Asviamie Aiaraldea concentrated last Tuesday in front of the Social Security headquarters in Llodio (Álava). The association has denounced that a neighbor from Llodio with mesothelioma, who has been denied financial aid to cope with the disease.

“In Álava there have recently been four cases, one of them in Llodio,” the members of Asviasmie Aiaraldea denounced, and pointed out that the latter case was denounced last July before the Álava Prosecutor’s Office, since they understood that the Social Security Directorate of Álava had been able to carry out prevarication.

The members of the Association consider “scandalous” the attitude of the Social Security Directorate in Álava, “since it has systematically denied the economic benefit of Occupational Diseases to people with pleural mesothelium, even though Osalan has assured that they have been working with asbestos”. The members of Asviasmie Aiaraldea have denounced that this direction "violates the criteria of the Spanish Government" and that the Provincial Council of Álava.

As they have pointed out, mesothelioma generates “few doubts”. “It is a cancer located in the pleura or in the peritoneum, which greatly limits life expectancy. It is scientifically proven that it has nothing to do with tobacco hobby and that it is only formed by inhaling asbestos fibers.”

Steels of Llodio and Forges in the Alavés

In the cases mentioned above, the workers spent many years in the factories Aceros de Llodión and Forjas Alavesas, where they worked closely or directly with this material, as reported by members of the asbestos control group. “They force victims and their families to walk the long judicial path, assuming the costs and processes generated by the process.” They have therefore called for the creation of a “Compensation Fund”.

“A few decades ago we had to endure unhealthy working conditions, not knowing that we were working with a carcinogenic material, while companies did not comply with the current legislation of Hygiene and Safety, with the complicity of the labor administration.”

Asviasmie Aiaraldea considers that the refusal of benefits is aimed at: “Blame the companies that violate the law so that they are not obliged to increase preventive measures and do not have to take responsibility for the damage caused.”

In addition, they have stressed that in this way it will be Osakidetza who will be responsible for paying “the health expenses”, “with the taxes of all of us”.