Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Italy: Italy's top court has overturned an 18 year jail sentence for a Swiss billionaire who was convicted over his role in the country's biggest asbestos scandal. According to the court, too much time had passed since the alleged wrongdoing.

Stephan Schmidheiny was found guilty in 2012 of negligence at his company's Italian factories in the 1970s and 1980s, which eventually led to almost 3000 asbestos-related deaths. However Italy's highest court annulled the verdict on 19 Wednesday 2014, saying the statute of limitations had kicked in. The decision means that Schmidheiny will also escape having to pay millions of Euros in fines and compensation ordered by Italian courts in 2012 and 2013.

Prosecutors in the original trial said that Schmidheiny had not taken sufficient measures to protect the health of workers and nearby residents from the asbestos used at the Italian plants of his building material firm Eternit. The factories had used asbestos in the production of cement. The plants closed in 1986, but workers and local residents continue to suffer the consequences, with Italy's biggest union saying that the latest victim of an asbestos-related disease was only buried on 15 November 2014.

Prime minister Matteo Renzi said the ruling underscored the need to reform Italy's notoriously snail-paced judicial system. "We need to ensure that trials take less time and change the statute of limitations," said Renzi.

Italy: A Swiss billionaire and a Belgian baron have been found guilty and sentenced to 16 years each in prison by an Italian court in a ground breaking trial over more than 3000 asbestos-related deaths.

Stephan Schmidheiny, 64, the former owner of a company making Eternit fibre cement, and Jean-Louis Marie Ghislain de Cartier de Marchienne, 90, a major shareholder, were sentenced in absentia after being found guilty of causing an environmental disaster and failing to comply with safety regulations. They were also ordered to pay Euro30,000 in damages to relatives of people killed by asbestos-related diseases and Euro35,000 for every sick person, as well as other payouts expected to total tens of millions of Euros.

"It's a fair verdict which acknowledges their responsibility," said lawyer Sergio Bonetto. "The problem now is to see if the condemned men will face up to their obligations."

Prosecutors said Eternit failed to stop asbestos fibres left over from production of roof coverings and pipes at its northern Italian factories from spreading across the region. During the trial, which started in December 2009, some 2100 deaths or illnesses were blamed on the asbestos fibres. Such crimes usually carry a maximum 12-year sentence, but prosecutors had sought a harsher punishment because, they say, the fall-out continues to affect its victims. Defence lawyers denied that the accused had direct responsibility for the Italian company, and the pair have been absent from court throughout.

Italian health minister Renato Balduzzi hailed the verdict by the three-judge Turin court as 'without exaggeration, truly historic,' noting that it came after a long battle for justice.