A high-visibility, high interest criminal trial has opened in Italy over asbestos exposure that killed at least 2,200 former employees of the firm Eternit. On trial are one wealthy Swiss national and an 88 year old member of Belgian nobility, both of whom worked with the company or served on the board at some point in the 1970s.
The company in question is the Italian firm Eternit, a corporation that turned out products made from cement reinforced with asbestos fiber. The case has developed intense interest in Europe; on the trial’s opening day the courtroom had to utilize the space of four courtrooms because of the presence of 400 asbestos victims, family members, and 150 attorneys.
The victims – who died of mesothelioma or fell sick over at least the past four decades – were either Eternit workers or residents of towns where the firm’s four Italian plants were based. The two defendants are accused of negligence because there were no warnings to employees or anyone else about the potential hazards of asbestos. The plants were all closed in 1986.
According to various European news agencies these defendants were high executives with the company and ignored the developing awareness of health problems associated with inhaled asbestos fibers. The number of deaths attributed to these four plants suggests that not only workplace exposure but widespread distribution of asbestos dust to surrounding areas occurred during the years of plant operation.
There has been only one federal prosecution of asbestos company executives in the United States – similar charges of negligence filed against six W.R. Grace executives – and that case ended in acquittal in early 2009. Nevertheless W.R. Grace has been in bankruptcy for years due to asbestos claims and has established a $2 billion trust fund to reimburse former employees. The record of civil litigation in these Eternit cases is not clear, but the public anger over perceived negligence may be the precursor for substantial asbestos litigation yet to come.
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