271
The slightest twinge of pain or contraction of a chest infection re-ignites the
fear they would
rather forget. Participants in this research, along with others I met by chance in Western
Australia, and even some of
my friends here in Melbourne, know of someone who has died
or is about to die of mesothelioma.
66
They have witnessed the progression of the disease.
Those with whom I have spoken express living with this knowledge in different ways.
Attilio Micheloni had returned to Italy in the 1990s. He told me, during my visit with
him in November of 2008, that he was “full of dust”. Our time together was punctuated by his
constant
coughing, clearing of the throat and the depositing of his sputum into a
handkerchief. A few months earlier he had been hospitalised because of severe breathing
difficulties.
Tullio Rodigari had also returned to Italy in the late 1950s.
As we drove through the
Valtellina area me to meet two other ex-miners, he repeatedly told me that even though he
was 80 years old, he felt as healthy as a 50 year old. He did not mention that all but four of
thirteen of his
paesani who went to Wittenoom have succumbed to asbestos-related
disease.
67
I discovered this during the reading of a court transcript for the case of another of
his
paesani who lives in Perth.
68
Rodigari did mention
he had warned his deceased paesano
— asbestos victim, Wally Della Maddalena — about wearing a handkerchief in the mill,
where Rodigari had worked as an electrician. I had found out about Wally’s passing not from
Rodigari but from his brother, Arturo who had settled in Perth. Ezio Belintende, whom I met
at the
house of Tullio Rodigari, told me that he was in good health. He said little about the
health consequences of asbestos exposure, apart from not knowing
about the risks when he
worked there.
In Western Australia, my conversation with another ex-Wittenoom miner was also
interrupted regularly by his need to cough. Speaking about his deceased Wittenoom friends
became too difficult and we had to end our conversation. Giulio Santini too carries the
sobering reminder of a friend who had passed away from an asbestos-related
disease three
66
Three of my friends told me of family members in Melbourne who have died from mesothelioma, as
a result of exposure to asbestos in their jobs.
67
I have met all four of those men during the course of my fieldwork: Arturo Della Maddalena (Perth),
Attilio Micheloni (Ponte in Valtellina, Lombardy), Ezio Belintende (Sondrio, Lombardy) and Tullio
Rodigari (Montagna in Valtellina).
68
CSR Limited vs Della Maddalena [2006] HCA 1 2
nd
February, 2006, P 36/2005, p. 5.
272
weeks before I visited him in 2009. He explained about his annual checkups; one of the few
among the fieldwork participants to mention it.
See, it’s in me… and… I haven’t got asbestos…..but I got
scars of asbestos… on my left lung… which… supposed
to revive after thirty years… Now… it’s forty-six years…
and I’m perfect, so that mean it’s got no affect on my
body… you know… my body rejected it.
69
Arturo Della Maddalena stopped work at 52 years of age. He explained to me that he
could no longer work without suffering breathing problems. Similarly to the late Liborio
Napolitano, Arturo lives with anxiety and depression as a result of his witnessing several
friends die a painful death from mesothelioma and other asbestos-related conditions
[including his brother Walter]. By the late 1990s there were “at least” twenty friends whom he
had visited in hospital and who suffered from diseases related to asbestos exposure. I only
found this out while reading Arturo’s court judgment.
70
In October 2009 I met Lea Guagnin for the first of my several visits over two years. It
was not long after her check-up at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. Now in her eighties, her
breathing difficulties, along with her gentle humour constantly underscored our
conversations, as we shared the tiny muffins she had bought specially for our afternoon teas
together. She made no mention of her health.
Some did not talk about illness even if they had lost loved ones to an asbestos-
related disease. There are also
those who are philosophical, speaking about death as part of
the cycle of life and, therefore, death’s inevitably. This tended to be the stance of some of the
parents, now in their late 70s and 80s. Their concerns are not for themselves so much as for
their children. One parent voiced the guilt which many parents who took their children most
likely harbor, despite never having been warned of the dangers.
What I would like today? What can I say? They say
“
Quello che è passato, è passato. Ormai non si può più
tornare indietro. Vero?
71
And what I would only like that
— I have always thought, you know that [what if]
something happens to my children? (She is very
emotional at this point and can no longer speak. My
memory is that the tears were welling up in her eyes.)
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