With ’'s climate change targets, 35 million buildings are expected to be renovated by 2030, with the potential to expose many workers to asbestos. So how do we strengthen protection against this toxic substance that persists in many buildings?
To improve workers' safety, the European Commission is proposing a 10-fold reduction in occupational exposure to asbestos fibers. Fanny Gaurent of Real Economy’ traveled to ’, France, to discover what this means for those at the forefront of asbestos removal.
The French Experience
The tighter tolerance level for asbestos that ’ is aiming for has long been practiced in France. Emmanuel Pezet, decontamination manager at an asbestos cleaning plant north of Toulouse’, explains the many safety measures implemented.
“There are personal protective equipment and respiratory protection devices for workers, says ”. “This depends on the level of dust and the risk analysis of the construction site. Then a mobile decontamination unit, fences, an exhibition, some signs and waste area.”
“There are environmental pumps, and there are also measuring pumps for operators to monitor compliance with the occupational exposure limit.”
France’ has a very strict regulatory framework for the means to be used for the protection of workers and the environment in such sites. Dust measurements are carried out systematically.
Inhalation of asbestos fibers can cause serious diseases such as lung cancer, which occurs on average 30 years after exposure. Despite the uncertainties, asbestos removal operator Florian feels protected.
“From my point of view, I have no fear about my work because we are very, very well supervised, ” says. “Compared to other trades in traditional construction sites, we are the first to know where asbestos is.”
Education is essential
South of Toulouse’, we join Olivier Heaulme’, manager of professional risk management company Aléa Contrôles’. The asbestos training center teaches how to use various protective and decontamination equipment. The company also analyses samples taken from construction sites to check the number of asbestos fibers in the air.
“Requires a lot of technical know-how, very specific, high-performance equipment, says ”. “FranceAt ’, the European UnionWe have ten years of experience at this level, which will be adopted in ’. It took a long time to reach this level. It will take more time, new technologies, more training, etc. to get down.”
FranceIn ’, asbestos is responsible for between 3 and 4,000 work-related disease cases each year. Training is mandatory for all construction work, but some professionals are not aware of it.
Olivier “Education is essential” says. “You can't protect yourself from asbestos without education. It makes workers aware of the risks. There are self-preserving techniques, reflexes that must be possessed, and these reflexes are gained through repeated training.”
Katia Rozières has been working as an asbestos technical officer for a year and is updating her education. He's implementing gestures that will allow him to manage site risk.
“We have a real responsibility to keep people safe and it's important to be able to use all the tools available – and there are a lot of things available – but it's also important to make sure they're respected on the site ” says.
Strong legislative call
But are these measures enough to solve this major public health problem?
William Cockburn, interim director of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, says strong measures are needed.
“Today we see deaths from exposures that occurred in the eighties and nineties, says ”. When we renovate or carry out construction work, we run the risk of exposing workers to asbestos again. So what we need is good procedures in place. We need strong legislation proposed along with good technical measures proposed here.”
The European Commission said ’'s proposal to reduce exposure levels should be placed in a broader context.
“Asbestos fibers are carcinogenic and therefore do not have a completely safe level of exposure, ” says. “The more fiber is inhaled, the greater the risk of contracting the disease. The legislation actually obliges employers to reduce exposure to the lowest technical level possible. So the exposure limit is not an acceptable limit. Actually, it's an upper threshold. By setting a limit ten times stricter, we should envisage a fairly high level of protection for European workers, but this needs to go along with awareness-raising, guidance and tools, and appropriate procedures and strategies.”
Many unions think the exposure limit should be a hundred times lower to effectively protect workers, but Cockburn says there are practical considerations against keeping the bar too low.
“This is a difficult issue and one that the commission has tackled with quite extensive work, ” says. “At some point, you're approaching the background limit. Here at Bilbao’, we breathe very low concentrations of asbestos fibers. So you really have to find a practical limit.”
And he says the costs of the current proposals are affordable.
The “ Study estimates that these costs are not very large and can often be reflected to customers. Of course, there will also be some costs for governments, as they will have to train inspection services and set up new laboratory facilities to detect these low levels. But all these costs, loss of productivity for society, treatment and hospital costs are really insignificant compared to savings from the reduction in compensation payments. And perhaps most of all, the cost of human suffering. - ”
For this new border to be mandatory across Europe, parliament and the Council of the European Union will need to reach an agreement to help better protect workers against cancer.
