Dangers in the Dust

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Victims’ relatives stand in court in Turin, Italy, in 2009, at the opening of the trial of two businessmen accused of manslaughter in the asbestos-related deaths of some 3,000 workers and townspeople. The writing on the Italian flag says: "Eternit: Justice!" Massimo Pinca/AP

In a case followed around the world, two former executives of a Swiss building-products conglomerate were convicted in Italy Monday of causing the asbestos-related deaths of more than 3,000 people.

Each defendant — Swiss billionaire Stephan Schmidheiny, former owner of the Eternit conglomerate, and Belgian baron Louis de Cartier de Marchienne, a major shareholder in the firm — was sentenced to 16 years in prison on a charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Schmidheiny, 64, and de Cartier, 90, were accused of exposing workers at four Italian asbestos cement factories — as well as people who lived near the plants — to asbestos fibers, which can cause deadly diseases such as mesothelioma, a virulent cancer that attacks the lining of the lung or abdominal cavity.

In 2010, the Center for Public Integrity’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the BBC jointly produced an investigation into the global asbestos trade, “Dangers in the Dust”, which revealed the tactics used by makers of asbestos building materials to market their products in developing nations despite overwhelming evidence of the fire-resistant mineral’s lethality.

Several activists said that Monday’s verdict in Turin, Italy, which came after a two-year trial before a three-judge panel, could send a powerful message to corporate officials who fail to control toxic exposures. The World Health Organization estimates that 125 million people are exposed to asbestos on the job and more than 100,000 die each year of mesothelioma, lung cancer or asbestosis.

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Dangers in the Dust

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Asbestos was long considered a “magic mineral” that helped Japan rise from the ashes of World War II. But today, experts say more than 100,000 people in Japan will die of asbestos-related diseases by 2040 – and the toll may be higher because the method used to analyze building materials for asbestos is unreliable.

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Asbestos

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A warm welcome to new ICIJ media partner, Tehelka magazine in India, which just published an exposé on the growth and influence of the asbestos industry in that country. The story, part of ICIJ’s recent investigation “Dangers in the Dust: Inside the Global Asbestos Trade,” reveals how despite being banned or restricted in 52 countries for its toxicity, asbestos is big business in developing countries like India, where the cheap, fire-resistant building material may be all the poor can afford.

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Asbestos

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ICIJ rolled out its biggest project in months this week: Dangers in the Dust – Inside the Global Asbestos Trade. We’ve had a half-dozen of our reporters team up with the BBC’s International News Services, and it’s been a great partnership. Together, we’ve covered eight countries in nine months, from the Russian city of Asbest to the Mexico City suburb of Iztapalapa. What we found is now getting global coverage: that the asbestos industry, now banned and restricted in 52 countries, has moved big-time to the developing world, prompting health experts to warn of new epidemics of cancer and lung disease in places like China, India and Brazil.

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Dangers in the Dust

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For China, the world’s biggest asbestos consumer, the worst may be yet to come. Widespread use began in the late 1970s, and given the lag time between exposure and the onset of disease, health experts say, China’s appetite for the mineral will have lethal consequences into the middle of this century.

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Dangers in the Dust

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Mexico uses ten times the amount of asbestos as the United States, relying heavily on imports from Canada. A Mexico City doctor says that the number of asbestos-related deaths in Mexico could rise to 5,000 per year as a result of the nation’s loosely regulated use of the toxic mineral.

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Dangers in the Dust

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Russia produces nearly 1 million tons of asbestos a year, almost half the world’s supply, and boasts strong government backing. “We feel the absolute support of the state,” says an industry lobbyist. One mine, near the aptly named city of Asbest, is nearly half the size of Manhattan.

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