2006-06-14
TARGIA - Asbestos is the perfect model of a substance mined, industrially exploited and widely marketed as a miracle material without proper research into its long-term effects on health. Indeed, it went on being promoted long after it was recognised as dangerous.
The European Union finally outlawed the use of asbestos in January 2005, decades after the European Commission (EC) first recognised its link with cancer in 1962. The delay can be attributed entirely to lobbying from major asbestos cement companies, including the Belgian and Swiss Eternit groups , and to governmental inertia. Several European countries are currently taking legal action against company directors who gave their workers little or no information about the risks of exposure. In recent court cases leading industrialists continued to claim that they were unaware of the dangers.
Supported
€3,500 allocated on 1/03/2006ID
FPD/2006/440Grant
Tags
- 'A licence to kill' - Le Monde diplomatique - January 18, 2007 (Translated by Donald Hounam)
- Read the article on Mesothelioma Empowerment.
- Asbest, de seriemoordenaar - Knack, 14/06/2006. (in Dutch)
need resources for your own investigative story?
Journalismfund Europe's flexible grants programmes enable journalists to produce relevant public interest stories with a European mind-set from international, national, and regional perspectives.
support independent cross-border investigative journalism
We rely on your support to continue the work that we do. Make a gift of any amount today.
