success and awaits the details as to from what date is the ban going to be enforced and how it is going to be implemented.
Outlawing asbestos has been a hot political issue in Brazil in present times. Brazilian trade unions and various political groups wanted the fibre banned.
Only two of Brazil's 28 states, Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul, have banned the trade in asbestos. Rio's law goes further than banning - it covers compensation to victims.
Fernanda Giannasi, along with fellow anti-asbestos campaigners within Brazil and globally have brought the global asbestos market to account, for sufferers from asbestos related diseases.
Giannasi is a qualified engineer who is an inspector for the labour ministry, where her duty is to examine complaints by workers about factory practices. Her anger is directed at Canada, which is the
largest exporter of asbestos, producing 600,000 tonnes a year. Brazil with an output of 200,000 tonnes a year is the fifth largest exporter.
Giannasi is facing charges of "criminal libel". The case is currently before the criminal courts. The prosecution is an attempt to smother free speech in a vital social debate, and to intimidate the movement
for an asbestos ban in Brazil.
Her efforts played a big part in persuading legislators to introduce a Sao Paulo statewide phasing out of asbestos by January 2005, in line with European Union policy.
The proposed ban on asbestos is expected to bring huge unemployment to states like Goias, where 200,000 people are involved in the production chain. Exports are worth over $30 million to Brazil every
year. But cheap alternatives are readily available and even used. The car industry in Brazil continues to use asbestos for the domestic market but not for export.
Eternit-Brazil is a company controlled by the French multinational Saint-Gobain and Eternit Switzerland employs 173,000 workers in 47 countries and has been operating in Brazil since 1937.
The Brazilian government should offer early retirement packages to the country's asbestos miners. "There is no such thing as safe asbestos," says the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions. "Attempts to
distinguish between 'more' and 'less' hazardous types of asbestos are based on discredited science, and even single exposures to very low doses of fibres can result in harm."
In October, 2001, the asbestos ban adopted by the state of Mato Grosso do Sul was suspended by the Supreme Court; on April 29, 2002, a regional tribunal suspended the asbestos ban adopted by the state
of Sao Paulo. The international asbestos industry has been lobbying politicians to support the status quo of "controlled use."
The announcement in Folha de Sao Paulo, a Brazilian newspaper on 28 March 2004 to the effect that Brazil will ban asbestos is a fruit of the tireless campaign both within the country and globally.
Kudos to Global anti-Asbestos Movement!
P.S: Committees will be set up to investigate as to what what needs to be done including a technical committee from the Ministry of Work and an interministerial commission. Various government spokespeople deplore the huge numbers of Brazilians who have been exposed to asbestos occupationally, domestically and environmentally.
If one wishes to congratulate the Beazilian President Lula for this landmark and progressive step in protecting the lives of his fellow countrymen and women messages can be sent to:
Presidente Luiz Inacio LULA da Silva:
pr@planalto.gov.br and secom@planalto.gov.br Fax: (55- 61)226-7566
Indians wait for their government to wake from its slumber and take note of the writing on the wall. The asbetsos industry is on its death bed and is counting its last days.
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