Transport Company Convicted 18 Years After Employee's Death from Asbestos Exposure

It was 2006 when the worker Aldo Converso, a former employee of the air transport company Atitech Spa, died from exposure to asbestos. Today, the Court of Appeal of Naples has convicted the transport company after 18 years. The causes of the 59-year-old worker's death were pleural mesothelioma from asbestos exposure. Born in Naples and residing in Casalnuovo, Converso had started working at the age of 18 in the ATI plant in Capodichino, which then transformed into Atitech in 2004. After having covered various roles, including working as a technical assistant on board and warehouseman, he found himself exposed to the dangerous asbestos fibers present in the company's plants, machinery, inside the hangars, and in the environment in general, without being made aware of the risks. The man, among other things, also wore personal protective equipment containing asbestos (for example, gloves). In 2005, he retired, but that same year he was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, a terrible disease caused by exposure to asbestos that led to his death after a year of suffering, leaving behind a wife and three children. The company, which had already been convicted in 2010 by the Court of Naples to compensate the family with 180,000 euros, contested the decision in subsequent degrees, being further condemned to recognize an additional compensatory amount of 54,000 euros which, with calculated interests, reaches the figure of 90,000 euros. "Eighteen years of legal battles to compensate the relatives of a worker exposed to asbestos is really too much!" - declares Ezio Bonanni, President of the National Asbestos Observatory and lawyer of the family, who emphasizes - "However, we are satisfied with the fair conviction that significantly increases the compensation, to which must also be added those suffered directly by the relatives and from parental loss for which the lawsuit continues."