The victims of asbestos in the case of the industrialist Eternit, hope to obtain a trial

"This is perhaps the only chance that we will one day have an asbestos trial in France (...) a quarter of a century after the first complaints" lodged in 1996, underlined François Desriaux, director of Andeva, during an online press conference.

The investigative chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal examines the association's appeal against the dismissal in this case in July 2019 by investigating judges from the public health department of the Paris judicial court on Wednesday .

The decision will be put under advisement: the magistrates can either confirm the dismissal, or return the file to the investigation, or decide "a direct return of the indicted persons to the criminal court", summed up one of the lawyers de l'Andeva, Me François Lafforgue.

In the Eternit case, the leading French producer of asbestos-cement until the fiber ban in 1997, three former officials or managers as well as the company were indicted for homicides and unintentional injuries.

After more than two decades of investigations, the twenty or so asbestos cases investigated in Paris have ended for two years with dismissals.

These decisions are based on a legal expertise of February 2017, according to which it would be impossible to deduce with precision the moment of exposure of employees to this carcinogenic fiber and that of their contamination, and consequently to establish the criminal responsibilities of such and such a leader.

Last January, the Paris Court of Appeal took the opposite view of this analysis, contested by Andeva, by ordering the resumption of the investigations in the file of the Everite company in Dammarie-les-Lys (Seine-et- Marne), reviving the hope of the civil parties to obtain a trial.

Asbestos contamination "is not a one-off event, but a process taking place over a long period of time which will lead to illness and possibly death", recalled one of the association's lawyers, Me Jean- Paul Teissonnière.

"Asbestos is a non-threshold carcinogen, so the exposure period starts when employees are hired and they absorb asbestos fibers," Mr. Desriaux developed.

The position of the Court of Appeal in the Everite case "allows us to hope for a favorable result, a hope that we were on the verge of losing", added Me Teissonnière.

Eternit was one of the first asbestos producers targeted by complaints from former employees.

Several hundred occupational diseases linked to this carcinogenic material have been recognized on the six sites of the company, the organizers of the press conference recalled.