During WWII, on their way to bomb northern Italy, English and American pilots could see beneath them a huge white spot. From that, they knew they were flying over Casale Monferrato, also known as “the white town.” The roofs of the houses were, in fact, covered in white by asbestos dust coming from the Eternit plant.
The multinational company Eternit opened its largest plant in Casale Monferrato in 1917 to produce chimney flues, high-pressure pipes, plain and corrugated sheets, and even water tanks. The location was ideal for an asbestos-cement plant: Casale lies in a region famous for its clay—a necessary ingredient for cement production—and just 100 km from Balangero, the site of the largest chrysotile asbestos mine in Western Europe.
Throughout the plant’s operational life, a massive quantity of asbestos dust was released into the atmosphere through factory chimneys that had no protective filters. The surrounding countryside, communities, and water supplies became contaminated. Another source of pollution was the so-called polverino—the dust generated during production—which workers were given as a “gift” to use as a base for courtyards and as insulation material.
By at least 1962, it was widely known that asbestos causes serious diseases such as pleural mesothelioma. Nonetheless, Eternit continued production until 1986, keeping workers unaware of the long-term health hazards of asbestos in order to prolong operations and increase profits.
More than 1,600 people have died in Casale Monferrato from asbestos-related diseases. The victims included not only former Eternit workers but also local residents with no connection to the factory.
On June 3, 2013, the Turin Court of Appeal closed Europe’s largest environmental case, involving more than 6,000 plaintiffs. The Swiss tycoon Stephan Schmidheiny, former CEO of Eternit, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for creating a malicious environmental disaster and for negligence regarding safety measures. The other defendant, Belgian baron Louis de Cartier, had also been convicted in the first trial but died 12 days before the appeal verdict.