The court has sentenced Sidenor and Cofivacasa to payment of 277,191.45 euros to the widow and children of Forjas Alavesas, who died in 2019 from cancer derived from inhaled asbestos, according to the Asviamie association. Francisco F.C. Between 1973 and 2008 he worked in the Forjas Alavés-Sidenor foundry, initially in the plates section – putting asbestos – using an asbestos jacket to protect it from high temperatures.

Asviamie has denounced that the worker had no protection for the respiratory tract, "no personal protective equipment for workers, no localised aspiration system, no information on carcinogenic risks of asbestos". The association added that during the handling of asbestos workers were not banned from smoking and were only subjected to generic medical examinations and were not banned from smoking. Francisco F.C. For sixteen years, the operator brought to the stove the scrap that had to be melted and was exposed to metal fumes, dust and asbestos fibres.

In particular, Sidenor and Cofivacase have ensured that the worker was a smoker, in order to justify his illness. The Asviamie association has on several occasions denounced that it is common for companies to use this argument, although it has already been shown that the responsible is inhaled asbestos.

Silence of the Hospital and the Basque Government

The worker was diagnosed with pulmonary adenocarcinoma at the Hospital Txagorritxu in Vitoria-Gasteiz, where he was admitted. "The hospital failed to comply with its obligation to communicate with suspicion about the origin of the disease," the association of asbestos victims said. He also expressed his surprise at "the silence of the Basque Government on the risks of cancer, not to mention that it has concealed the risks".