Fernanda Giannasi is wary of the comparison, but it has brought her fame, and more importantly for her, publicity for her cause bringing the global asbestos market to account, and securing compensation for sufferers from related disease.

Much to her surprise, because the anti-asbestos offensive is generally accorded little recognition, Ms Giannasi found herself on the front cover of one of Brazil&'s leading magazines, Epoca, and was even more overwhelmed as thousands of extra copies were snapped up at the news stands.

The story played a big part in persuading legislators to introduce a SÆo Paulo state-wide phasing out of asbestos by January 2005, in line with European Union policy.

While flattered to be likened to the Julia Roberts character for her determination to win a better deal for wronged families, the Sao Paolo activist distances herself from the general thrust of the award-winning film.

Erin Brokowich was a law firm clerk who concentrated on securing financial amends for those she represented, while Ms Giannasi is a qualified engineer who heads a campaign group seeking 'a more social approach'.

Professionally, she is an inspector for the labour ministry, where her duty is to examine complaints by workers about factory practices. She relies on International Labour Organisation convention 162, which she sees as 'the most advanced instrument' to protect developing countries against what she and her co-thinkers consider a killer fibre.

Now, Ms Giannasi explained when she visited London for a series of asbestos update seminars and meetings with UK legislators, her campaign has to move to a global basis.

Alarmed that, as she sees it, the question of asbestos use is being removed from the ILO arena to be discussed instead through the World Trade Organisation, she says a new forum is needed.

She has launched a campaign for the creation of what she calls the World Citizens&' Organisation. Such an institution would set out to defend human rights, and prosecute violators, in the same way that the Nuremburg and Hague tribunals addressed war crimes. With judges possibly appointed under the auspices of the United Nations, it would indict both individuals and state enterprises deemed to have failed in their duties.

Ms Giannasi raised the proposal at the World Social Forum, held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in February and will urge the Brazilian delegation to the Rio Plus Ten summit in Johannesburg in August to take up the theme.

The latter meeting aims to examine progress in social responsibility a decade after the controversial original gathering on major issues in Rio de Janeiro.

Ms Giannasi is meanwhile concerned over the fate of individuals who have sought the help of her group, the Latin America-wide Virtual Ban Asbestos Group. In Brazil, some 600 have accepted $7,000-a-head out of court settlements, but an equal number want to take their claims to trial in France against a major producer. Those holding out are seeking $70,000 per person, but it is feared that a lawsuit might last at least eight years, and meanwhile many people are dying.

It took five years of legal battles to secure a GBP21m ($30m) settlement between the Cape asbestos mines group and South African communities.

Much of the ire of Ms Giannasi and her allies internationally is directed at Canada, generally considered to have one of the most liberal records on social issues, but which is the largest exporter of asbestos, producing 600,000 tonnes a year. Brazil with an output of 200,000 tonnes a year is the fifth largest exporter.

Barry Castleman, a consultant on occupational health, said: 'We see the Canadian government as the main obstacle to progress, not the multinational companies as previously.' This is because of an unprecedented spate of bankruptcy filings by producers and users of the fibre.

Once praised for its strength and fire-resistant properties, asbestos was, until the 1950s, deployed widely in the maritime and other industries. Retired shipbuilding employees and marine engineers are among current claimants. Now it is recognised that inhalation can produce respiratory diseases and cancers including mesothelioma.

North of England shipyard workers are among those anxiously awaiting a House of Lords judgment in what is known as the Fairchild case.

In December 2001, Lord Justices Brooke, Latham and Kay in the appeal court rejected six linked appeals, saying that mesothelioma 'is a single indivisible disease& and a claimant cannot establish on the balance of probabilities when it was he inhaled the asbestos fibre, or fibres, which caused a mesothelial cell in his pleura to become malignant'.

At first, leave to appeal was denied, but after being petitioned the Lords agreed to a hearing on April 24.

Concern is growing in the US in particular over a surge in asbestos-related suits, with claims threatening to quadruple from the existing level of more than 600,000. Ultimate financial impact could reach $200bn.

A Washington specialist company, Claims Resolution Management Corp, has processed more than 500,000 such claims, involving more than $2.7bn. David Austern, company president, said: 'Asbestos litigation is one of the most critical issues facing businesses today, and much more far reaching than the Enron bankruptcy, yet relatively few in the business community understand the asbestos debate and how it will affect them financially.'

According to James Sottle of law firm Baach, Robinson & Lewis, US insurers have paid some $22bn in claims but have only $9bn in reserves for future claims.

Almost every liability insurer in the US would have to set aside more cash for the purpose, perhaps as early as 2002.