Luis Muro assures that he was never notified of the danger that hid the pieces of the red line trains of the meter of Barcelona who turned, drilled and manipulated. He was stationed at the Sagrera workshop between 2004 and 2008, a decade before, in 2018, Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) admitted that 94 carriages of L1 and L3 preserved components that contained asbestos. “When I was there, we did not receive any warning or protection equipment”, he testifies.
The substance has been prohibited from being marketed in Spain since 2002 and, when it wears out and releases particles, it induces diseases respiratory problems that emerge over decades, including cancers incurable. Muro is one of the TMB members who now plan to sue the public company for early retirement for having been in contact with the so-called asbestoswithout being aware of the risk that it entailed, and show signs of conditions or deformities that associate with the mineral.
“We were eating dirt for years -the operator protests-. We came out black from under the trains. “We cleaned them by hand and removed the asbestos fibers that had accumulated over the years.”
Like Muro, a good number of the 28 active employees who TMB appreciated have developed alterations in the Sagrera rolling stock warehouse passed through the pleurathe membrane that surrounds the lung and is sensitive to potential exposure to pollutant. He also reported a worker who was treated for bronchopulmonary carcinoma. TMB detected them all between 2018 and 2019, when it began a medical check-up campaign of an unprecedented dimension. He always points out that disorders could have been incubated by causes other than asbestos.
No case since 2019
After the first batch, the number of those diagnosed within the template The metro has not increased for four years. The company justifies that no more adverse symptoms have emerged in the evidence. The absence of more cases from which responsibilities could arise for TMB awakens skepticism in the association of those affected by asbestos in the subway (ATEA-AMB).
“There may be twenty people who were exposed and who have lung disability, nodules, calcification… But the company does not relate them to asbestos,” the entity maintains. The company denies that its medical services avoid putting in writing diagnoses that could give rise to compensations.
A electrician who sanded and touched pieces with asbestos from L3 convoys for 12 years explains that a private clinic recognized a respiratory decrease that “could be a beginning of asbestosis”, he affirms. “They also found a spot on my lung. If it grows a millimeter, they will have to operate. The company says the deficiency is mild to moderate and may be due to age, tobacco, live in the city… “He minimizes it,” he reproaches. Like other employees, he prefers to speak anonymously.
TMB replies that it has incorporated 898 workers into a surveillance program health and that the CT to which he has subjected those who were able to inhale the asbestos are high resolution, “the most advanced that exist,” he emphasizes. He adds that he has removed and confined 82% of the asbestos in the facilities to defend that he is committed to eradicating it.
Eight relocated
Subway workers are collecting histories clinical and work life reports to prepare claims. They disagree with the way the company applies the covenant which he sealed with the unions in 2021. The commitment establishes that personnel with manifestations associated with asbestos be relocated to work exempt of asbestos and that, at the age of 58, he goes on a regime of absence paid until final retirement.
The association of those affected indicates that eight of the 28 identified with injuries non-disabling pleural fluids have been relocated and treatment is denied. withdrawal ahead of others. TMB maintains that “everyone was relocated except those who were already in a position where there is no type of possible contact with asbestos.” The company points out that the reduction of working hours At 58 years old “she is linked” to get a job transfer sooner. “It is as agreed with the representatives of the workers,” he appeals.
Those affected reject that the low paid is subject to prior relocation. “It was not offered to me nor did I ask for it, although I continue to go down to seasons and I find signs warning of the presence of asbestos,” confesses a former sign maintenance technician. He was confident that, in his case, he would not find repair to early retirement: repaired parts manufactured with the element unhealthy for six years, without knowing it, and pleural thickening was found in TMB checkups. In addition, she shared a shift with a colleague already deceased, the first to be declared a fatal victim of asbestos in the suburban area. “I thought the withdrawal would be automatic, but the company does not give facilities “It hasn’t even moved,” he reproaches.
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“The agreement is very clear and is not only for people with cancer or asbestosis, but also with pleural disorders benign“, the first sign of having been exposed to asbestos,” alleges Àlex Tisminetzky, lawyer for the Col·lectiu Ronda, who advises metro employees. He argues that, even without being Chroniclespersonnel with impairments incipient or non-disabling persons have the right, “if not to job adjustment, at least to retirement at 58.”
Muro is not on the list of the 28 diagnosed. The person who replaced him in the workshop does appear. “We did very similar tasks,” he compares. Among the medical reports that he shows, there is one from the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital that specifies that “minimal segmental pleural thickening” was detected. in 2019. In contrast, the alteration allegedly caused by asbestos is not mentioned in the results of the controls from TMB. On temporary leave, Muro thinks that the discrepancy between the opinions has harmed him. “If there was a thickening, I could have left at 58 years old. “And I’m already 59,” he laments.