Posted on June 15, 2018

A couple weeks ago, I had the honor of interviewing Fernanda Giannasi, President & Founder of the Brazilian Association of People Exposed to Asbestos (ABREA), who organized the the powerful II International Asbestos Seminar on May 15 – 18. This conference follows the historical ban on asbestos in Brazil, which was significant to the worldwide community. Although the ban was enforced, asbestos exports continue to this day. 

Here are some key points of the interview:

LINDA: Tell us what you wanted to accomplish for your Second Semianto Conference?

FERNANDA: Two years ago we had a conference where we were still discussing the ban asbestos in Brasil, the laws, the state laws — if they were constitutional or not. At this moment in this conference, when ADAO and Linda Reinstein were invited to attend, we are now discussing how to comply, to enforce the decision of the ban by the Supreme Court. We have some challenges to overcome but together, united, I’m sure we will accomplish this.

LINDA: Tell us what it’s been like for you over the years to go to the supreme court to ban asbestos?

FERNANDA: Initially, it is important to emphasize that was the industry that took the decision to “judicialize” (appeal to the Court) to take part of this debate in Brazil to halt the legal initiatives to ban asbestos. For almost 17 years we fought against the asbestos lobby at the Court in order to safeguard the ban asbestos state laws. It was the only possible path because on the legislative side we were not successful because the vested interests were too powerful. After these years of work on this feud with the lawyers, we succeeded to have the decision to ban asbestos in the whole country.

LINDA: It’s upsetting that our U.S. companies sends millions of dollars to Brazil to mine asbestos. Tell me what you think about U.S. dollars coming to Brazil?

FERNANDA: It’s a real shame. We fought hard against the powerful asbestos lobby in the Supreme Court to not use asbestos anymore in Brazil in order to protect our citizens. But to continue to allow the export of asbestos is an immoral issue — we call this a double-standard or environmental racism. It’s not correct and our commitment as an anti-asbestos organization is to fight against this criminal commerce.

LINDA: We know there’s no safe or controlled use. What is your message to the Chlor-Alkali industry? What do they need to know about asbestos?

FERNANDA:First, it’s possible to replace the asbestos diaphragms. We could see it here. We had three Chlor-Alkali companies using asbestos diaphragms and two of them already replaced them. One of them is UNIPAR CARBOCLORO Indústrias Químicas, a joint venture between the American OxyChem and UNIPAR, which manufactures and sells chlor-alkali products in Brazil. For me, it’s very strange that they are saying in the US they can’t replace it. The only company that is still resisting to replace their asbestos diaphragms is the American DOW Chemical Company. We are fighting against them and I am sure we will win because their reasons and excuses to not replace asbestos are really ridiculous. They are based on economic interests. We as ABREA and ADAO together, our sister in this fight against asbestos, we will be even more united in this social-environmental fight.

You can watch the full exclusive video below:

 

Fernanda, ABREA, and others prove — “Together, change is possible.”

Linda Reinstein
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