The documentary benefits from the collaboration of Bruno Pesce, spokesperson for the Asbestos Victims Association of Casal Monferrato, an association which, with the help of the Chief Prosecutor of Turin Raffaele Guariniello, after 30 years has managed to bring the truth to light and give our fellow citizens the opportunity to begin new legal proceedings against the top management of the Swiss factory.
The workers of Salento can now hope to obtain justice.
The tears shed on February 13th when the Turin court sentenced them were also the tears of Mario, Pierangelo, Michele, and a thousand other Lecce residents who left Salento in the 60s to seek their fortune in Switzerland.
In Niederurnen they received their first salary, got married, watched their children play among the asbestos mountains and then returned to Gagliano del Capo, Corsano, Alessano, Tiggiano, Andrano, Salve and other villages to enjoy their retirement.
In their suitcase they brought the memories of a lifetime and the savings to build a house.
In their lungs, the asbestos dust they breathed. They worked with asbestos until 1996, when the asbestos supplies ran out.
Ignazio Gesuino Chiarello cannot cry.
Cancer took him away when he was 55, twenty of which he spent working at Eternit in Switzerland.
His wife Assunta Orlando, who raised three children alone, wept for him: "My husband worked at the salt mill: he made asbestos paste from the dust, and in the process signed his own death warrant. When he came home, you couldn't tell if he was a man or if he was dust."
Ippazio was the first Eternit death in Corsano and surrounding towns. He wasn't the last!
There are too many stories to tell. We've focused on the most emblematic, almost always the most painful, with the conviction that these should spark a profound reflection on this dramatic story that took 50 years to emerge and that destroyed the lives of thousands of men, women, and children.
We have further investigated the issue, working with expert oncologists (Dr. Castellano), who still collaborate with the Association of Exposed Emigrants and Relatives of Salento Asbestos Victims in Switzerland. We have studied asbestos-related diseases and collected numerous documents that deafen the carefully studied silence about the consequences of asbestos.
The documentary benefits from the collaboration of Bruno Pesce, spokesperson for the Asbestos Victims Association of Casal Monferrato, an association which, with the help of the Chief Prosecutor of Turin Raffaele Guariniello, after 30 years has managed to bring the truth to light and give our fellow citizens the opportunity to start new legal proceedings against the top management of the Swiss factory.
