The teachers’ branch of the workers union, CGT, has lodged a complaint before the educational authorities over asbestos used in two junior schools on the coast.

The two schools in question are CEIP Reina Fabiola in Motril and CEIP Santa Cruz in Almuñécar. In the case of the first, it has a corrugated asbestos roofing to provide shade, whereas in Almuñécar it appears to be an asbestos water tank next to the janitor’s house. In Santa Cruz there is asbestos used under the roof tiles, according to the union’s spokesperson.

The union also made a similar complaint during the previous school year referring to the CEIP El Chaparral in Albolote, next to Granada. The material was removed during the summer of 2015.

The use of asbestos was banned in Spain in 2002, to be followed by a Europe-wide ban in 2005. In fact, there are 55 countries in the world were this material is not permitted as a building material.

As mentioned, the ban in Spain came into effect in 2002 but that was on future use; existing asbestos in buildings was allowed to remain until replaced or it reached the end of its life-use.

It was back in 1977 that the International Agency for Cancer Investigation, which belongs to the World Health Organization, recognized that human who are exposed to all kinds of asbestos run a high risk of lung cancer and mesothelioma.

(News: Almunecar/Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)