ABREA - WHO WE ARE?

Osasco city (in Greater São Paulo) with 1 million inhabitants is the Brazilian capital of the victims of asbestos. During 50 years two great companies, one of asbestos-cement (ETERNIT) and friction materials(LONAFLEX/FRAS-LE) had in general used this raw material without any information to the workers and the population on its risks. When locking up its activities in the early 90's, had left stop backwards an enormous social debt.

For absence of any social protection and by the companies, these former-workers had constituted in 1995 the Brazilian Association of People Exposed to Asbestos(ABREA), that has as objective goals: to give visibility for the problem, to carry through medical examinations in the exposed ones, to consider actions for indemnification, to inform to the population and the consumers on the risks and its admittedly less harmful substitutes to the health and to fight for the banishment of asbestos in whole Brazilian's territory, as already occurs in 35 countries around the world. Initially the victims began to contact former colleagues and discovered that many were suffering from respiratory problems. Medical examinations revealed an epidemic of asbestos related disease. They linked up with workers at the Thermoid brakes factory, also in São Paulo, to form the ABREA. ABREA has sought compensation for its members while raising the issue at a national and international level, culminating in the international conference in Osasco in September 2000, that created a very strong influence on the politicians and public opinion that afterwards approved the majority of laws to ban asbestos currently in Brazil in a domino effect. ABREA is nowadays organized in several cities and also in Rio de Janeiro State where a former Johns-Manville subsidiary has a textile plant which the women are the majority of the exposed workers.

The truth is that all those exposed to asbestos do not feel that their interests have been represented by labor unions or other social institutions of civil society. Through their organization and their actions the members of this citizens group are expressing themselves against the lack of recognition and in defense of their interests in the public sphere. These alternative movements of asbestos victims have organized themselves into true counter-powers or an anti-asbestos movement coming from below.

This struggle greatly has increased the visibility of the damage caused by the use of asbestos in Brazilian society at large, disclosed the mechanisms of social invisibility of the asbestos-r elated diseases and has showed how the industry has justified the so-called "controlled use" of asbestos by propagating a series of myths to try and convince the public that asbestos is safe (e.g. chrysotile is not as dangerous as other types of asbestos; Brazilian chrysotile is purer than foreign chrysotile; "Brazilian" companies use asbestos in a responsible manner differently they used in Europe and USA; exposure can be adequately controlled through engineering controls and industrial hygiene measures; substitutes are too expensive and just as dangerous; asbestos products are especially important for poor people in third world countries; asbestos-related diseases are rare in Brazil; an asbestos ban would create unemployment; etc.).
Thinking locally and acting globally: our challenge.

The anti-asbestos movement (ABREA and the Virtual-Citizen Ban Asbestos Network) use case studies to show how Brazilian workers organized themselves to fight for an asbestos ban and to gain recognition of their predicament as asbestos victims.

The development of the anti-asbestos campaign in Brazil has been possible for the recent emergence of a wave of new international social movements that "think locally and act globally". These new non-hierarchical campaigns have democratized policy development and promoted broad participation of a new generation of activists by using new information and communications technology to exchange ideas, information and proposals. The new global society - as they have been called - have also managed to mobilize large numbers of people in direct action against the governments, institutions and transnational corporations that are bent on building a socially exclusive neoliberal world order - the "economic fundamentalism".

Letter of the Flemming Hansen (Health and Safety Coordinator Construction Workers of Copenhagen, Denmark) for Shareholders of St GobainHealth

Fighting for
Asbestos Justice in Brazil

In 2000 an Asbestos Session initiated by the Senior Labour Inspectors' Committee (SLIC) on the hazards caused by handling of asbestos at work, was held in Sweden, Spain, the UK and France. The report of this Session initiated the Asbestos Conference 2003 in Dresden. Also in 2003 the revised European Union (EU) Asbestos Directive was adopted. In this context, the European Asbestos Conference in Dresden makes the following declaration.

Brazil's asbestos victims gasp for justice
By Gibby Zobel in São Paulo, Brazil
ALJAZEERA - NEWS GLOBAL
Monday 20 October 2003, 9:25 Makka Time, 6:25 GMT

Fighting for Asbestos Justice in Brazil

Radical surgery for mesothelioma

Fighting for
Asbestos Justice in Brazil