The compensation fund for asbestos victims has taken the last step, reaching the Spanish Senate ol.La bill, unanimously approved by the Spanish Congress Working Committee last July, on the basis of an initiative of the Basque Parliament, has prospered as a result of what was agreed by EH Bildu with the executive of Pedro Sánchez in relation to the Spanish Government Euros 25 million last year.

Asbestosis or mesotheliomas and other asbestos-produced diseases occur over many years of the relationship of workers with the mineral, in many cases at 30 or 40 years. Although asbestos was banned a long time ago, we are now seeing the consequences of intensive use of asbestos in industry. But victims often do not know where to turn, because the company is already closed, or they enter a long and unbearable judicial process. Otsanda Tolosa, daughter of Celestino Tolosa, deceased with asbestos, testified at ARGIA.

This compensation fund seeks to put an end to this helplessness in some way. However, the asbestos victims' association ASVIAMIE explained that 90% of victims still do not know whether they can be compensated.

Thousands of deaths in three decades

Regarding Social Security, the deaths from occupational diseases related to asbestos have been 1,485 in the Spanish state between 2007 and 2018. But according to data from Jon García, from ASVIAMIE, to the Ser chain, over the last twenty years there have been more than 7,800 deaths, of which 730 have been in Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, according to the representative of the association.

Other research has painted a darker picture. The researcher and environmental expert, Paco Puche, announced a few years ago that in Spain 75,000 people die as a result of asbestos and that the toughest decades will be in 2010, 2020 and 2030. In the Basque Country, one third of every 25,000 people who have had direct contact with asbestos will die prematurely, according to this.

But it is even more difficult to detect other victims, such as women who have cleaned their employees’ clothes for years and died silently contaminated by asbestos. It will also take account of the legislative proposals adopted in Madrid.

The Fund will be managed by the Spanish National Social Security Institute and will have, in addition to the amount budgeted, other contributions, such as the penalties imposed on companies.

Because this initiative cannot be a way of offsetting companies who, despite knowing that asbestos was harmful, continued to use this material without taking any protective measures. As Otsanda Tolosa explained to us, in addition to judicial sanctions, the "moral recognition" of the company is necessary.