17/01/2008
A local organisation that supports and defends asbestos victims has recently published a document in which former workers from an asbestos factory have testified of the difficulties in trying to convince medical experts that their disease was triggered by past exposure to asbestos. Amisol, a company established in the French town of Clermont-Ferrand, was forced to close down in the 70s after the “ Dickensian” working conditions mainly of women workers became known.

Despite the fact that exposure to asbestos has now been acknowledged by the scientific community and by the authorities as a direct cause of cancer and other serious diseases, so-called experts are still reluctant to acknowledge this fact. There were astonishing statements namely the one of Marie-Jeanne Outurquin who worked with asbestos on a daily basis at Amisol factory. A medical expert explained that her pulmonary disease and her difficulty to breathe were due to the fact that she was overweight and that she suffered from rheumatism.

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