Swiss Construction Firm Sued in Italy for Asbestos Mishandling

Italian authorities have charged executives with a Swiss construction company with complicity in the deaths of over two thousand workers and residents near their construction sites due to their proximity to the firm's asbestos plants. The company, Eternit, and two main shareholders, Jean-Louis de Cartier of Belgium and Stephan Schmidheiny of Switzerland, were charged in an Italian court with creating an environmental hazard and failure to take adequate steps in disposing of asbestos at their factory near Turin. The executives named in the charges owned the plant from 1973 until its closing in 1986. They are set to stand trial on December 10, a trial which could stretch out over several years. If they are found guilty, they could face up to thirteen years in an Italian prison.

The matter was brought to the attention of the authorities by past workers at the firm, who state that over two thousand people have died and an additional eight hundred suffer from other symptoms as a consequence of dealing with blue asbestos, an extremely hazardous substance. Prior to the ban instituted by the Italian government in 1992, the carcinogenic mineral was in use in various construction projects for the purposes of insulation and fireproofing. The charges against Mr. de Cartier and Mr. Schmidheiny include the lack of measures in place to insure worker safety when dealing with the dangerous materials.

According to one Italian prosecutor, although Eternit closed down the plant more than twenty years ago, several new illnesses continue to arise in the small town near the site. Raffaele Guariniello, one of the prosecutors working on the case, states that the company did not take adequate precautions with waste asbestos fibers that remained after completing numerous construction projects. He also alleges that the firm sold asbestos to other construction companies in the area for use in home building and road paving.

"They (Eternit) placed an ecological bomb and have done nothing to defuse it," said Mr. Guariniello. "Just a few days ago we took pictures of roads covered in asbestos powder." He also stated that the firm has not contributed to the cleanup costs of the site, so the burden for such expenses falls on the villagers and the government.

Astolfo Di Amato, an attorney for Mr. Schmidheiny, stated that his client does not deny that the deaths in the area were caused by asbestos exposure. However, he also mentions the fact that other operators have mined asbestos in the area for nearly a century. In response to the charges, he said, "It's unthinkable that our client should be found responsible for the mistakes of others."

Along with the criminal charges, the firm also faces a class-action civil suit filed by former workers and residents in the area. The civil action claims that people living in the village of Casale Monferrato have had a higher-than-expected fatality rate from asbestos-related diseases in the years that the factory has been in operation. According to the suit, an average month sees four more people fall ill to diseases stemming from asbestos exposure, with forty fatalities in an average year.

Bruno Pesce, the leader of an association of residents affected by the site, praised the ruling against the firm. "We hope that this trial will repay part of the debt that Eternit owes the families of the victims."

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