A government office building is believed to contain potentially dangerous asbestos in its partition walls – 19 of the 70 permanent staff have contracted cancer and nine have already died. Now the remaining workforce wants out – and fast – before anyone else gets sick.
The story shot to the headlines last week as the building in question houses the government’s Direção Geral de Energia e Geologia (energy and geology department).
“Green” politicians and environmental groups lept onto the bandwagon, saying this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Elsewhere, government buildings and schools throughout the country remain ‘at risk’ with asbestos incorporated within their constructions, alleged Carmen Lima of environmental association Quercus.
Questioned in Parliament by Heloísa Apolónia of Os Verdes (Green Party), Prime Minister Passos Coelho declared he knew “nothing” about the problem, and that the government doesn’t have the money to draw up a list of ‘at-risk’ buildings.
It wasn’t perhaps the best way to deal with the grilling – particularly as two conflicting reports only serve to inflame the situation.
The first came from a German clinic. It had been contracted by the widow of a state employee who died of cancer after working in the DGEG building.
Talking to news services, Alexandrina Carvalho guaranteed that the clinic’s report showed that her husband’s death “resulted from a prolonged exposure to asbestos”.
Quoted in Correio da Manhã however, the Secretary of State for Energy Artur Trindade said there could be “no relationship made between the asbestos (in the building) and the cancer cases”.
Trindade appointed an outside firm (AMIACON) to look into the situation over a year ago, and according to Público newspaper this has reported that the risk posed by the building’s levels of asbestos is “extremely small”.
However, the government is nonetheless intent on moving operations to an asbestos-free building.
Trindade said this was more for “emotional and motivational” benefits – but the transfer is taking its time due to bureaucratic issues.
Meantime, 66 employees have written a letter demanding speedy relocation and pointing to the number of “other cases” where workers are feeling sick -with “respiratory problems, gastric upsets and headaches”.
Making a sweep of asbestos hot-spots throughout Portugal, Correio da Manhã highlights the Finanças IVA building, also in Lisbon, and a total of 154 schools that are all in line for the removal of potentially dangerous asbestos panels.
And Diário de Notícias ran a story last week saying “at least 33 tumours associated with asbestos” have been reported in Lisbon since 1990″. The paper also points to “201 certified cases of professional illnesses” due to asbestos-exposure – of which five relate to workers employed by the state.
The worst danger of asbestos can be in its removal, explains pneumologist Paula Alves Figueiredo, as this is when the potentially dangerous fibre-particles are released into the air.
Another problem is that asbestos-related problems develop slowly. According to Figueiredo, it can take anything between 20-40 years for cancers to appear – thus new cases emerge all the time.
Asbestos was outlawed in Europe in January 2005, but many buildings in all sorts of countries remain with it incorporated in their constructions.
In a special report entitled “Asbestos in the World” researcher Laurent Vogel affirms: “The huge quantities of asbestos used in Europe throughout the 20th century will continue to kill tens of thousands of people every year for the next two decades.
“European Union experts estimate that asbestos-related cancers will cause approximately 500,000 deaths up to the year 2030 in Western Europe alone”.
