Portal de Murcia
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Claim the transfer of workers from the FICA building affected by the asbestos roof
Ecologists in Action has addressed the City of Murcia to request the urgent development of an Asbestos Control Plan and claims to the consistory the transfer of the workers of the Fica building with the asbestos roof and the removal of this roof asbestos through a company registered in the RERA (List of Companies Related to Asbestos).
Since 2009, workers have been in this building for more than fifty years and deteriorated, which poses a potential risk to health.
In November 2009, the workers were transferred to these facilities on a temporary basis.
However, after almost 10 years, they have only obtained promises of transfer to other agencies, but not an effective solution.
Ecologists in Action calls on the municipality to draw up a plan to control asbestos in the municipality and effective measures, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, for the dismantling, removal and replacement of asbestos roofs in 34 schools (schools and Institutes) of the municipality of Murcia.
For 2019-2020 only the preparation of the projects for replacing roofs in the schools Santiago García Medel of Era Alta and Escultor Salzillo de San Ginés, in Murcia, is planned.
Although the use of asbestos was banned in 2001 at the state level, the threat is still present.
Ceilings, pipes, flooring materials, plugs, toasters, paints or brake shoes, were manufactured with asbestos and some of those products are still present in daily life.
The greatest source of exposure to asbestos fibers is inhalation: they are microscopic fibers of even less than 3 microns in size, which can penetrate into the pulmonary alveoli and generate havoc.
Its harmful action is fourfold: chemical, mechanical, immune and genotoxic.
The effects on health are brutal: asbestosis (pulmonary fibrosis), lung cancer and pleural or peritoneal mesothelioma, with possible responsibility in other cancers (kidney, ovary, breast).
The thin fibers can not be expelled from the lungs and can remain throughout life.
In addition, the effects of asbestos remain in latency for many years, sometimes more than 30, so that we could witness a high mortality in workers, families and users who have been exposed to this carcinogenic fiber.
A disastrous example of the consequences of not adopting the precautionary principle in due time: "When there is danger of serious or irreversible damage, the lack of absolute scientific certainty should not be used to postpone the adoption of measures to protect public health or preserve environment".
Asbestos is a pollutant that generates severe environmental and public health impacts.
The National Institute for Safety and Hygiene at Work establishes for the evaluation and prevention of risks related to exposure to asbestos, that the occupational exposure limit value should not be considered as a value that guarantees health protection, since it has not been possible to determine the level below which exposure to asbestos does not entail any risk of cancer.
There is no minimum safety threshold for asbestos, it must be borne in mind that a very low exposure and a very long period of latency can lead to mesothelioma and lung cancer.
That is why it is urgent and very necessary to avoid any kind of exposure to this pollutant.
Source: Ecologistas en Acción
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