Two interesting witnesses, François Iselin and Silvano Benitti, unveil the international Eternit organization chart, underlining the premeditate strategy of silence and the minimization of the risk by the Belgian - Swiss firm. The defendant's lawyers try to downsize them and protest formal irregularities that deny the right of defence.

"It was universally known since 1962 that asbestos provoked cancer. They had shoulded leave it: instead Eternit used it until 1990, the double than before". François Iselin, architect, university professor and member of the Swiss association Caova (Comité d'aide et d'orientation des victimes de l'amiante, the Committee of aid and orientation for the asbestos' victims), makes the strategies of the international top management of Eternit burst on the scene into the great asbestos trial of Torino.

Iselin struggled more than 30 years to inform the international public about the asbestos hazard: he published books and researches in three languages and he promoted the first Swiss epidemiological inquiry on mesothelioma.

According to Iselin it seems impossible to detect victims, so far, in the area where everything begin, the headquarter of Niederurnen, in the canton of Glarus, Switzerland. In this municipality Ernst Schmidheiny (grandfather of the defendant Stephan) bought in 1920 the plant that will soon became the headquarter of the Eternit Schweiz AG. Soon after, in 1929 he creates the first lobby of the asbestos industry, SAIAC (Sociétés associées d’industries amiante- ciment). The control of the vast Eternit companies network has been set up from a tiny Swiss canton.

The Eternit top management had noticed in 1975 that asbestos was potentially dangerous and suggested to avoid the risk by introducing safety measures. There are evidence of it in a paper titled "Protection of work and environmental", signed by Stephan Schmidheiny . The Swiss ban on asbestos has been ordered in 1990 while Eternit obtained to extend the deadline till 1994. According to Iselin, all this was the result of a lobbyist strategy to postpone the ban as more as possible.

About the production waste, Iselin reports the same information of the previous Italian witnesses: Eternit used to give it as a gift to the people for the domestic use.
The strategy for the deposit waste was the same everywhere. The material was crumbled and slag heaps were made where possible.

He reminds about his shocking visit in Nicaragua, where slag heaps of asbestos were stored everywhere around the plant of Nicalit, the local name of the Eternit firm. This criminal strategy contributed to spread the epidemic not only to the worker of the plants, but also to the people of the surrounding communities.

"I know about a letter addressed by Schmideiny to the Italian managers in which he states that a control is required because there is a trade unionist who wish to explain to the workers the hazard related to asbestos". The link between the Swiss top management and the Italian plant is also clear. The Eternit company used to work in the shade, their share was unlisted in the stock exchange and it is impossible to unravel the problem of the shareholding of the financial network built up by Schmidheiny.

The lawyers of the Anova Holding (the former company Amiantus, controlled by Schmidheiny during the 70s and civil liable in the trial) Giovanni Lageard, objects to this approach, pointing out that Iselin isn't aware of Eternit corporate organization chart. "The witness, although he claims that he is studying the matter for may years, isn't informed about many situations and he not even made a simple inquire at the Chamber of Commerce" added Lageard after the deposition.

Another formal fact damp the deposition of François Iselin: the prosecutor' office haven't previously noticed to the defendant's lawyers his first deposition, collected during the preliminary investigation. On the other hand, the plaintiff's lawyers got it for long time. The barrister Sergio Bonetto even published it on his website, violating the proceeding.

The second witness of the 13th hearing is the engineer Silvano Benitti, former manager at Eternit S.A. who spent a period of training in several European plant of Eternit during the 70s.

Mr Benitti was in Casale Monferrato in 1975 where he could notice the dirty work environment and the bad smell. “Between the German Eternit plant and the one of Casale, the difference was extraordinary: in Italy there were dust and stink everywhere”. If they would ask him to give votes to the plant, he would give 4 to the plant of Casale and 8 or 9 to the German one. Such big was the gap.

Cleaning was however useless: “even if we would have taken all the care, we could not avoid the damages for the men and the environment”, affirms Benitti. In 1975 he wrote a report about his observation in Casale and he noticed the lack of any policy of prevention of occupational diseases.

About the asbestos related diseases, the witness explains that the company never gave any precise information about the eventual link between those and the exposition to the asbestos. Instead, the official company policy affirmed that asbestos could be use in a safe way, as long as the worker woulded use a precautionary care. But this was impossible, due to the lack of proper individual safety devices.

The company even decided to dispense to their managers a manual useful to head the decisions in case of complains: for instance, if a critical article would have appeared on magazines or newspapers, the hint was to hire a lawyer to block the circulation of the information. Eternit defined "asbestos libel" a case study of various situations that could "undermine the existence of our company": a too much active journalist or lawyer, the workers of a Swedish construction site whom refused to lay abestos sheets.

The company hypocrisy come to a point where they provided to the workers half a litre of milk per day to purify themselves from the asbestos pollution. "I always seen it as a funny story, even through the perspective of that time it seemed to me a measure without foundation" affirmed the engineer Benitti.

The boss of Benitti was Mr Hans Andreas Meier, the technical manager of the Eternit plants in Italy. "What did Meier say about Stephan Schmidheiny?  Can we affirm that he used to refer to him as the owner?" asks the prosecutor Guariniello. "It is certain" anwers Benitti. Stephan Schmidheiny was the boss of Eternit from 1975 to 1979 on the highest level. Benitti has no dubt about it. "There were around sixty plants around the world depending on the headquarter in Niederurnen and all of them comply with the same guidelines", he affirms.

The 13th hearing of the Eternit trial stages an open battle between lawyers. «Today, it has been reaffirmed that at the time of the events, everybody were convinced that absestos coulded be safely managed. The company decided to keep the dust pollution under the terms of act, and the parent company in Switzerland invested a lot of money for the required improvements», states Astolfo Di Amato, lawyers of Schmidheiny.

The plaintiff barrister Sergio Bonetto retorts: «Today it has been sheded light on the indissoluble bond between Eternit Schweiz and the Italian Eternit SA. This is essential for the verification of the truth». Next hearing, the 14th on June 7th, we'll move to the plant of Rubiere (Emilia Romagna) and we'll hear two secretaries of Eternit SA.

(By Asbestos Victims Families Casale, Asbestos in the dock, 24/05/2010)