April 6

By Fernanda Giannasi

After decades of struggling, Brazil has 4 states and several important cities which have banned asbestos.  As Labour Inspector for the Ministry of Labor since 1983, I have worked diligently to defend the public interest regarding worker safety and health. We were able to accomplish this only through constant vigilance and community support. In 1995 I founded Associação Brasileira dos Expostos ao Amianto (ABREA), the association of asbestos-exposed workers in Brazil, and coordinator in Latin America of the Citizens’ Virtual Network Against Asbestos. The tragedy and impact of asbestos in Brazil is unimaginable and I as I fight for these workers, I have often undergone severe personal risk. Criminal charges driven by economic interests were filed against me by Eternit, the biggest asbestos producer in Brazil, and by supporters of the French multinational Saint-Gobain. I have suffered pressure from the Canadian government, the world’s largest asbestos exporter, and have been the subject of death threats.  In fact, in 2010, I successfully ran a brigade of trucks carrying asbestos out of Brazil and followed them to the border. It is unfortunate that such surveillance is necessary, but for the thousands of people exposed and those at risk, this work carries great merit and reward.

Fernanda Giannasi will be presenting at the Asbestos Awareness Conference on April 2, 2011. https://www.asbestosdiseaseawareness.org/adao-conference/. Fernanda is also a Global Asbestos Awareness Network founding member. For more information on Fernanda or ABREA, visit: The Center for Public Integrity: Dangers in the Dust: Inside the Global Asbestos Trade (2010) and http://www.abrea.com.br/17ingles.htm.