Document 3Qvxw81vXdZgKLjp6amDxJ0w0

FILE NAME: Z/ZZZZ/ DATE: D DOC#: / DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION:,^E& Eternit - "/la family affair" The way complaints in "the asbestos scandal" are SAIAC - the association of asbestos cement industry handled in the criminal courts raises issues about companies - was set up the same year to exchange z I'TI the liability of the main asbestos industry firms information on technology developments in the who have always played down any links between asbestos industry. But joint raw materials purchasing them. was a second strategic objective of the consortium. m All Eternit companies across Europe, as well as the --II Where Eternit is concerned, it is a matter of record UK's Turner & Newall, were founder members. m that the word originally referred to a patent, not a company name. But there is plentiful evidence of "family ties" between a select few of the asbestos cement industry "nobility" throughout the 20th century. The interplay of interests between the different Eternit companies was to carrrryyoon throughout the 20th century. The book The tragedy of asbestosb reprints the memberships of the board of directors of Com- pagnie Financiere Eternit (Eternit Belgium) in 1966, Two recent publications have shed light on 1976 and 1980, where the Schmidheiny brothers N these low-profile but undeniable links between CQ l and members of the Cuvelier and Hatschek families CQ l the Emsens (Eternit Belgium), Cuvelier (Eternit a-. France) and Schmidheiny (Eternit Switzerland) sit alongside high-profile Emsens family names. families. Despite the highly active management and pro- z c In Eternit et /'amiante. Aux sources du profit, une duction co-operation between the different Eternit industrie du risqueJ , historian Odette Hardy- firms, their former heads still staunchly deny hav- Hemery informs us that "the Eternit companies ing been aware of the dangers of the "wonder mi n- were linked from the very start by multiple intcr- eral". When some former representatives of the locking holdings". The Belgian Emsens family, "asbestos cartel" have to explain themselves before for example, was a founder investor in the joint the courts, that will be for justice to decide. stock company Eternit France on its incorporation in 1922. Seven years on, Eternit Belgium, Switzerland, Spain and Italy set up a joint subsidiary in Germany. Eternit France's board of dircctors deCided that it "could not afford not to be involved in this international event", and took a 5% stake in the comr;any's capital. d o. Hdrdy-Hemcry, Uernit et /'dmiantc.1922-2()()O. Aux sources du profit, Line mdustrie du risque, Presses universi- taires du Seplentrion, 200S5, 272 p. b R.F. Ruers, N. Schouten, The tragedy oat asbestos. Eternit and the consequences of a hundred years of asbestos cement, 2005, 122 p. Downloadable free in Engll,h from: ht~p//II1~('rn,1::on'11. sp. nI'publ.( ,1\IOr1Si.]sb('stu,-.pcii.