Asbestos threat and 5,000 workers

The actual figure is much greater fear of companies to notify.

Officially, the asbestos threat and about 5,000 Basque workers. The reality goes far beyond that figure, according to coincide institutions, trade unions and business associations. But the official figure put on the table the true dimension of a health problem that has only just begun in Euskadi. According to the Instituto de Salud Carlos III to 12% of cancers in Euskadi have an occupational origin, and workers of this community are up to three times more likely to have lung cancer, mouth or larynx than in the rest of Spain. The industrial past, a heavy industry linked to the yards to the blast furnaces, and automotive and other sectors is responsible.

Workers counted by Osalan potentially exposed must undergo special medical examinations because potentially have been exposed to the fibers of an insulating material that fills even the buildings and factories in the autonomous community of Spain and the rest of the world. The contact with him and the aspirations of its fibers, without the exacting and mandatory security measures, causes fatal diseases.

According to the official record of the Basque Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Osalan, the numbers of workers who have to be controlled medically, at least once a year, are 4573 until last April. Of these, only 1254 companies listed as members of workers official list of companies working with asbestos. The rest, 3191, more than two out of three have surfaced after a formal notice of complaint or suspected occupational diseases related to asbestos exposure. From 1289 this block are still working at the company where they were in contact with carcinogenic product, but theoretically controlled and the rest, 1902 is either disconnected from the enterprise or mostly retirees.

From the above statistics can deduce the nature of the problem. Most cases do come to the surface bound by complaints, which means that many companies that have used this product, do not communicate to occupational health authorities, either through ignorance or fear. In any event their employees have a serious problem.

The statistic says it all. In Finland, 24.5% of employees have one or more work-related diseases, 11.7% in Belgium, in Spain only 5.8%. What’s more, according to official statistics Osalan, only one person has died in Euskadi occupational disease in the past ten years.

Unbelievable, especially when cases of asbestos-related cancers have been buried and at least two dozen workers who have been recognized work-related illness, and that has happened only with the product, when there are many more.

The social partners, Confebask, the UGT and CCOO trade unions and representatives of Osalan, are already working on the possibility of specializing in systems to prevent some cases of occupational diseases. Furthermore, the Basque Institute of Occupational Health is working with the Department of Health for primary care services have a computer system to facilitate the identification of conditions related to certain geographical areas, depending on the implementation of one kind or another industry. In Euskadi, has surveyed 247 Osalan asbestos-related companies, of which 183 are included in the compulsory registration of companies working with that product and 64 more that have been identified through requirements. Osalan investigate occupational diseases related to asbestos lawsuit. In 2009 he studied 63 cases of asbestosis, bronquipulmonar cancer, mesothelioma and other diseases, while up to April 2010 there were 23 new cases of cancer.

The absence of a compensation fund “already exists in France and the United States among other countries to take charge of compensation and benefits charges imposed by the courts to make these companies try to conceal the presence of these products in their facilities.

One such company is the French multinational Michelin, which has tried to opt out of this product, although it was present throughout the production process, from the presses of tires to the steam pipes, as has been acknowledged by both the Labour Inspectorate as Osalan.

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Asbestos Cancer CategoriesAsbestos Cancer GeneralAsbestos Cancer ArchivesOctober 2010September 2010August 2010

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