In the past year, tacoronteros have witnessed the construction of a new gas station and a McDonald’s. If no problem arises, in about ten months the municipality will also have a new supermarket. What until recently were orchards, with their fruit trees and a few tool rooms, is on the way to becoming a large area of 3,800 square meters spread over two floors: a lower one for parking and an upper one where the shop. A few weeks ago, demolition work began on the previous structures and some residents of the area have denounced what they consider to be bad practices when removing the asbestos plates that were used as roofs in some of these constructions.
Asbestos, also known as asbestos, is one of the elements that make up fiber cement, a material present mainly in roof coatings that, being a low-cost insulator, was widely used in the construction sector. Although its sale in Spain was prohibited in 2002 due to the respiratory risk posed by being in contact with this material for a long time, it can still be found in buildings prior to its prohibition. According to the National Program for the Health Surveillance of Workers Exposed to Asbestos, if asbestos fibers are released into the environment, they can be inhaled to end up lodged in the lungs and, after a few years, can cause serious diseases.
In his study Occupational cancer in Spain: the problem of asbestos, Montserrat García, Head of the Occupational Health Area in the Ministry of Health, considers asbestos a “particularly complex” carcinogen. And it is that not only does it give rise to practically exclusive diseases – such as asbestosis, pleural plaques and mesothelioma – but the time that elapses between exposure and the appearance of the disease is between 15 and 50 years.
Menéndez Navarro, professor in the History of Medicine, believes that problems related to asbestos exposure tend to be perceived as temporary and controllable. However, the aforementioned document reveals that “between 15 and 20% of cases occur in people who have not been professionally exposed to asbestos, the cause of exposure being environmental pollution.” According to this study, between 1977 and 2010 4,987 people died from mesothelioma, a disease that in almost all cases has its origin in exposure to asbestos. However, many industrial buildings, sheds, roofs and patios are still protected by these undulating roofs that, with the passage of time, lose their binding capacity and end up releasing these fibers.
According to the neighbors, already in summer they detected some irregularities when handling this material: “Two men were coming for some afternoons, without any protection or security measures, and they were lifting some plates,” they say.
They acknowledge that they were unaware that it was asbestos until last Friday, October 22, workers wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) arrived, which raised concern among some owners of the neighboring homes. It was then that they decided to ask if those plates they were removing were composed of this mineral. The answer they received from the workers was affirmative.
These neighbors, who since then live with the doors and windows of their houses closed for fear that these fibers will contaminate their home, consider that the appropriate security measures have not been taken. And is that the use of PPE is not the only security measure that is required from the competent bodies. Since 2000, the National Institute for Safety and Hygiene at Work has a good practice guide for demolition, removal or maintenance of asbestos materials. In it and in the Inspector Action Guide for control of Compliance with the Regulations on Asbestos Risk of the Ministry of Labor, the procedure to follow in this type of work is explained in detail:
- “Delimitation and signaling of the work area. The signs used will bear the following inscriptions: «Danger of inhalation of asbestos. Do not stay in this area if the job does not require it. “No smoking””.
- “The fiber cement surfaces are sprayed at low pressure with an aqueous solution with encapsulating liquid to avoid the emission of asbestos fibers due to the accidental movement or breakage of the aged plates”.
- “The plates are removed with caution and placed on the work platform on a pallet. The plates are packed with plastic of sufficient mechanical resistance to prevent breakage and are marked with the asbestos symbol ”.
- “The existing broken plates or those that break during disassembly are moistened with the encapsulating impregnation, carefully removing them manually and depositing them in a waste bag, type big-bag, properly labeled. It is necessary to clean, with a vacuum cleaner equipped with an absolute filter, the area affected by the breakage of the plate ”.
- “Once the plates have been removed, the entire roof support structure will be cleaned by suction with absolute filters.”
According to these neighbors, on the night of Friday October 22, the broken plates, the most dangerous, the ones that release the greatest amount of fibers, were left resting on the walls of their own homes until the morning of the next day. That Saturday, these and other packed plates would have been handled very close to their houses to be packed – with possible contamination of the environment, the land and nearby surfaces -, they were stored there until Wednesday, October 27. Article 10 of Royal Decree 396/2006, of March 31, which establishes the minimum health and safety provisions applicable to jobs with risk of exposure to asbestos, establishes that “the dispersion of dust from asbestos or of materials that contain it outside the premises or places of action ”.
Exposure to asbestos, no matter how small, –because there is no minimum safety time– can lead to cancer over the years. That is why the Inspector Action Guide for the control of Compliance with the Asbestos Risk Regulations, states in section 2.5 j) that “the waste from the different processes, and even those resulting from cleaning and maintenance operations, must be collected and transported out of the workplace as soon as possible, in appropriate closed containers or by any other procedure that prevents the emission of asbestos fibers into the environment ”. On the other hand, in the photographs provided by those affected, it can be seen how the bags in which they were wrapped were made of black plastic -similar to those used for storing domestic waste- and not the big-bag type bags, made of a material more resistant. In addition, the packaging did not have the proper signage on the outside warning of its content.
Lack of communication
Another circumstance that outrages those affected is not having received any prior information from the City Council or the company in charge, a simple notice that would allow them to take their own security measures. They consider that they have been left “exposed and unprotected” to this harmful material. In its article 22, the Convention of the International Labor Organization (ILO) affects the duty of the competent authority to “take appropriate measures to promote the dissemination of information and the education of all interested persons about the risks that entails for the health the exposure to asbestos, as well as of the methods of prevention and control ”.
From the Canary Islands Now there have been attempts, on multiple occasions, to contact an authorized member of the local corporation in order to ask about this alleged malpractice in the removal of asbestos. A situation that is affecting the lives of the residents closest to the work on a day-to-day basis. However, it has been impossible to count on the collaboration of the competent authority.
Environmental pollution
But this not only affects workers and neighbors, but also the air, land and vegetation: In its article 19, the ILO reports that both the competent authority and employers “must adopt appropriate measures to prevent the environment from generally be contaminated by asbestos dust from workplaces ”.
Also, the report Asbestos: Impact on Health and the Environment, prepared by CCOO, states that “the treatment of waste or the emission of asbestos dust into the atmosphere in violation of the applicable regulations may constitute a crime against natural resources and the environment, provided for in article 325 of the Penal Code ”.
Now the neighbors ask that the affected area be decontaminated, since they believe that these bad practices may have led to the spread of asbestos fibers on the exterior walls of their houses and on all surfaces near the work.
Manifesto for a law
Antonio Bernardo Reyes, architect and technician in Occupational Risk Prevention, also belongs to a multidisciplinary group that includes medical and victims’ associations, as well as expert professionals in this field. Last March they published a manifesto by means of which they ask the Government of Spain to address “with the utmost speed” a draft Comprehensive Asbestos Law, something they consider necessary because, according to the previously mentioned study by Gómez, “76 % of cancers recognized as occupational since 1997 have been caused by asbestos ”.
In addition, due to the time it takes for cancers caused by this material to develop, it is sometimes difficult to link them with a possible employment relationship. This means that a large part of the costs of your medical care are assumed by the National Health System. Being the public coffers and not the companies in charge of paying for the cost of these exhibitions.