Christmas for Eternit in Brazil
Even though it is winter now in Brazil, Christmas has come early for Eternit SA, the country’s sole remaining asbestos producer. The week beginning August 12, 2024 was a bumper one for the company with plaudits a-plenty and gifts raining down. As Eternit emerged from more than six years of a court-supervised judicial reorganization process, it was lauded as an inspiration to Brazilian corporations “as a valuable example of how companies in crisis can reinvent themselves and thrive.”1 The lives lost at home and abroad from the decades of Eternit’s asbestos operations did not figure in the media coverage of this contemporary Phoenix.
Against the backdrop of the market’s positive reaction to Eternit’s reinvention, a bombshell landed in Brasilia. On August 14, 2024, the Supreme Court (STF) had been scheduled to hand down a ruling on the last pending asbestos case. Asbestos victims’ representatives had gathered at the court to witness the historic moment. They believed that the STF would confirm, once and for all, that the mining and export of asbestos was illegal as per the country’s 2017 ban. Proceedings started at 2 p.m. The Court carried on business as usual but no mention was made of the asbestos verdict. Observers were mystified as case ADI 6200 silently vanished from the official agenda.
 Supreme Court, Brasilia, Brazil. |
In the vacuum created by the total lack of information, speculation was rife. After all, based on current figures, each month of delay in shutting down the asbestos industry is worth US $4,750,000+ to Eternit.2
On August 15, 2024, President of the Brazilian Association of the Asbestos-Exposed (ABREA) Eliezer João de Souza sent a letter to Minister Luis Roberto Barroso, the President of the STF, appealing for the case to be listed as the first agenda item for September 2024 and for a hearing to be held during which ABREA officials could express concerns over the delay “in putting an end to this socio-environmental scourge.”3
As ABREA officials had been finalizing the text of their letter, another bombshell burst in the asbestos mining State of Goiás, when the far-right administration of Governor Ronaldo Caiado adopted Law No. 22932 allowing a 5-year phaseout during which the mining and processing of asbestos could continue.4 At the two extraordinary sessions held on August 15, State Deputies approved the law “to allow the gradual transition of the activity to mitigate the economic, social and environmental impact in the producing region, as well as to establish local recovery planning after the mine closure.”5
Commenting on this piece of legislation, which like Law No. 20514 (2019) allowed the 2017 ban decision of the Supreme Court to be circumvented,6 ABREA Co-Founder Engineer Fernanda Giannasi said:
“If this unconstitutional law is not immediately revoked by the Supreme Court (STF), Brazilian asbestos production and export will continue until 2029, that is twelve years after the historic decision by the STF that banned asbestos. Many observers believe that the purported five-year phaseout will, should it not be contested, prove to be as flexible as a strand of overcooked spaghetti and that the transition period could be further extended. There is no reason to trust either Goiás politicians and legislators or Eternit officials who have repeatedly failed to comply with the decision handed down by the highest court in the land to ban asbestos in Brazil.”7
On Saturday August 17, 2024, just a couple of days after the asbestos case vanished without trace from the Supreme Court’s agenda, the Government of Goiás State awarded Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes – one of the nine Supreme Court judges adjudicating asbestos case ADI 6200 – the Commendation of the Order of Merit Anhanguera, the highest honor bestowed by the State.8 While back scratching such as this shouldn’t surprise someone as well versed in the behaviour of the asbestos industry as I am, I have to admit that the blatancy of this action took my breath away. I guess when it comes to preserving asbestos industry profits, there’s no action that is out of bounds in Brazil.9
August 19, 2024
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1 Farias, J. Fim da recuperacao judicial: caso deveria inspirar mercado [End of judicial recovery: case should inspire market]. August16, 2024. p. 3.
https://ohoje.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/EDICAO-6486%E2%80%9316-08-2024-JORNAL-O-HOJE.pdf
2 Justiça aprova saída da Eternit (ETER3) da recuperação judicial após 6 anos [Court approves Eternit's (ETER3) exit from judicial recovery after 6 years]. August 9, 2024.
https://www.infomoney.com.br/business/justica-aprova-saida-da-eternit-eter3-da-recuperacao-judicial-apos-6-anos/
Desiderio, M. Eternit fatura com exportação de amianto enquanto espera voto do STF [Eternit makes money from asbestos exports while awaiting Supreme Court vote]. August 13, 2024.
https://economia.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2024/08/13/eternit-stf.htm
3 Amianto: STF adia julgamento da lei goiana; Abrea pede a Barroso que a inclua na pauta de setembro [Asbestos: STF postpones trial of Goiás law; Abrea asks Barroso to include it on the September agenda].
August 15, 2024.
https://www.viomundo.com.br/blogdasaude/amianto-stf-adia-julgamento-da-lei-goiana-abrea-pede-ao-ministro-barroso-que-inclua-o-tema-na-pauta-de-setembro.html
4 Lei No. 22932 De 15/08/2024 [Law No. 22932 of August 15, 2024].
https://legisla.casacivil.go.gov.br/pesquisa_legislacao/109385/lei-22932
5 Plenário aprova concessão de 5 anos de extração e beneficiamento de amianto em Minaçu [Plenary approves 5-year concession for extraction and processing of asbestos in Minaçu]. August 15, 2024.
https://portal.al.go.leg.br/noticias/147319/plenario-aprova-concessao-de-5-anos-de-extracao-e-beneficiamento-de-amianto-em-minacu
6 Goiás State Law No. 20514 (2019), in contravention of the national asbestos ban (2017), granted an exemption which allowed the mining, processing and export of asbestos to continue.
7 Email from Fernanda Giannasi. Received August 17, 2024.
8 Of the nine judges adjudicating case ADI 6200, two have already declared that the Goiás State law was unconstitutional.
STF: Composição Atual [STF: Current Composition]. February 22, 2024.
https://portal.stf.jus.br/textos/verTexto.asp?servico=sobreStfComposicaoComposicaoPlenariaApresentacao
9 Cardoso, L. Ministro Gilmar Mendes recebe de Caiado a Comenda da Ordem do Mérito Anhanguera [Minister Gilmar Mendes receives the Order of Merit Anhanguera from Caiado]. August 18, 2024.
https://diariodegoias.com.br/ministro-gilmar-mendes-recebe-de-caiado-a-comenda-da-ordem-do-merito-anhanguera/453213/
