en Other Other Original Article Original Article <strong>Objectives</strong><br> Sardinia populations experienced continuous shortage of water resources for thousands of years. To solve this problem, during 1950-1980, the main rivers were dammed creating 45 reservoirs which rapidly became eutrophic or hypertrophic, with toxic cyanobacterial blooms and a generally poor water quality.<br> In order to investigate relations between some cancers occurrence and drinking water consumption from eutrophic reservoirs an ecological study was performed in two Sardinia provinces between 2002-2011 comparing cancer incidence between an exposed area and a reference area. Indications on the actions to be pursued in the future to protect human health from cyanobacterial blooms exposure are suggested.<br> <strong>Methods</strong><br> The provinces of Sassari and Olbia Tempio are the study area and the Ragusa Province (Sicily) the reference area since its water sources are just groundwaters and springs. Cancer incidence rates were calculated for the study area and compared to those of the reference area.<br> <strong>Results and conclusions</strong><br> Among Sardinian men, for the entire study period risk excesses for cancer of esophagus (SRR=3.50), colon-rectum (SRR=1.04), liver (SRR=1.21) and pancreas (SRR=1.24) are observed. Between 2002 and 2011, women showed risk excesses for cancer of esophagus (SRR=3.44) and pancreas during the first (SRR=1.44) and third (SRR=1.67) sub-periods and risk defects for stomach (SRR=0.79) and colon-rectum (SRR=0.92) cancer during the whole study period.<br> Exposure from cyanobacterial blooms can be considered a risk factor for the onset of cancers of the digestive organs. Further studies on individual exposure, effective daily intake and chlorination by-product presence are therefore needed, as well as prevention and water body remediation measures. Cancer development Cyanobacterial blooms, Environmental epidemiology, Microcystins, Reservoir water, Sardinia. 0 0 http://ibbj.org/browse.php?a_code=A-10-374-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Elisa Bustaffa elisa.bustaffa@ifc.cnr.it 10031947532846003956 10031947532846003956 No Institute of Clinical Physiology – National Research Council Fabrizio Minichilli fabrizio.minichilli@ifc.cnr.it 10031947532846003957 10031947532846003957 No Institute of Clinical Physiology – National Research Council Valentina Messineo valentina.messineo@iss.it 10031947532846003958 10031947532846003958 No Service FAST, National Institute of Health Paola Buscarinu paola.buscarinu@enas.sardegna.it 10031947532846003959 10031947532846003959 No Sardinia Water Authority, Section of Reservoir Limnology Rita De Pace r.depace@izsfg.it 10031947532846003960 10031947532846003960 No Chemistry Dept., Section of Mycotoxins and Immuno-enzymatic Technics, Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Puglia and Basilicata Ornelia Sechi orneliasechi@tiscali.it 10031947532846003961 10031947532846003961 No Clinical Government, Evaluation, Corporate Epidemiological Centre – ASL Sassari, Italy - Rosario Tumino rtumino@tin.it 10031947532846003962 10031947532846003962 No Cancer Registry and Histopathology Department, “Civic – M.P. Arezzo” Hospital, ASP Flavio Sensi flaviosensi@gmail.com 10031947532846003963 10031947532846003963 No 7 Economic and Financial Direction, G. Moscati Hospital, Avellino, Italy Milena Bruno milena.bruno@iss.it 10031947532846003964 10031947532846003964 Yes Service FAST, National Institute of Health,