Eternit managers sentenced to 16 years in prison

(AGI) Turin – A court in Turin has sentenced Stephan Schmidheiny and Jean Louis de Cartier to 16 years in the Eternit asbestos trial. The defendants were found guilty of environmental disaster and wilful omission of safety precautions. However, the judgement makes a distinction between the various Italian factories, declaring them guilty for Casale Monferrato and Cavagnolo (Turin), while the crime was annulled due to the statute of limitations for the Rubiera plant in Emilia Romagna and Bagnoli in Campania.

The court accepted the prosecution case that top management had failed to take the appropriate technical, organisational, procedural, and hygienic measures needed to minimise exposure to asbestos. For example, there were no local extraction systems, adequate ventilation of rooms or working procedures designed to avoid the handling of the substances, or cleaning systems for work clothes.

There was no proper care or effective use of protective equipment, no suitable health checks for workers, and no attempt to educate themselves or the employees about the specific risks arising from asbestos and measures to reduce these risks. . .