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(CNN Spanish) - Line B of the Buenos Aires metro is the most used in the Argentine capital. Every day, more than 230,000 passengers use this branch of Subways. 763 people work in its stations, trains and workshops. What few know is that this line is going through a silent crisis: the threat of asbestos or asbestos, a carcinogenic mineral, banned in more than 50 countries for almost 20 years. Prohibited in Argentina since 2001.
The authorities of the Argentine capital confirmed that there are already 11 Subway workers, as the state company is known, that would have been affected by this carcinogenic substance. This was reported by the president of the Subway in Buenos Aires before the CNN consultation.
At the end of 2011, the government of the then mayor of Buenos Aires and current president, Mauricio Macri, acquired six second-hand trains to the Madrid Metro: the CAF 5000. This model had been manufactured during the 70s. Then, asbestos did not it was forbidden. The Madrid Metro had withdrawn them from circulation and sold them to Buenos Aires. With these trains, this dangerous substance entered the Buenos Aires subway, but it was not until February 2018 when the problem came to light.
In an interview with CNN, the president of Sbase (Subway of Buenos Aires), Eduardo De Montmollin, acknowledged that the planes of the asbestos wagons acquired in 2011 specified the presence of this carcinogenic substance. "It is true that there is documentation that says that but there was no way to affirm or validate whether this was indeed true or not."
Sbase is a Buenos Aires public company. De Montmollin took over the company in 2017.
The official tries to explain the situation: “The technical documentation of a train can become manuals or folders like this - it simulates a stack of papers with your hands - and suddenly what this says is a small letter on page 473 of the Volume 4 of the parts description manual. In theory ... Sbase technicians ... I cannot guarantee that each and every page of the technical manuals has been read. But we assumed that if the documentation contained something the Metro de Madrid had already taken sides, had taken action and that what they were selling to us, they were in a position to sell it.
Ramón Acuña is one of eleven workers in the Line B workshop diagnosed with a disease typically caused by asbestos.
“I have been working in the Rancagua workshop on Line B eight years ago as an electromechanical technician. About a month ago, I was diagnosed with the first of the asbestos fiber conditions, which is the emergence of pleural plaques, ”Acuña told CNN.
Acuña's lungs suffer from thickening caused by the aspiration of asbestos or asbestos particles, according to the diagnosis that CNN agreed to. The World Health Organization argues that "all forms of asbestos are carcinogenic to humans" and estimates that half of all deaths from work-related cancer are due to asbestos.
Acuña tells how they began to take knowledge. “At the beginning of the year 2018 and before the knowledge, by union contacts and for coming out in the news, of the death of several workers of the Madrid Metro, the union takes action on the matter, since these workers of the Madrid Metro, victims of asbestos, they had been in contact with a type of train in which we worked on Line B: the CAF 5000 ″.
Did the authorities of the City of Buenos Aires ensure that the wagons were fit for health? Could they have known that they were buying trains with potentially carcinogenic and prohibited material?
Argentine regulations require that goods entering the country comply with national laws and have a certificate of origin that identifies any material harmful to health.
De Montmollin says: “Today again, with Monday's newspaper: those trains that we bought from the Madrid Metro should have come with that certificate, well… the certificate evidently did not exist and on our side there was also no demand for existence of that certificate. ”
Edgardo Castro is a labor inspector, specialized in the environment. He works in the government of the City of Buenos Aires, is a union leader and has initiated legal actions for asbestos in Line B
According to Castro, "when you are going to import used materials with an important age such as these wagons, which were prior to the asbestos ban, one has to take the necessary precautions to avoid just this surprise that we find today."
De Montmollin acknowledges that in 2011 the Buenos Aires authorities did not inquire as to whether the Madrid Metro had removed asbestos from trains. "It was not a topic of discussion: 'Che these trains have asbestos, what did you do with asbestos?'" Said the official.
In February 2018, Subte workers sent a sample of 60 pieces of the CAF 5000 trains for analysis by an asbestos specialist, the geologist Leticia Lescano, a professor at the University of the South of Bahía Blanca and a researcher at the Research Commission Scientific (CIC-CGAMA).
Lescano told CNN that, after that request, they began doing the relevant studies, including optical microscopy, macroscopy and X-rays, and that with them they determined that “in many pieces” there was “presence of chrysotile, a variety of asbestos "
The authorities of the City of Buenos Aires assure that they were unaware of having acquired asbestos wagons and that when they began to suspect it, they took out the 36 cars that make up these trains. CNN consulted the spokesperson for Macri, who referred the query to local authorities. In this case, to the company in charge of operating the subway: Sbase.
"We," de Montmollin pointed out, "bought assuming they were in condition, that the Madrid Metro could sell us those trains because in fact in the European Union there is a law that prohibits the marketing of equipment with this substance as of 2001".
CNN contacted the Madrid Metro, but its representatives decided not to comment on the matter. In 2018, the Spanish public company launched a program to analyze the health of workers and said there is no risk of exposure to them or to users. Even so, he announced that he will invest 140 million euros to eliminate asbestos in the network by replacing parts and renovating stations.
In both Madrid and Buenos Aires, the authorities claim that passengers are not in danger.
In Spain, a prosecutor's office investigated the possibility that those responsible for the company have known for decades that Madrid trains had asbestos and concealed it. Two workers have died and there are indications that it may have been due to exposure to this material.
A commission of inquiry of the Assembly of Madrid determined that the Metro "knew about the existence of asbestos and its risks for more than two decades", that "trains were sold to Argentina with asbestos when prohibited by the legislation of 2002", and that "the risk was hidden from the workers and unprotected."
Lescano explains that asbestos "mainly affects workshop workers because they are the people who are continuously working with the replacement of these auto parts."
Before the investigative commission of the Madrid Assembly, the Metro authorities said they were unaware of an internal report that admitted the presence of asbestos. They argued that in the sale to Argentina "there was no risk" because the asbestos pieces had been encapsulated.
Banishing asbestos from the Underground could take years. Meanwhile, the affected workers are already in medical treatments. Some 180 underwent analysis and it remains to study thousands of people who work daily in workshops, trains and stations throughout the system.
Subway
