Asbestos, the carcinogenic mineral also called asbestos, has been used in companies and homes – which is still used in some places – and is being a silent killer, especially because breathing it causes lung cancer. According to the World Health Organization, 107,000 people die each year from inhalation of asbestos in the country. About 125 million workers are at risk of becoming a lethal mineral. By 2030, 300,000 people are expected to die in the European Union.

The Basque Country is not isolated. There are 175 companies that have used asbestos. We have registered data in Hego Euskal Herria since 2008: More than 150 former workers have died in the accident, which has resulted in material damage. In January of this year five people have died: Two workers from the company CAF and one from Spanish Shipyards, Urumea Chemical Industries and Kaefer, both in Bizkaia. CAF workers last week performed a one-hour stoppage in memory of colleagues who died in the accident. In the Beasain plant, 25 people have already died, and in addition to the plants of Irun and Zaragoza, 60 workers have died in asbestos.

Thanks to the work of the Association of Asbestos Victims of the Basque Country and the trade unions, these victims have been rescued from oblivion. His family has many difficulties because Osakidetza does not recognize that it is an occupational disease. And in companies they also have a lot of difficulty in accessing the allowances that are their right. Victims have to go to court, with slow and inefficient processing. This would have been avoided if the administration accepted the setting up of a compensation fund, as is done in other European countries. If there are no problems in rescuing banks from bankruptcy, which have given Bankia EUR 60 billion, why are workers killed by asbestos not “rescued” by compensating their relatives?