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The Torrejón de Ardoz air base is contaminated with friable asbestos, the most dangerous version of carcinogenic insulation.
"It's as if it were pollen", Diego González describes the degradation of the material.
He is an operator for Amisur, one of the companies specializing in asbestos removal.
Breathing the dust every day causes a lethal type of cancer, like the one that has killed several Metro workers.
"The pipes are rotten. It's the place I've been the scariest to work on. We haven't started yet. We're doing some tests
. "
González has been working in the sector for ten years.
He hadn't seen anything like it.
"I'm still surprised.
The workers and those who come to the air base are not aware of the risk
. They are exposed. Asbestos is seen everywhere."
The friable asbestos, with which "thousands of meters of heating pipes" are coated, can only be removed by fragmentation or breaking.
The works would disperse a lethal amount of the material into the environment.
"We are carrying out an action plan.
90% of people do not know what they are exposed to. I think they try to hide it a bit
. But it is something that cannot be hidden. Asbestos is there," says González, a native of Peru .
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The companies in charge of removing asbestos implement two royal decrees.
"The 396/2006 regulates how the work should be carried out and the 553/2020 regulates the transfer of waste within the state. From where it originates to the final landfill," indicates Lidia Jurado, manager of Amisur.
The operators use masks, gloves, leggings and a special suit.
"We are always very protected to have as little contact as possible.
If it is necessary to break, the material is previously encapsulated with a material that resembles sugar clouds
."
The suits are disposable.
At the end of each operation they are treated as asbestos waste.
"The clothes go to a sack with their certificates"
.
Some assignments have to do with fixing the botches of others.
"A few months ago we were taking some samples in a house where the plumber had cut the pipe with a radial. The apartment had to be thoroughly cleaned."
Diego González regularly conducts recycling courses.
"It's the way to follow all the protocols."
At the end of an assignment, operators measure the suspended asbestos.
"We cannot leave anything in a home. Rarely has a positive sample come out.
The measuring machine is a pump that absorbs air particles. The filter is sent to the laboratory.
The Ministry of Defense has not answered the questions in this supplement.
Banned since 2002
The pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb published in May the results of a survey: 87% of Spaniards are unaware of the existence of mesothelioma, the cancer variant associated with handling and exposure to asbestos.
60% do not know if their home is made with asbestos
.
Only four out of 10 are aware of the risk.
At least 3,750 homes in the blocks of flats concentrated in the Orcasitas, San Pascual and Fuencarral neighborhoods contained asbestos in 2018. Last year, the Madrid City Council financed 83% of the total cost of the operations that removed the poison from 1,370 homes of Orcasitas.
"Since 2002 its installation has been prohibited," adds Jurado.
He warns that it is not only present on the floors.
"
There is also asbestos in schools and it is not a matter of being alarmist, but if a breakage occurs, breathing those fibers all year round can be dangerous
. The half-life of asbestos is 30 years," he says, "so right now Buildings from the '60s, '70s and '80s have already degraded quite a bit. As they degrade, they disperse fibers into the air that anyone could breathe."
Asbestos is a "versatile, very cheap material, it insulates thermally, acoustically, protects from high temperatures, it is used in roofs, sheets, downspouts, floors, agricultural elements, automobile brake pads, in fireproof clothing, in old kitchen gloves. , in bakery ovens", Jurado justifies its popularity.
"We are specialists in fiber cement removal"
, better known as uralite, the compound that contains 30% asbestos and is part of the industrial and rural landscape of our country.
"The concern goes by areas. In Madrid there is a certain awareness. In Andalusia, for example, it is the other way around," he says.
According to the pharmaceutical company, Canarias (23.3%) and Murcia (20.6%) are the communities with a population most concerned about the risks of exposure to asbestos.
The citizens of Cantabria (8%) and La Rioja (6.7%) do not perceive it in the same way.
High demand
Companies in the sector receive many calls every time asbestos-related cancer deaths make the news.
"It's brutal
," says Florián Sánchez, manager of Iberihabitat.
Asbestos is interspersed in everyday life.
"Events such as the death of the television presenter [José María Íñigo] or compensation to Metro de Madrid workers trigger demand.
People do not have much information and they are afraid,"
he explains.
The price of the order is calculated according to the meters of asbestos to be removed.
"The average is usually around 11 euros per square meter. It depends on the assembly, if there are dangers of withdrawal at height or if collective protection means are needed."
The landfill to which the remains of asbestos end up is, precisely, in Torrejón.
"The problem is that there is an administrative queue. Until we obtain the permit, they don't come to remove it. Meanwhile, it stays in the places from which it was removed."
As in the portals, generating a potential problem for the neighbors.
"There are usually no problems but it is not the best solution. It should be removed as soon as possible
."
Amisur is licensed to store the material until its final removal.
"In the ground, pits are dug where the product ends up. It cannot be burned. At a thousand degrees, it is very dangerous. It withstands the heat very well"
.
One of the problems in the sector is intrusion.
"Our service is not cheap."
Amisur organizes conferences to "raise awareness".
The European Union allows a decade to remove all the remaining asbestos.
"There are many companies that generate an environmental hazard.
I am not in favor of creating a social alarm, but I am in favor of raising awareness.
There is a serious problem of the presence of asbestos in different formats," warns Florián.
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