The endless legacy of asbestos.

Between 40,000 and 60,000 Spanish workers die of cancer until 2030 for having been exposed to asbestos over the past two decades. The figures are really outrageous. But even more scandalous neglect and forgetfulness of the authorities towards the victims and their families in an explosive situation that requires urgent action to redress and compensation.

A couple of years, the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the Autonomous Communities, launched the plan in the past have suffered medical surveillance of asbestos workers. He introduced himself as a result of the ban on asbestos in 2002, but in fact this plan was already contemplated in the Regulation of Asbestos 1984 and should have been implemented in 1987.

According to a recent report on the results, some 5,000 former asbestos workers have gone through the program in Spain. The figure is very low, since a European study on exposure to carcinogens, Carex project, believes that our country had about 57,000 asbestos workers in the mid-90s, while other estimates consider that in the last 40 years 200,000 will have been exposed workers. We must assume therefore that there are tens of thousands of victims of asbestos without adequate health coverage.

A few medical surveillance findings

But if the number of attended workers is small, are still the poorest results in terms of diseases resulting from exposure to asbestos. Found only 69 cases of lung disease caused by asbestos fibers (asbestosis), while more typical of cancers caused by asbestos, only 12 cases have been diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer in August.

Lung cancer may be due to several factors, including the snuff, but pleural mesothelioma is almost always due to asbestos. However, statistics from the INE (National Statistics Institute) have been recorded between 1978 and 1996, 2955 cases of pleural mesothelioma deaths in our country, what comes to be on average 164 cases per year, an incidence much higher than that detected by the program of the Ministry of Health. Moreover, statistics from other countries show that the number of cases of lung cancer from asbestos is twice that of mesothelioma, which can be estimated that the total asbestos cancer cases in our country will be around 400 or 500 to year. In France, only by asbestos, are recognized each year 1200 and 750 lung cancer mesothelioma. In the United Kingdom is recognized mesothelioma year 1235, and in Germany 700.

Between forgetting and concealment

History repeats itself: the victims of asbestos are relegated to oblivion and concealment. The companies they worked did everything possible to delay the ban on asbestos. In fact, the Spanish delegation to the issues of asbestos to the European Community was formed by company staff Uralita. Spain Not for nothing was the last country in the European Union to accept the ban. These companies have so far not taken (or voluntarily or by legal requirements) their liability for asbestos victims. Hide behind that met standards that were unknown and the effects of asbestos. The evidence suggests that neither the one nor the other is true.

On the other hand, the state once banned asbestos, try to dodge their responsibilities by putting all sorts of obstacles and barriers to victims demand their rights and forcing them to undertake lengthy and expensive legal claims. The result is that sometimes the recognition of rights comes too late and many can no longer enjoy because they are deceased.

Recently a French Senate committee has developed an extensive and detailed report on the asbestos problem, put the number of deaths between 60,000 and 100,000 people over the next 20 years, estimating the economic costs between 27,000 and 37,000 million for repair damage to victims and noting that the State had seriously failed in its responsibilities. One chapter of the report entitled: ‘The State, anesthetized by the asbestos lobby’. Here in Spain, when someone insists on the issue of asbestos, accuse him of creating public alarm.

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

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