The impact of environmental pollution on health is gaining increasing attention and concern throughout the local communities and authorities in Tuscany. Tuscany Regional Health Agency has been engaged in monitoring the environmentally critical geothermal areas of Tuscany.

32 are the geothermal stations, 28 in the so called "traditional" geothermal area, built around Larderello, Radicondoli - Travale and Val di Cornia (known as the Northern geothermal area) and 4 in the Amiata mountain region near Siena and Grosseto, located in the south of Tuscany (the so called Southern geothermal area).

In order to assess the sustainable management of geothermal resources, the Regional Government needed to evaluate the health of the population living in geothermal areas. An epidemiological study was then entrusted to Tuscany Regional Health Agency.

Since the areas in the world with natural or geothermal emissions arising from production activities are sparsely populated, scientific knowledge about the relationship between geothermal energy and health is still very limited. Using existing available epidemiological data, THRA study is thus very important.