The waste crisis in Campania, South Italy: a historical perspective on an epidemiological controversy

•Relevance of the epidemiological debate in the Campanian waste crisis to the history of medicine.•Misconstruing scientific uncertainty as a pretext for not taking action.•Mismanaged strategy of communication with the concerned public.

Between 2001 and 2009, the area of Naples, South Italy, repeatedly hit the headlines of national and international media due to the waste management crisis that on many occasions filled up the streets of the region with huge piles of waste. What soon emerged as the main bone of contention concerned the connections between the population's health and the presence of dumps on the territory. What the risks for health actually were, who was entitled to assess them, and whether pollution from proximity to dumps caused health problems were all topics that came to the fore during a debate that took place within the Italian epidemiological community, alongside the political and governance crisis.