Romana Blasotti Pavesi, leader of Eternit asbestos victims wished to look into the eyes of Stephan Schmidheiny, Yale awarded asbestos billionaire

Romana Blasotti Pavesi passed away on Wednesday, September the 11th,  in the early hours of the afternoon. She was 95 years old, her last birthday had been on the 3rd of March 2024. In 1988 she was appointed president of Afled (Association of Families of Deceased Eternit Workers) which, changed its name to Afeva (Association of Families and Victims of Asbestos) in 1998. She remained president until 2015, then was made honorary president. 

She was succeeded by Beppe Manfredi (who died of mesothelioma the following year), with Giovanni Cappa as vice-president. He too suffered from the same disease, and died in 2020. Since 2016, Giuliana Busto, sister of Piercarlo Busto, aka il Pica, a well-known Casale athlete who was struck down by the same disease at the age of 33, has been president of Afeva. Romana Blasotti Pavesi was made of Commendatore della Repubblica (Order to the Merit of the Republic) for her great commitment in seeking justice and truth as president of the Associazione di familiari e vittime amianto (Afeva - Association of asbestos relatives and victims). The rosary will be this evening, Thursday 12 September, at 7pm, in Casale Monferrato, in the Parish of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In the same church, the funeral will take place tomorrow, Friday 13 September, at 2.45pm. The councillors of the ‘Casale davvero’  coalition have petitioned the mayor Emanuele Capra to proclaim a day of city mourning on the occasion of the funeral: ‘We are talking about - they write in the request, also subscribed by the city's PD (Democratic Party) - a person who was a symbol, in Italy and around the world, of the struggle against asbestos and who was able to communicate to the younger generations his intimate suffering with a spirit of resilience and a very strong charge of positivity inspired by a sublime humanity’. Mayor Capra and City Council President Giovanni Battista Filiberti welcomed the proposal: ‘A dutiful initiative that unites all political forces, associations and city associations’. Tomorrow, a minute's silence will be observed at the inauguration of the Wine Festival.

'Shame on you! We are more than you are!’ She shouted this to the whole of Italy, in those difficult and painful days when the people of Casale were faced with a terrible choice, which, at the time, I called ‘the devil's offer’ in ‘La Stampa’ . Reminiscent of childhood catechism: ‘The devil,’ the parish priest had warned us, ‘presents himself in disguise, he attracts you by showing only the beautiful and shiny side, but, beware, he will deceive you’. That offer of money, made by the main defendant in the Eternit maxi-trial to silence the voice of the municipality of Casale Monferrato, would have meant abandoning any civil action in exchange that is, forcing Municipality would no longer, or ever again, represent the community tormented by asbestos: that is why I called it the devil’s offer.  Many people were upset, Romana was upset. She was not at peace. In fact, she was very angry. ‘The Swiss, as he was known,  did a shameful thing: he behaved in the same devious way just like asbestos did killing people, by killing at random,’ she had told ‘La Stampa’ on the eve of the verdict of the court of first instance.

In the meantime, the municipality had re-evaluated the initial temptations and rejected the offer. ‘I thank Health Minister Balduzzi and that large part of the city that showed a deep civic sense,’ Romana Blasotti Pavesi said. ‘Had it been accepted, I would have personally felt ashamed to present myself to the magistrates who have worked so many years to reach this moment. Today, instead, I feel proud.

The national media, newspapers and TV stations were interested in the case. It was the late autumn of 2011. On December the 20th, journalist and anchorman Gad Lerner, had dedicated an episode to the storm unleashed by the ‘devil's offer’, with studio guests and an external link to a large group of people of Casale. Romana was in the front row. They put a microphone in front of her. Her voice thundered: ‘Shame on you!’, an attack against those who were against accepting the ‘offer/pact’. She shouted for everyone: for those who had died and for those who, while still alive, mourned their dead, and for those who, while still alive, were already suffering from mesothelioma. ‘there are more of us than of you,’ she shouted to make the air vibrate!’

Dr Daniela Degiovanni, who had shared decades of life, struggle and confidences with Romana, squeezed her arm. She confided later: ‘I was afraid she was going to have a heart attack’.

Romana’s powerful voice was one of her distinguishing features, along with her sky blue eyes, which could be as bright as aquamarine or as icy as a glacier, set in a face that all that  of suffering had turned into carved stone.

Her heart  was made of a special material, I cannot say how, nor why but it could not otherwise have withstood the blows fiercely inflicted by fate. One day she said: ‘I had even thought that my family had fallen the victim of an evil spell’. Romana buried her husband Mario, a former Eternit worker, in 1983, her sister Libera, in 1989, her nephew Enrico Malavasi (50, Libera's son), in 2003, her cousin Anna, and her daughter Maria Rosa, in 2004. For all of them, only one culprit: mesothelioma caused by asbestos. At the beginning of this year, yet another loss when her son Ottavio also predeceased her.

She had become president of Afeva, the Casale association of the families and victims of asbestos, in 1988. Mario had died and she couldn't come to terms with it: not with the mourning, a burden she carried intimately without exposing it out of modesty and reserve; what she couldn't come to terms with was that people died because of their work. Like Mario, other husbands, and wives, and children, and siblings. An unbearable injustice. They offered her the role to represent them. She thought about it for a moment, then said: ‘I don't know if I am able, but if you help me, I am ready to fight’. She did so, and remained the president for almost thirty years, with integrity and without relenting, flanked and supported by what she called her guardian angels: Bruno Pesce and Nicola Pondrano. She listened, she documented, she read a lot, she asked to know what was happening. She went where needed: to speak, to testify, to spur people on. She was especially keen to speak to youngsters: ‘We,’ he would say, ‘have come this far, and, mind you, we have done a lot. But it's not over. Now it is your turn to continue. She gave a stern warning: ‘You must fight, until we have justice!’ 

She wore the slogan ‘Eternit Justice’ proudly: printed on the three coloured (Italian) flag that flew on her terrace, in via Cavalcavia, and on the yellow badge pinned to her shirt.

The night before the hearing in which the court presided over by Giuseppe Casalbore would read the first-degree verdict of the Eternit maxi-trial, in Turin, Romana was restless. ‘I'm an optimist, but I can’t hide my level of anxiety,’ she confided, ‘I've taken a few drops of sleeping pill’. But she reacted: ‘I don't want to let fear get the better of me, I want to think that our wait for justice will be rewarded. Who knows, maybe I will finally be able to cry again'. 

She had stopped crying long before the trial, because she said her supply of tears had been completely exhausted when her daughter Maria Rosa had told her mother that she too was ‘sick like dad’. Mesothelioma. That ‘she was so beautiful Maria Rosa, and had beautiful hair. And she was so young'. When she died, she was 50 years old. Maria Rosa left behind a son Michele, who in turn had a daughter, Francesca, now 12 years old: she adored her great grandmother Romana who looked after her when she was a little child.

At the trial, Romana Blasotti Pavesi told her story which travelled the world: all over Europe, in Brazil, in the United States, in Canada, in Japan and even in the villages of the Amazon: ‘Romana you are great, Romana you are strong’ they wrote there. The world knew that emblematic story that was a copy of the pain of hundreds, thousands of other lives similarly killed by the dust, pouvri as it was known in the local dialect. The days before speaking as a witness, she could not enter the courtroom, as is the rule. So she was forced to wait outside, she could only know what was going on inside through the stories of others. A soul in pain, pacing up and down the corridors, at times sitting on the benches to give her aching legs a rest.

Then, on the day of that first verdict, 13 February 2012, she stood up and held Degio’s hand as the oncologist Daniela Degiovanni who has ‘seen’ and treated so many patients was known locally. She closed his eyes, perhaps wondering if all that could be done had been done, or perhaps recalling all the names and faces she had promised she would fight for justice.

In the years that followed there was an Appeal Trial and then the Court of Cassation in Rome. That morning she was more than anxious: Romana was restless. In the afternoon, when all that had to be said had been said, she fell silent in the long wait.

We were sitting on an uncomfortable bench, a little out of the way, side by side, in semi-darkness, speechless, our eyes pointed at the floor, stubbornly not letting ourselves be carried away by any temptation to make predictions. At a certain point of the evening, the signal came: we were called into the large and sumptuous courtroom and the Court of Cassation ruled on the statute of limitations. Everything was quashed, cancelled. An uproar followed, indignant voices. I looked for her in the confusion and found her, standing in that hidden corner we had occupied while waiting. Her gaze was bewildered and dry. ‘We fought so hard to get to this result?’ she whispered. Her son Octavius dragged her away because she was too tired. The next day, with lucidity she commented: ‘The Cassation decided this way because they don't know the history of Casale’. She meant that those judges, so far from here, do not know the constant fear of falling ill, the anguish of those who fall ill, the suffering of those who remain. And yet, she did not feel defeated: ‘We’, she said resolutely, ‘we have convinced the world that we are right’. Bruised, but not bent. One day she said to Mayor Titti Palazzetti: ‘When are we going to inaugurate the park where the factory once stood? It took so long to reclaim it, decontaminate and tear it down, now it's time to transform it'. We had been there, together, visiting the abandoned plant still standing, many years before, in an autumn dusk that made the place look even more gloomy. There was a small group of us trade unionists, former workers and family members of workers, together with Dr Luigi Mara who had asked and obtained permission to make an inspection. We wore masks and puffy white overalls; we looked like ghosts immersed in a greenish semi-darkness. Someone had a torch and shone it on the walls or against broken glass. Romana wanted to know where Mario had worked, ‘this was his shopfloor ‘explained one. She insisted on seeing the ‘Kremlin’, a bad place in the basement, where the dust felt like you were eating it, not just breathing it. ‘That's where it was,‘ said those who had worked there, “they used to send those who were considered the ”hotheads’ who had perhaps complained about the working conditions.’ And Romana looked out at a gaping hole in the floor that was lost in a black, bleak, breathless background. 

Mayor Palazzetti had promised Romana that the Eternot Park would be finished. And so it was, in September 2016, in the presence and with the blessing of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella. The park has an athletics track, lawns and plants, benches and games for children. There is also a living monument, created by the artist Gea Casolaro, the Davidia involucrata nursery: the so-called ‘handkerchief plants’, constantly cared for by a group of volunteers, the prize called the Eternot Nursery Prize awarded every year. 

Another monument, by artist Italietta Carbone, was also inaugurated: it depicts a little girl running while flying a kite, the symbol of a free soul. Everyone calls it ‘Romana's kite’: Romana, the girl from Slovenia who arrived in Casale at the age of seventeen and who, maintaining her free and indomitable spirit, shaped so much of this town’s history.

Respectful and polite at all times (she greeted and shook hands with the defenders of the Swiss defendant with sincere politeness, because ‘we are adversaries, not enemies’), she never lowered her gaze, convinced and proud of advancing a just cause. She would have liked to come face to face with the Swiss entrepreneur. ‘I would like to look him in the eye and ask him why...’. but Stephan Schmidheiny (in picture), the Yale University awarded asbestos billionaire  decided not to ever come forward. If he had done so, if he had found the courage to peer into Romana's sky blue eyes, he would have understood what his only path to salvation was and is: financing a treatment, the  cure. He could still do it, somewhere Romana would hear about it and she could finally weep with relief, freely.

by Silvana MOSSANO

Translation by Vicky Franzinetti

Also read:The asbestos victims of Eternit – in pictures

 Alumni ask Yale to revoke honorary degree 

 Lessons for India from Swiss asbestos tycoon found guilty for causing death of 392 people

 

Lessons for India from the conviction of Swiss asbestos billionaire for manslaughter

Lessons for India from the conviction of Swiss asbestos billionaire found guilty of causing death of 392 people due to carcinogenic asbestos mineral fibers

 

Similar fate awaits the manufacturers of asbestos based products in India

 

Will Yale University rescind the honorary degree given to Stephan Schmidheiny and will winners of Max Schmidheiny Freedom Prize return their prizes now?

 

The fate of Stephan Schmidheiny, a Swiss billionaire who has been sentenced to 12 years in jail on aggravated manslaughter charges connected to the deaths of hundreds of people due to asbestos exposure by an Italian court on 7 June, 2023 has lessons for India. Similar fate awaits the manufacturers of asbestos based products in India who are endangering the lives of all present and future generations of Indians. The verdict is relevant for India because Eternit company with which he was associated had plants in India as well. There is no public or private building in India which is asbestos free including the new parliament building.

 

This verdict has a relationship with the verdict of Hon’ble Supreme Court of India dated 27 January 1995 in Consumer Education & Research Centre (CERC) v Union of India. It directed all asbestos factories to keep the health records of their workers for 40 years and/or 15 years after their retirement. It is germane to India because human biology is same everywhere if the asbestos is deemed hazardous and unusable in the developed countries; it must be deemed so in India too.

 

The conviction of Stephan Schmidheiny for asbestos related deaths paves the way for the 300 year old Yale University to rescind the honorary degree given to him. It rescinded it from comedian Bill Cosby for sexual assault. The extent of greenwashing, blue washing and ethical positioning by Stephan Schmidheiny can be fathomed from the fact that his foundations financed entirely by the Schmidheiny family have awarded Max Schmidheiny Freedom Prize to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, Professor Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, and Jorma Ollila, Chairman & CEO, Nokia, The Economist, The International Committee of the Red Cross and N. R. Narayana Murthy, the Founder-Chairman of Infosys Technologies Limited, a global software consulting company headquartered in Bangalore, India. After Schmidheiny’s conviction, there is a moral obligation on the part of the individuals and institutions to return the tainted awards and donations from him and to recall the awards and degrees given to him.

 

The Italian Court’s verdict is relevant to India because it has been estimated that one person dies from mesothelioma for every 170 tons of asbestos consumed. India is the biggest consumer of asbestos. It imported 3,61,164 tonnes of asbestos in 2019-20. The imports of asbestos were mainly from Russia (85%), Brazil , Kazakhstan, Hungary (3% each), and Poland  and South Africa (2% each). Asbestos diseases have a very long incubation period. Therefore,  if you are exposed today to asbestos fibre, you are likely to get the disease in the next 10-50 years. Asbestos is like a time bomb to the lungs and Indians will suffer the most. If it is banned today that does not mean people will not suffer. Because of past usage people will continue to suffer from these diseases.

 

Responding to the verdict of the Italian Court, Dr. Barry Castleman says, “The court will issue a written explanation of its verdict, called the Motivation, in about 3 months. This makes 3 manslaughter convictions in trials of Schmidheiny in Italy, the others were in Turin in 2019 (one death, 4 years' sentence reduced to 1 1/2 on appeal) and Naples in 2022 (one death, 3 1/2 year jail sentence).  In this verdict, a small number of the 392 fatal cases were excluded based on inadequate proof regarding dates of exposure or incomplete histological test data.  In over 300, the convictions were not subject to penalty only because of the statute of limitations.  In about 30 remaining, the court held that the convictions for these deaths were not blocked by the statute of limitations.  This verdict, like the other trial convictions, will now be appealed by the asbestos billionaire, who has never appeared in an Italian court but has been represented by able counsel at a cost of over $100 million.” Dr. Castleman is the author of Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects, the most authoritative book on the asbestos industry.

 

“Eternit does have asbestos manufactories in India and is responsible for many asbestos related deaths. I hope the Indian legal system is as sophisticated as the Italian legal system to allow justice for victims of asbestos disease, similar to those in Casale Monferrato, Italy,” says Harminder Bains, joint head of Leigh Day asbestos team, UK. Her father died of mesothelioma, an asbestos related disease.  

 

Mr. Schmidheiny is a 73 years old industrialist and former main shareholder in the cement production company Eternit Italia, was sentenced by a court in Novara after being found guilty of causing the death of 392 people in Casale Monferrato, the Piedmont town that until 1986 was home to the largest of Eternit Italia’s six factories. Mr. Schmidheiny used to manage the plant in Casale Monferrato from 1976 until its closure. Eternit SEG, led by Schmidheiny, was a leading shareholder in Eternit Italia until its bankruptcy in 1986. The judges have ordered him to pay €50m (£43m) in provisional damages to Casale Monferrato’s local authority as well as €30m to the Italian state and €500m to a local association for relatives of victims of asbestos related diseases.

 

Mr. Schmidheiny was tried because under Italian law, the owner of a firm is deemed responsible in the event of workplace accidents or deaths. The factory’s asbestos waste used to be crushed outside causing asbestos dust to be blown across the town. The factory was responsible for primary and secondary exposure to the carcinogenic asbestos mineral fibers.  

 

A rise in the number of victims of asbestos related diseases like pleural mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, was found alarming in the late 1970s despite the fact that symptoms of these diseases have a long incubation period before they become manifest.

 

It is noteworthy that the UN agencies have taken note of a study that found the Kymore asbestos factory in Katni, Madhya Pradesh, was first operated by a subsidiary of UK's Turner & Newall,& later by a subsidiary of ETEX/Eternit between 1992-1998. It has dumped asbestos waste on 600,000 square metres of land. More than 3000 people currently live there.This study has found presence of one million tonnes of asbestos-contaminated surface soil,with asbestos concentrations of upto 70%. Belgian ETEX/Eternit was a shareholder of five asbestos factories in India during 1989-2001, ETEX/Eternit sold its Indian subsidiary prior to Belgian ban on asbestos.

 

The workers, their families, consumers and unsuspecting citizens at Kymore factory and its vicinity face risks of exposure to asbestos fibre. Asbestos is a threat to life throughout its life cycle. Some ex-workers and their family members have reported manifestation of asbestos-related diseases. It has been admitted that the prevalence of asbestosis is 3-9% among factory workers. In such a backdrop, it is ironic that Everest is into Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) work for Tobacco Control! Now one has to wait only for the Tobacco industry to undertake CSR work for Asbestos Control although some 70 countries have learnt that safe and controlled use of this carcinogenic mineral fiber is impossible.

 

Disregarding incurable Asbestos diseases, India's first plant Asbestos fibre based plant in Kymore has been awarded for excellence in Safety, Health and Environment by Government of Madhya Pradesh (MP). It has ignored WHO's recommendation seeking elimination of Asbestos related diseases which requires ban on asbestos. WHO is the same entity whose recommendations on covid-19 is restructuring global response of public health institutions all over the world.

 

Notably, UN agencies have taken note of human rights implications of exposure to asbestos from this asbestos fibre cement factory, which used to be partly owned by Belgium-based company, ETEX/Eternit, and dumping of asbestos waste in the village of Kymore, Madhya Pradesh, India. They have written to the Government of India but our government is maintaining deafening silence and remains indifferent to the plight of the victims of asbestos related diseases.

 

It may be recalled that the Kymore asbestos factory was India’s first asbestos plant, built by British company Turner & Newall. The British also built an asbestos based plant in the erstwhile Shahabad district of Bihar. Besides Kymore, UN agencies have noted the presence of Everest factories in Nashik, Coimbatore, Kolkata and Roorkee. The plight of workers and communities in these areas merit your attention. The committee ought to visit the sites of these factories which were linked to Eternit in particular and other asbestos based factories in India.

 

This situation creates a compelling logic for Indian authorities to take cognisance of India’s asbestos legacies, and the implications of the ongoing import, manufacture, procure and use of white chrysotile asbestos mineral fiber despite having banned its mining.

 

The conviction of the Swiss asbestos tycoon is linked to the abject lack of effort by Eternit management to protect or warn workers and the people in the community surrounding the plant prevailed during the 80 years of plant operation until the plant was padlocked and declared bankrupt in 1986. The terror imposed on the community, with so many dying from asbestos, year after year, is expressed in the  testimonies of the victims.

 

A testimony of Ms. Chandni Sharma, daughter of a victim of malignant mesothelioma, one of the deadliest forms of cancer which is caused by exposure to asbestos. an asbestos related disease establishes the crying need to address this public health crisis. She says, “my father Mr Dayakrishan Sharma had served the Indian Navy 41 years. My dad was admitted for days, all night I would read about mesothelioma, I asked my father if he had ever got in contact with Asbestos to which he replied asbestos was used in Naval Dockyard, I asked him if he was sure- he said of course, it was a material used for fire insulations and he had been present many a times when the process was on. I was astonished, my father got this deadliest form of cancer due to exposure to asbestos at work, in defence- in the Indian Navy!” Notably, Indian Navy officials have rightly objected to the presence of asbestos in aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov which was inducted into the Indian Navy as INS Vikramaditya after asbestos decontamination. Both civilian and non-civilian lives in India are exposed to the carcinogenic asbestos mineral fibers.

 

Significantly, Indian railways is engaged in making more than 7,000 railway platforms asbestos free. Similar efforts are needed in every sector and in every public and private space. India has banned mining of asbestos due deleterious impact on health but it is quite ironic that the Union Government allows import of white chrysotile asbestos from countries like Russia, Brazil, Zimbabwe, Kazakhstan and others. Government should not allow itself to be misled by asbestos producers like Russia in this regard due its “deleterious” impact on health.

 

In Europe, tycoons and ministers are facing criminal charges and imprisonment for their act of knowing subjecting unsuspecting people to killer fibers of asbestos. The future is no different for Indian culprits. It is increasingly evident that sooner or later, the asbestos industry in India too will go bankrupt because they will have to pay a huge amount of money in compensation. For every injury in the law there is a remedy. The present and the future generations will make sure they get remedy.

 

Government must persuade the asbestos industry to phase out in two phases. In the first phase the goal is to eliminate use of chrysotile asbestos and the number of exposed workers and consumers in the country. In the second phase, the goal is to create incentives for the use of safer materials, ensure, create a registry of asbestos laden buildings and victims of asbestos-related diseases and ensure  decontamination of the former and compensation for the latter. There is an immediate need to conduct an audit of the current status of the victims of asbestos related diseases from the government hospital records in the country and make it mandatory for medical colleges to provide training for doctors so that they can diagnose diseases caused by occupational, non-occupational and environmental exposures to killer fibers and substances.

 

It is unbecoming of the India’s scientific stature to take untruthful and unscientific position displaying unpardonable callousness towards concerns of consumers, public health, workers, environment and human rights. India should learn from countries that have banned asbestos of all kinds including white chrysotile asbestos. These countries are:  1) Algeria, 2) Argentina, 3) Australia, 4) Austria, 5) Bahrain, 6) Belgium, 7) Brunei, 8) Bulgaria,  9) Chile, 10) Croatia, 11) Cyprus, 12) Czech Republic, 13) Denmark, 14) Egypt, 15) Estonia, 16) Finland, 17) France, 18)  Gabon, 19) Greece, 20) Germany, 21) Gibraltar, 22) Hungary, 23) Honduras, 24) Iceland, 25) Iraq, 26) Ireland, 27) Israel, 28) Italy, 29) Japan, 30) Jordan, 31) Kuwait, 32) Latvia, 33) Luxembourg, 34) Lithuania, 35) Mauritius, 36) Mozambique, 37) Malta, 38) Netherlands, 39) New Caledonia, 40) New Zealand, 41) Norway, 42) Oman, 43) Portugal, 44) Poland, 45) Qatar, 46) Romania, 47) Saudi Arabia, 48) Sweden,  49) Switzerland, 50) Serbia, 51) Seychelles, 52) Slovakia, 53) Slovenia, 54) South Africa, 55) South Korea,  56) Spain, 57) Turkey, 58) Uruguay, 59) United Kingdom and 60) Ukraine. Besides these countries, 10 more countries have banned asbestos of all kinds.

 

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), "All types of asbestos cause lung cancer, mesothelioma, cancer of the larynx and ovary, and asbestosis (fibrosis of the lungs). Exposure to asbestos occurs through inhalation of fibres in air in the working environment, ambient air in the vicinity of point sources such as factories handling asbestos, or indoor air in housing and buildings containing friable (crumbly) asbestos materials." It underlines that several thousands of deaths can be attributed to other asbestos-related diseases, as well as to non-occupational exposures to asbestos.

 

It may be noted that in our country, the government does not record cases of mesothelioma, and thus proclaims no one in the country develops the disease. But “a lack of data does not mean a lack of disease.” It has come to light that “A lot of the asbestos cement factories — a major use of asbestos in India — are owned by members of parliament”.

 

In the backdrop of the Italian court’s verdict, the Government of India and State Governments must ensure compliance with the six specific directions given by Indian Supreme Court in CERC v Union of India on 27 January, 1995. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) must be asked to seek reports from all the hospitals about asbestos related victims attended by them. Governments must issue an order seeking a database of victims of asbestos related diseases, asbestos laden buildings, an inventory of asbestos based products, a database of hospitals which can diagnose the disease and a database of agencies which are competent to decontaminate asbestos from existing buildings. This will be helpful for the present and future generation of Indians and residents.      

 

It is high time the Government of India and State Governments took steps to make the manufacturers of asbestos based products liable for knowingly exposing the present and future generation of Indians to killer fibers. There is a compelling logic for charging these manufacturers with the offence of manslaughter. The conviction of the asbestos billionaire creates a logical compulsion for the governments to make India free from asbestos related disease causing factories and products.

 

Contact: Dr. Gopal Krishna, Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI), E-mail: krishnagreen@gmail.com Web: www.asbestosfreindia.org 

 

 

Yale University rescinded comedian Bill Cosby's honorary degree for sexual assault but not of Swiss billionaire Stephan Schmidheiny for asbestos related deaths: Dr. Barry Castleman

Dr. Barry Castleman, the renowned author of Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects has been interviewed in a recent issue of Corporate Crime Reporter about the criminal prosecution of the Eternit asbestos billionaire in the Italian courts in the backdrop of the upcoming verdict in Stephan Schmidheiny's murder trial of over 392 people who died from mesothelioma on June 7, 2023 in Novara, Italy.  In the interview, he has discussed the greenwashing of Schmidheiny's image by the 300 years old Yale University which awarded him an honorary degree in 1996. The University is putting its own integrity at stake although Schmidheiny never went to study in Yale University. The only time he showed up there was when he got the honorary degree.

Yale University refuses to even show the courtesy of a response to the request by the asbestos families and victims (AFeVA) in Casale Monferrato for Yale University to return of all gifts from Stephan Schmidheiny under Yale University's official policy on the acceptance and return of gifts.  

In the interview, he has revealed that in its 300 year old history, Yale University never cancelled an honorary degree after it has been awarded. But it reversed its policy after it rescinded its honorary degree given to comedian Bill Cosby who was convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting a Temple University employee in his home. Consequently, “The Yale University board of trustees voted to rescind the honorary degree awarded to William H. Cosby Jr. in 2003,” the university said in a statement in May 2018. “The decision is based on a court record providing clear and convincing evidence  of conduct that violates fundamental standards of decency shared by all members of the Yale community, conduct that was unknown to the board at the time the degree was awarded. The board took this decision following Mr. Cosby’s criminal conviction after he was afforded due process.”

But when it comes to Swiss billionaire Stephan Schmidheiny, Yale University is yet to rescind an honorary degree given to Schmidheiny in 1996 despite the ten year old call by hundreds of asbestos victims from Italy to rescind it. In 2012, Schmidheiny was convicted in Italy of causing the deaths of 3,000 Italians in the area of the town of Casale Monferrato, a conviction that was later thrown out on appeal after the defense made the argument that the prosecution was barred by the statute of limitations.

So far Yale University has stood by the honorary degree given to Schmidheiny who is facing another criminal prosecution for the deaths of Italians. The verdict in the case is on t eh horizon. The victims of asbestos related diseases want Yale University to not only rescind the honorary degree, but to return money given to Yale University by Schmidheiny affiliated foundations. In an October 2022 letter to Yale, an association of victims from the Casale Monferrato region called on Yale to return the donations and revoke the honorary degree. The letter said, "“Our community, Casale Monferrato, in northern Italy, has been decimated by the pollution from a giant asbestos cement products manufacturing plant that operated almost 80 years and closed suddenly in 1986,” they wrote. “The Chief Executive Officer of the Eternit multinational enterprise starting in 1976 was young Stephan Schmidheiny, whose family partially owned Eternit.” It added, “In the 1980s, Italian prosecutors had charged Italian Eternit executives with creating an environmental disaster causing the deaths of thousands and thousands of residents and employees in the town and neighboring municipalities.”. The victims stated that “As it became clear that Schmidheiny himself could be charged, and countries started banning asbestos, the asbestos billionaire sold and closed asbestos plants and mines all over the world and since then skillfully and stubbornly desperately sought rebranding. He donated to conservation groups in Brazil.” It has been noted that his book Changing Course in 1992, as chairman of the newly announced Business Council for Sustainable Development was endorsed by James Gustave Speth, environmental law professor at Yale University.

Dr. Castleman states that “Along with Yale alumnus and environmental lawyer Frances Beinecke, whose family’s philanthropy is memorialized in Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Reilly and Speth prevailed in getting Yale to grant Schmidheiny an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in 1996.”  It is ironical that “Yale honored Schmidheiny specifically for his ‘stewardship of the global environment’ as ‘one of the world’s most environmentally conscious business leaders.’ Schmidheiny’s Avina Foundation’s financial contributions to some Yale programs on sustainable development were acknowledged in press releases at the time.” 

He says, “When closing down his dangerous plants in the 1980s, multi-billionaire Schmidheiny faced a very serious, very obvious question: am I going to spend money on making these sites safer or am I just going to abandon them as they are, exposing the local populations to horrendous health risks?”  He observes, “At that time, and at every moment thereafter, he made a deliberate choice against doing the responsible thing, against cleaning up the mess from which his family had earned a vast fortune, and in favor of greenwashing, in favor of buying himself a reputation as an environmentalist.” 

He feels that “In this way, Yale’s deeply defective gift policy directly contributed to thousands of deaths Schmidheiny caused and which are still occurring around the world. Yale sold Schmidheiny a comfortable escape from his responsibility to the people of Casale Monferrato and the other devastated communities.” He points out that “These communities were sold out not merely by Stephan Schmidheiny, but also by Yale.” 

I a significant development, “Starting in 2013, the town of Casale was joined by Yale alumni in a campaign to get Yale to rescind its honorary degree to Stephan Schmidheiny." Their letter states, “We are writing to ask that Yale rescind the honorary degree awarded to Schmidheiny and return all of his gifts from the 1990s to the present having seen the new information available.” But Yale University is refusing to respond to the letter of the victims of asbestos related diseases. 

When asked by Corporate Crime Reporter whether Yale University would revoke the honorary degree to Schmidheiny and return the funds, Yale spokesperson Karen Peart wrote: “Yale awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree to Stephan Schmidheiny for his advocacy of sustainable economic growth and development. The decision to award this degree was made by a committee in 1996” but did not respond to the letter from the victims calling on Yale to revoke the degree and return the money.

Dr Castelam says, “This has been going on for ten years now. One of the things they told us initially is that they have never taken back an honorary degree and they have been giving honorary degrees since the 1700s. And then Bill Cosby got nailed for sexual assault and they took his honorary degree back in a heartbeat. At the time, we asked – why are you taking back Bill Cosby’s honorary degree but not a man whose business resulted in the deaths of people?”

There was a letter of support sent by nineteen Yale alumni led by a medical expert on asbestos in the United States in October 2022 but Yale has not responded as yet. 

 

 

Asbestos kills: Trial of Stephan Schmidheiny, the billionaire who is accused of murder of 392 people

Eternit trial 

December the 12th, 2022 Hearing

By Silvana Mossano 

The release of asbestos fibres from the extensive area of 'eternit' roofs and the so-called improper uses of the material (attics, courtyard squares and playgrounds lined with compacted dust) in Casale exceeded those produced by the Eternit plant and the former Piemontese area where the open-air crushing of waste took place using a caterpillar. This is what the defence experts claimed at the trial taking place in Novara in the Court of Assize, where the defendant Stephan Schmidheiny is accused of the murder (with possible wilfulness) of 392 people from the Casale area, all mesothelioma victims. Claims were based on the scientific models and mathematical formulae, illustrated in past hearings.

Are the defence experts right?

Prosecutors Dr Gianfranco Colace and Mariagiovanna Compare asked the Court of Assizes to hear other consultants, in particular technical experts from the regional Arpa (The Environmental Agency) to assess the method and application of the models. Chief Justice, Dr Gianfranco Pezone, who considered these in-depth studies useful, granted the request, of a confrontation between opposing parties and theses.

As a result, at the hearing on Monday, December the 12th, 2022, engineer Enrico Brizio, current Director of Arpa for the southwest of the Region Piedmont, and an expert in modelling air flows and the dispersion of pollutants in the atmosphere, was heard; together with colleagues Luca Mingozzi and Angelo Salerno (Arpa technicians and already heard as prosecution expert witnesses), he analysed the work of the defence expert Andrea D'Anna, an engineer and full professor of Chemical Plants at the University of Naples. The professor's study was subjected to technical-scientific evaluations, on methods and ways that led the Neapolitan professor to the conclusions he had already set out and then reiterated in cross at the September the 21st hearing. Prof D’Anna had said: 'The pollution close to the Eternit factory comes from the plant, but in the city centre it is caused by misuse of the material'. The Prosecutor asked: 'In your opinion, does the crushing at the former Piemontese pollute as much as, or even less than, the dust fibres coming out of the cracks between the tiles of a roof?’ The professor had nodded yes.

Challenged the method

However, engineer Brizio found it inappropriate that the defence expert witness had used different parameters when considering the sources of asbestos fibres referred to improper uses (attics, courtyards, roofs...) and the sources from “proper uses” specifically the Eternit plant and the Ex Piemontese crushing area.

The regional Arpa manager believes that, considering the range of improper uses the professor has maximised the parameters, while choosing minimum values when it referred to the plant. Prof D’Anna’s results are thus 'immeasurable dimensions’. If he had chosen intermediate parameters for both cases, it would be another matter, the fibre release referred to the improper uses would have been far lower, in the order of hundreds and thousands of times, than those of the proper uses. 'Arpa carried out specific monitoring on the improper uses, but found contamination values that are not comparable with Professor D'Anna's results!' According to Arpa's staff, 'using the emission factors in a more realistic and plausible way, one would see a reversal of the results' indicated by the defence consultant. 

Attics.

According to engineer Brizio, Schmidheiny's expert used a mathematical model that is specific for roofs (more exposed to winds and other atmospheric agents), but unsuitable for attics, where dispersion conditions are different.

And speaking about roofs

Public Prosecutor Gianfranco Colace recalled one of the arguments that the defence consultant had insisted on (the dispersion of fibres from the roofs of the five barracks, in two of which there was even some dust) and evoked a chilling statement (not by Prof D'Anna, but by another expert witness for the defence) that all 'asbestos roofs degraded a few months after installation'. The PP therefore asked Prof Brizio: 'Did these asbestos roofs exist only in Casale? "No, they existed everywhere, and still do”. And yet, so many victims like this are in Casale and not elsewhere. Why?

Appropriate uses

According to the Arpa’s assessment, in Professor D'Anna's work some of the sources of appropriate and expected uses such as the places where Eternit manufacturing took place, had not been considered or were underestimated. He examined the production plant, which was in the Ronzone district, and the crushing site, but ignored the warehouses in Piazza d'Armi, the dump along the river and the 'little beach' on the Po.

The Eternit warehouses

Why did Professor D'Anna not consider them as a significant source of the spread of asbestos fibres? The consultant, who was present at the trial on Monday, 12 December, after Arpa's objections, provided a justification: he had thought that the warehouses, mentioned in studies and surveys dating back to the late 1980s, were all inside the production plant at Ronzone and therefore assessed this are as one, without imagining that there were warehouses even kilometres away. Those in Piazza d'Armi, as a case in point.

On Monday, after having had a good look, he found them, but nevertheless rejected the Arpa’s objections: according to the Piedmontese environmental protection agency, 'the Eternit warehouses had not yet been cleaned up in 1990 and were a significant source of asbestos fibres into the town air, contributing to the rise in the background value'. The professor insisted: 'Finished materials were allocated in those warehouses and no processing was carried out. That is to say: the roofs and attics of houses are a source of heavy asbestos release, while the piles of tonnes of unsealed manufactured goods in a facility with extensive 'eternit' coverage, would be so insignificant as not to be considered?

The timing of remediation

Had the warehouses in the Piazza d'Armi already been reclaimed in the '89/'90s? 'No, they had not yet been decontaminated,' said Brizio. The clean-up began in 1995. At the time Luisa Minazzi, a true Casalese, was the Councillor in charge of Environmental Affairs but she died in 2010 at the age of 58, killed by an asbestos related disease so could not be called. In 1994, the municipality had purchased the warehouses and had immediately arranged for the reclamation work to be carried out, creating a multipurpose area for exhibitions, a cinema and commercial activities [nicknamed Casale’s 'Lingottino' with reference to the conversion of Turin’s Fiat plant].

In 1994, Casale took part in a European Union Urban Project, and was awarded a project which made it possible to find funding for remediation, including that of the manufacturing plant at Ronzone, the most demanding and complex intervention, completed in 2006.

Fewer Fibres

"Monitoring carried out by Arpa in 2007," stressed engineer Brizio, "showed a reduction of fibres in the air in the city of Casale, even below one fibre per litre. This means that after the reclamation of the plant area, the air improved, while roofs, dust and courtyards were mostly still there. That notwithstanding, Prof D'Anna persisted in his conviction, believing that the improvement in the air was also attributable to the elimination of improperly used asbestos. How? 'People,' he speculated, 'in private spaces had certainly already started to remove roofs, perhaps without waiting for the Town, and in any case, they had learnt to be more careful, all the more so after Mayor Riccardo Coppo's 1987 ordinance [banning the use of asbestos in Casale, pointing out its danger to health]. Thus, in the professor's opinion, greater caution on the part of community would have limited the spread of asbestos fibres resulting from that mass of improper use which, in his opinion, was the main cause of mesotheliomas.

Those who were there know that this was not the case. The ordinance signed by Mayor Coppo was a much pondered and suffered act, drafted with scrupulous care with the technical support of frontline doctors such as Angelo Mancini and Giampiero Bertolone, also considering the impact that the ban would have. The ordinance banned the use of materials containing asbestos, even residues from processing, for the first time in Italy, but unfortunately was not enough to convince most of the residents that the danger concerned everyone, because people were persuaded that it was only Eternit workers who developed the disease, that the 'puvri', the 'malapolvere [the bad dust] did not affect the community. 

The awareness of the community and the subsequent reclamation was the result of a steady stream of deaths and tenacious work to increase awareness the institutions, which Afeva (Associazione famigliari e vittime amianto - Association of Asbestos Victims and Families), the trade unions, and schools carried out. Private reclamation arrived well after 1987, so it is realistic that the 1987 Arpa survey, which attested to a clear improvement in the air, was positively affected by the plant's closure.

Spiaggetta or paludetta (Beach or swamp)?

The 'spiaggetta' or little beach on the banks of the River Po was sixty-seventy metres long, and was reclaimed between 2000 and 2001, recalled engineer Brizio. Not even this had been considered by the defence consultant as a source of asbestos fibres, and he explained why: it was a wet area close to the Po and it is known that humidity greatly reduces dust.

Prosecutor Colace tried to find a suitable definition: 'Was it a small beach or a swamp?' Professor D'Anna, keeping the point on the humidity thesis, replied: 'Even at the sea there are beaches lapped by water...'. In this case by the river. D'Anna added that the beach 'was also sometimes flooded...'. But then the sun comes out, it dries and the surface releases dust as it cracks in the sun: that's what we had heard from eyewitnesses, those who evoked the happy summer Sundays spent on the local 'riviera'.

Was there dust at the former Piedmontese Area?

Are witnesses to be believed? Are they to be believed when they recall clouds of dust rising from the crushing area at the former Piemontese? 

The former (Ex) Piemontese was an area thus named because a previous industrial plant, a few tens of metres away from Eternit, which had acquired it and used it, precisely, to crush raw waste.

The defence lawyer questioned the dustiness of that area: it seems that the visual perception of dust can be an optical effect, he believes, linked to a material's light absorption properties.

Prof. D'Anna also raised doubts that there had been all the activity described by the prosecution. However, Prosecutor Dr Colace insisted: 'The bulldozer was on the move 24 hours a day, crushing scrap'. The consultant was puzzled: 'Is it possible that the Casalese plant was producing so much waste to justify that activity day and night?

He is absolutely right: there is a physiological percentage of waste in every production process, but so much waste... In fact, the Casale plant did not produce that much waste at all; but Professor D'Anna had probably not been informed, that the total amount of debris was brought together from various Eternit plants in Italy, concentrating all the crushing activity in Casale, in that area, for the subsequent reintroduction of the shredded material into the production cycle, through the Hazemag mill.

The skips (or dumpsters) dumped in the ditches

Speaking of witnesses, should one also question that of Rosalino Secreto, called to give evidence on Monday December the 12th? 

"I worked for Enrico Bagna's company between 1978 and 1984/85," he began.

Bagna's company, which dealt in general with scrapping activities, had a contract with the Eternit company to dispose of the factory's waste. The owner had confirmed this in the first Turin trial. 

"I was a mechanic,' Secreto told the Assize Court on Monday, 'I was mainly involved in vehicle maintenance but also in the processing of scrap iron. But there was a colleague, yes, that 'boy' there... Bartolo Occhipinti was his name, who must have died 15 years ago..., well, he used to go to Eternit and load the powder and scrap into a sort of skip or dumpster. And then he would dump them near the Po: there was a ditch, from which the gravel had been extracted, they said it was thirty metres deep, and he would throw everything in there. A lot of people went to dump them there, eh... even the building materials from the construction sites, everything'.

He explained how the operations took place: 'The skip was brought to the plant, filled, hooked to the truck and Occhipinti, who was in charge of those operations, would go and dump it in the ditch. Not just the powder, but also the mud from the tanks: they would let it dry, then hook it up with the 'spider' and take it away'. And how were the skips or dumpsters carried? 'Usually but not always covered, it depended on how full they were'.

Was the material thrown into the pit near Po treated? Treated, no; every now and then a bulldozer would come and level it. It would level everything’.

This dumpster business went on 'until around 83/84, a little before the factory was closed'. The factory was closed in 1986, when they filed for bankruptcy in June.

Since then, where did the waste, previously dumped in the ditch, end up? 'Well,' replied the former worker, 'there were rumours that they took them to Switzerland, France or Germany. There were rumours that they used them to make 'prismates' or large prism shaped artificial barrages with which to strengthen riverbanks'.

Undeterred, Professor D’Anna, tenaciously defended his work and responded to the remarks made by the Arpa technicians and experts by insisting on the data, citing numbers and his own conclusions: namely that the sources from which the largest quantity of fibres was released in Casale were roofs and improper uses.

What about the winds?

How did winds and air currents affect the scattering and dispersion of fibres? 

The Court raised the question: 'what can you tell us about the wind as a variable,' Judge Pezone asked, 'is it the same thing to have an area without obstacles compared to a more urbanised area, with buildings?'

The defence expert witness replied: 'The city centre of Casale has not very high buildings nor very narrow streets. He admitted that he had never been there, but had taken 'virtual walks using Google maps, such as Street View'. And he has seen 'buildings with a maximum of two storeys... and farmsteads with rural housing and large courtyards, but not big buildings that channel winds’. So, he insisted, he considered buildings to be insignificant... 'I imagined that there were not many tall buildings in Casale between 1970 and the 80s that would have forced the fibres to linger.' the expert witness insisted and stood firm: roofs and misuse were the main culprits, and the urban area as he described it confirmed it.

What does the city really look like?

Well, 'Street View' is undoubtedly an interesting, a useful and convenient tool, but trusting it blindly is a bit unwise. His eyes could have better guided him in the centre of Casale, in the maze of streets where local authorities have had to make streets one-way precisely because of their limited width: too narrow for two cars and sometimes dangerous. Walking along those streets, he would have been able to admire noble palaces of three, four, five storeys next to streets such as - to cite just a few examples – via Roma, Mameli, Benvenuto Sangiorgio, Saffi, Liutprando, Lanza, Garibaldi, Paleologi, Canina, Corso Trento or Indipendenza or Giovane Italia or Valentino where only the names have changed over time, because the urban layout has been the same for centuries. In the outskirts, then, the streets are a little wider but the buildings have six, seven, or even eight storeys.

A real visit to Casale is well worth it, to realise, without a virtual lens, that it is a beautiful city, with tall, ancient palazzos clustered on charming, narrow, and sometimes winding streets. This is the layout. A beautiful city, yes, and more hapless than others where, even there, asbestos roofs were and still are, but mesothelioma is not at all so frequent, indeed it is even an unknown word.

There, in those picturesque streets, among those buildings and under the porticoes, the professor could meet some polite people who, with dignity and tenacity, and without anger, invoke only a cure and the recognition of a wrong suffered. For truth, without hiding it and without revenge.

NEXT HEARINGS

The last confrontation between PP and defence expert witnesses will take place at the hearing on January the 16th 2023.

Then, Chief Justice  Pezone will declare the trial phase closed and open the closing speeches. On  January the 30th , Prosecutors Colace and Mariagiovanna Compare are expected to begin.

https://www.silmos.it/amianto-nellaria-larpa-le-deduzioni-della-difesa-sono-basate-su-modelli-sbagliati/