ASBESTOS AND THE ETERNIT VICTIMS: A SOCIAL DRAMA

Round table discussants Eleonora Artesio (Piemonte Regional Health Commissioner), Raffaele Guariniello
(Head district attorney, District of Turin), Nicola Pondrano (General secretary of the Casale Chamber of Labor), authors of the documentary film 600.000 fibre per un respiro Max Carnè, Enza Carpignano; Lorenzo Gigli, Michele Ruggiero, journalists.

On 10 December 2009, the Turin court will hear the class action suit against the head management of Eternit, a Swiss-Belgian multinational, following allegations of culpable disaster and responsibility for the deaths resulting from the willing removal of safety protection in Italian factories. For 80 years Eternit had operated factories in Italy for manufacturing asbestos, which is know to cause pleural mesothelioma, an untreatable lung tumor. It is estimated that in the Casale Monferrato (Alessandria) area alone, where Eternit's largest Italian factory was in operation until 1985, over 2000 workers and residents died of asbestos-related diseases. The extent of the widespread fatalities was also due to the rapid dispersion of asbestos fibers and dust over an area of up to 40 km in diameter. Disease onset can occur even 30-40 years after exposure. According tocharges by the Turin district attorney's office, the company was aware of the fatal danger of asbestos exposure. The evidence is contained in the thousands of documents of direct and indirect testimony. Forming the background to this social drama are the men and women who had to choose between hazardous work, which provided them with a minimum livelihood, and the risks involved, while the State often washed it hands of the matter, just like Pontius Pilatus.

Cinema Massimo