After the decision of the Court of Cassation, last May 10, which annulled the sentence on appeal in Turin against the Swiss industrialist Stephan Schmidheiny, there was fear of an impact on other trials underway in other cities. Instead, the Court of Assizes of Appeal of Naples (second section) confirmed the three and a half year sentence imposed at first instance for the manslaughter of Antonio Balestrieri, one of the workers at the Eternit plant in Bathsin Naples, died due to prolonged exposure to asbestos.
“The sentence comforts us a little, after the disappointment of the first instance, whose requests from the Public Prosecutors were largely disregarded – commented the lawyer Ezio Bonanni, president of the National Asbestos Observatory which spread the news – We trust that the Court of Cassation can confirm this sentence and therefore do justice to the victims and their families”.
The validity of the request for compensation for damages by the Observatory, which was a civil party with the lawyer Flora Abate, was also confirmed. “The trial – explains the Observatory’s note – highlighted how the use of asbestos was without precautions, without confinement and with the workers unaware and without means of protection. Both inside the factory and outside there was asbestos in jute bags without an airtight seal unloaded from ships without workers knowing the risk. The workers fell ill with asbestosis because their lungs were full of dust, which filled with pleural fluid, that of mesothelioma. And so, day after day, the obituaries at the entrance to the factory, and in the surrounding areas of the Bagnoli district, in Pozzuoli and Vomero. So one by one, the workers all died, and then also their families, because they were washing their overalls, or because they breathed dust from their hair and skin.”
