Eternit, the trial goes on

The swiss Ernest Stephan Schmidheiny, 61 years, and the belgian Jean Louis Marie Ghislain De Cartier De Marchienne, 87 years, once top managers of Eternit company, were referred to court in Italy for willful failure of precautions against accidents at work and negligent disaster. Hundreds of thousands of workers and residents in areas where rose 4 Eternit establishments have died over the years for a particular form of lung cancer caused by asbestos dust.

The process against the two defendants will begin December 10. "It's an important page in the history of asbestos in Piedmont and in Italy", said the Turin added prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello, the man who has done everything possible to bring to court the leaders of the company. According to the accuse the owners of Eternit knew with certainty since at least the '60 that asbestos was deadly, but they would not have done enough to protect workers and the public from contamination. The four establishments stood in Casale Monferrato and Cavagnolo in Piedmont, Rubiera in Emilia Romagna and Bagnoli in Campania. The italian environment organization Legambiente and the Piedmont Region will be civil parties in the trial. Asbestos in Italy was banned only in 1992 and, despite the rehabilitation work, they are still significant quantities in many buildings throughout the country.
Although as usual the Italian media have spoken very little about this trial, it is a historical fact. The possibility of putting the vertices of a company to face up to their responsibility for poisoning of humans and the environment would be an unprecedented milestone in order to prevent the recurrence of similar conducts in the future. For years many companies in Italy have poisoned and killed without restraint and without controls. The process of Turin, even more important than the law on class action that has yet to come into force in a country where dying at work is so easy, it could be a first important sign of change.

Francesco Defferrari

Eternit, justice for the dead, salvation for the living.
Indestructible, italian documentary on the deaths of asbestos in Casale Monferrato
Asbestos: the silent dead, Blue Night italian tv show , 21 September 2008
Italian blog on the victims of asbestos
Italian Family association of asbestos victims

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Comments

massimo

Cosa resterà alla fine di questo maxi processo? Sarà fatta giustizia per le famiglie che vogliono solo giustizia? I colpevoli saranno giustiziati per il dolore che hanno lasciato nei cuori dei familiari? Anni di sofferenze, lotte per sopravvivere,dolori per fare un respiro, e per non citarne tante altre, speriamo bene che alla fine del processo gli ANGELI in paradiso vedano che nei loro confronti ci sia fatto rispetto da parte della legge ITALIANA. Ci sono famiglie che desiderano solo che i loro cari vengono ricordati è rispettati . E giustizia sia dovuta fatta.

Monday 15 March 2010, 02:13

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