultaneously on the organ's nerve signals. The pancreas is hit from two different directions: structural and functional.

Recent studies have shown that "safe" doses of three different pesticides, if administered together, cause DNA damage that none of the three substances could cause alone, even at much higher doses. It is the "black hole" of current regulations: laws authorize single substances, but no one checks their union on the plate.

The pancreas is an organ rich in fat and glandular tissues. Many of these chemical molecules are lipophilic (they dissolve in fat). This means that once they enter, they do not leave easily. They stay there for years, accumulating meal after meal, glass of water after glass of water, creating a permanent toxic microenvironment where cancer finds its ideal nest.

We must stop looking at the "acceptable daily intake" of a single pesticide. What matters is the total chemical load. The pancreas is our sentinel, and if the sentinel falls, it is because it has been overwhelmed by an army of molecules acting in unison.

It is an asymmetrical war. We have only one body; they have thousands of molecules. The only possible victory is to deny the enemy the battlefield, cleaning up the earth and our habits.

How to Defend Yourself
Man is not a helpless prey. The strongest defense is not in a medicine, but in a gesture: refusal.

Conscious Consumption: choosing certified organic means cutting off the supplies to those who poison the earth.

The Boycott: identify the products of intensive monocultures and leave them on the shelves. When sales drop, the giants of chemistry and the food industry are forced to listen.

Water Protection: in at-risk areas, protect your home with advanced filtering systems to stop the residues that the aquifers can no longer purify.

Associations and Voices from the Tuscia Territory

ISDE Viterbo: Doctors for the Environment were the first to call for a halt to the expansion of chemical-dependent hazelnut groves, pointing the finger at intensive agriculture that sacrifices health on the altar of production for large confectionery multinationals.

"Non ce la beviamo" Committee: a strong voice fighting for water health, denouncing how hazelnut monoculture is making the water of Tuscia a vehicle for disease instead of life.

The "Tuscia model," based on intensive monoculture, is showing its dark side. The pancreas is the first to give way because it is the organ that manages metabolism and hormonal balance, both of which are disrupted by the endocrine disruptors present in pesticides.

For those who wish to look the truth in the eye, here are the documents upon which this analysis rests:

Shrestha et al. (2024): "Pesticide use and pancreatic cancer incidence in the United States", pubblicato su Cancer. Lo studio che correla 14 pesticidi specifici all'aumento del rischio.

ISDE Italia (Associazione Medici per l'Ambiente): Rapporti sulla salute nella Provincia di Viterbo e l'impatto dei fitofarmaci nella Tuscia.

AIRTUM (2024-2025): "I numeri del cancro in Italia". Rapporti annuali sull'incidenza e la mortalità oncologica regionale.

ISPRA (2023-2024): "Rapporto nazionale pesticidi nelle acque". Dati sul monitoraggio dei punti di contaminazione superficiale e profonda.

IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer): Monografia 112, classificazione del glifosato come probabile cancerogeno umano (Gruppo 2A).

Istituto Ramazzini: Studi globali sul glifosato e gli effetti a basse dosi sulla salute umana e l'infiammazione sistemica.

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*Board Member, SRSN (Roman Society of Natural Science) Past Editor-in-Chief, Italian Journal of Dermosurgery