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Plenary Session 3
Friday 19, November, 2004
17:00 - 19:30, International Conference Hall
Plenary Session 3
Empowerment of Victims and Their Families
Chairs: Natori Yuji and Annie Debaud-Mony
Situation and Activities of Asbestos Victims in a Developing Country: ABREA in Brazil
Fernanda Giannasi
Brazilian Association of Asbestos Victims (ABREA), Brazil
Slide 1 - SITUATION AND ACTIVISM OF ASBESTOS VICTIMS IN BRAZIL

Slide 2 - We founded ABREA in 1995, an industrial city in the Greater Sao Paulo when I was despotically transferred from my inspection area at the Labour Ministry as punishment for my work to ban asbestos. They Brazilian government realized in that moment that they would halt me because in Osasco all the asbestos plants were already closed. Therefore the asbestos units shifted to places where there was no social pressure and resistance.

Slide 3 - Initially our aim was to find people that had worked for Eternit, the Swiss group that owned the biggest asbestos-plant in the country from 1939-1993 (Slides 4 and 5), to be submitted for a medical screening.

Slide 6 - The other ABREA's goals can be seen in the next slide:
Visibility of the asbestos diseases, medical examination and active search of cases, compensation, information about the asbestos risks, the asbestos ban and rehabilitation of environmentally damaged areas.

Slide 7 - There was no official statistics of asbestos-related diseases in the country until ABREA was founded. Less than 100 cases of asbestos related diseases were reported by medical literature from 1900-1998. From the initial group of 1,200 ex-workers we could reach, 60% of them presenting any asbestos-related diseases. (Slide 8)

ABREA gave social visibility for the asbestos-related diseases in Brazil and started to organize information of asbestos-exposed people as can be seen in the one of these data sheets from one local group of Saint-Gobain's ex-workers.(access data sheet).

From 175 data sheets I chose Sebastiao's information. He was the leader of this group who passed away last October and you will have to learn more about this emblematic victim during the Award sessions at the GAC's closing session.

Recently the Health Ministry has set up in whole country a program for the epidemiological surveillance named DATASUS/ VIGIAMIANTO to organize the national register of the asbestos exposed workers. It is not only a register of diseases but contains all the exposed workers to be followed up. A very ambitious project that we hope can be successful. They have already asked our data banks to build this information.

Osasco's model has been exported to other regions and we have already 6 active local groups in 3 States:
  1. OSASCO(former Eternit's ex-workers)
  2. SAO PAULO(former Thermoid's autoparts ex-workers)
  3. SAO CAETANO DO SUL(former Saint-Gobain/Brasilit's ex- asbestos workers)
  4. RIO DE JANEIRO (former Johns-Manville/Asberit/Teadit/'s ex-workers + Eternit's ex-workers)
  5. BAHIA - ABEA- Simoes Filhos(Eternit's ex-workers)
  6. BAHIA - ABEA - Pocoes -(former SAMA/Saint-Gobain - ex- asbestos mining) (Slides 10, 11, 12, 13, 14):
In Pocoes, Bahia state, where Saint-Gobain exploited from 1939-1967 an asbestos chrysotile mining, the victims also are denouncing and demanding the rehabilitation of 700 hectares of damaged area - an environmental and social disaster. (Slides 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)

(Slide 23):The struggle for compensation: After 500 lawsuits filled against Eternit and Brasilit, both subsidiaries of the French group Saint-Gobain, they started offering in 1996 an extrajudicial settlement of US $ 1 thousand and 300 hundred dollars to 5 thousand dollars plus a health care medical assistance.

In Bahia they offered this amount as compensation to these poor people watches and caps like compensation for asbestos related diseases. (Slide 24)

Because of the situation of deprivation of ABREA's members, around 1,500 former Eternit's workers accepted these miserable values. Eternit nowadays owns also the asbestos mining - the 5th production in the world. In total Eternit recognizes officially the existence of 2,500 victims.

ABREA and the Prosecutors after attempting for 4 years to improve this extra-judicial agreement filed a public legal action representing 2,500 victims. To our surprise, considering our slow and corrupt Judicial system, last August (2003) the Civil Court condemned Eternit to compensate all these 2,500 victims (Slide 25):

  1. lifetime pension depending on the level of damage ranging from Class I (0.5 minimum salaries) for non malignant asbestos-related diseases including pleural plaques to Class V (4.0 minimum salaries) - 1.0 minimum salary is about US$90/month;
  2. "moral damages" of from 50-300 minimum salaries ranging from class I to V depending on the level of damage;
  3. guarantee how the payments are to be made. The date to be considered regarding the payments for those victims who learnt about their illness.
  4. medical care, the people exposed to asbestos, will receive under the judgment.
We estimated this ruling will cost US $ 160 million dollars to Eternit and the victims will receive ten times more than the company has offered extra-judicially since 1996.

Other ABREA'S ACTION:

  1. ASBESTOS BANNED ALREADY IN 3 STATES(RIO DE JANEIRO, RIO GRANDE DO SUL AND PERNAMBUCO)
  2. 2 STATES HAD THEIR LAWS OVERTURNED AT THE SUPREME COURT (SAO PAULO AND MATO GROSSO DO SUL) CONSIDERED AS INCONSTITUTIONAL
  3. 15 CITIES PASSED LAWS TO BAN ASBESTOS
  4. MORE THAN 70 BILLS ARE WATING DECISION BY THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES
  5. PUBLIC HEARINGS ARE SCHEDULED TO BE HELD IN WHOLE COUNTRY
There is no controlled use of asbestos. The dust killer has to be banned worldwide to save million and million of inhabitants' lives and to protect the future generations of humans beings on this planet.