“What had been seen as an opportunity for redemption and stability for our families has turned into a nightmare”. It is one of the passages contained in the letter that four former insulators of theIsochemistry di Avellino they sent to the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, with the request to be received at the Quirinal.
After the first-instance criminal trial, in which two managers of the company founded by Elio Graziano and two former employees of Ferrovie dello Stato, the civil trial for compensation has been at a standstill for five years. The victims of asbestos-related diseases were 35 and, as they write Charles Sessa, Antonio Olivieri, Mario Giordano e Claudio Fausto, “234 former workers became ill due to prolonged exposure to asbestos. Among them, systematically – remember the former insulation strippers – one a month is losing his life.”
A tragedy that remains under the radar, they add, also because it is not supported by the media hype that “in other Italian dramas it has favored a quicker solution through compromise.” Former workers ask Mattarella “justice for our stolen health and for the pain suffered by our families.” The paradoxical outcome that is underlined is that despite the recognition of the condition of “state sick”, “we have been abandoned by the institutions with the prospect of a silent death and deprived of our dignity as workers and citizens”.
Hence the request to the President of the Republic: "We trust in you to rekindle our hope. We would like to tell you firsthand about the suffering of those who have been victims of a state crime for forty years." THEIsochemistry began its productions in the center of Avellino a Railway Village in 1982 and was closed in 1989 by the magistrate of Florence, Benjamin Deidda, competent as the insulated carriages to Avellino were intended to Prato.
Article published on 3 July 2023 - 16:10
