Interview with the lawyer G. Meglio on the damage caused and on the protections that can be activated
Asbestos is a natural mineral with a fibrous structure, with sound-absorbing and heat-insulating properties, which in the past, thanks to its low market cost, has had extensive and varied industrial applications, where there were needs for sound absorption and / or thermal insulation. Since the 1940s, based on exhaustive statistical reports and epidemiological surveys, the International Scientific Community has highlighted the danger of this material which is highly harmful to human health, both in relation to the risks of asbestosis (chronic respiratory disease) and of those carcinogens (respiratory neoplasms, pleural cancer, peritoneum, pericardium, asbestos-related lung cancer, bladder cancer). However, despite these indisputable scientific evidences, asbestos has continued for many years to be extracted, processed and used in multiple uses. “Public health was therefore sacrificed to the economic interests of the industries of the sector with a cynical calculation that, in addition to the very serious and irremediable damage to the health of the victims, had a significant impact on the economy of the entire country, due to the high costs relapses on the community for diseases, for social security and for reclamation works ”, Gianmarco Meglio affirms with emphasis. For years engaged in the defense of numerous former workers of the shipyards of Stabia and not only exposed to asbestos, thanks to his passion and determination, he obtained excellent results and substantial compensation for the damages suffered by relatives of the victims or by seriously ill workers.
When public opinion began to understand that exposure to asbestos could be extremely dangerous?
I would say that, unfortunately, public opinion perceived the danger of asbestos when it was too late and the first damages, especially in some industrial sectors, were already beginning to appear. We are talking about thousands of families undermined by the problem of the long-term damage, that is the manifestation of a disease at a distance of time, even considerable, compared to the exposure to the pathogenic element.
At a certain point, even in Italy, the institutions began to have this problem at heart, to try to repair a widely consumed wrong, since the political class of that time was not immediately incorporated the European prevention norms dictated in this matter since 1980. Today what charges are incumbent on the employer?
In our country, for several decades (until the early 1990s), an indiscriminate use of asbestos was made in violation of the provisions of the laws of prevention already in force. I refer to both the art. 2087 c.c. – according to which “the employer, in the exercise of the company, is obliged to take the necessary measures to protect the physical integrity and the moral personality of the workers” – that in art. 21 of the D.P.R. 303/56 – a standard that aims to prevent diseases deriving from the inhalation of all dust (visible or invisible, fine or ultra-fine), and in accordance with which “in works that normally give rise to the formation of dust of any kind, the employer is required to take measures to prevent or reduce the development and spread in the workplace, taking into account the nature of the dust and its concentration in the atmosphere “. In practice, in the exercise of the working activity, the entrepreneur is required to adopt preventive and protective measures of a technical, organizational, procedural and hygienic nature suitable for protecting the health of workers.
In the course of her long professional activity, she has spent a great deal of time legally assisting former shipyard workers, places where asbestos was used massively up until the 1990s. Considering that the disease has an incubation period of 30-40 years, it is easy to deduce that unfortunately the peak of mortality will occur around 2020. So, what can these poor people exposed to them, in spite of themselves, this killer material?
First of all, monitoring of one’s health and prevention: regularly undergo specific medical checks. For many years in the mechanical naval industry – think of the yards of Castellammare di Stabia, Monfalcone, Ancona, La Spezia, and Palermo – it has been made “a disproportionate use of this mineral” used in all the works of insulation of the ships until, at starting around ’92, its production and processing has been banned with the introduction of law number 257. In the meantime, however, hundreds of workers have become ill with asbestosis (shortness of breath, chronic cough, wheezing) and pathologies oncological, incurable diseases caused by the inhalation of asbestos fibres. Many of them have died over the years and many others suffer from severe respiratory disorders on a daily basis. In this context of pain and suffering, many former workers or their families have started legal actions, relying on experienced and qualified people who have been able to assert their rights for too long denied: substantial compensation, early retirement, compensation or annuities. My second suggestion is therefore to claim one’s rights by addressing, without fear, to highly specialized professionals; in general the consultancy is totally free with an overall assessment of the work history and the medical-legal situation.
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