>
Breaking news of a few days ago (source, newspaper El Pais): Monday, June 10th , the first trial in Spain for asbestos against the company Uralita of Seville has started. The charge is to have exposed their workers to asbestos risk without ever having taken the necessary precautions. Twenty-six former employees (four of them died in the meanwhile) have set up a lawsuit against the company, asking for more than two million Euros in damages as a result of asbestos-related diseases contracted by exposed. The use of asbestos in Andalusia was banned only in 2005. At the moment no register of exposed subjects exists, and associations will ask the Madrid government to establish a fund for the victims. In Turin, as we have learned from the major national newspapers and TVs news and abroad, on the 3rd of June the asbestos appeal process against Eternit in Casale Monferrato was concluded with the confirmation of the sentence to eighteen years of prison for the Swiss entrepreneur Schmidheiny, two more than in the first instance judgment. The accuses were of intentional disaster and non-respect of safety precautions, extending the responsibilities of Schmidheiny also for the industries in Bagnoli (Naples) and Rubiera (RE). Prosecutor at the trial, dr. Raffaele Guariniello, EARA’s guest at the legal Conference held in Trieste on last January 19th.