As homeowners renovate, Europe’s asbestos debt resurfaces – EURACTIV.com

As high energy prices encourage homeowners to renovate, the construction sector is confronted with an old foe – asbestos.

Buildings use 40% of the EU’s energy and are responsible for 36% of its greenhouse gas emissions. To tackle this, the European Commission has launched a Renovation Wave, aiming at least to double the renovation rate of buildings, which currently stands at 1% per year.

But scaling up renovation also reveals nasty surprises by releasing asbestos, a cancer-causing substance used in buildings that was banned across Europe in 2005.

Asbestos released during renovation puts at risk the health of construction workers who are instrumental in achieving the Renovation Wave.

In September, the European Commission put forward a proposal to tackle the issue and lower the legal occupational exposure limit to asbestos tenfold.

Still, this is insufficient, according to trade unions. “We want this to be more ambitious. And we need to be more ambitious,” said Tom Deleu, secretary-general of the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW), during an event organised by the association on 17 November.

One of their goals is to limit workers’ exposure to asbestos to 1,000 fibres per cubic metre (m³), 100 times less than the current limit of 100,000 asbestos fibres per m³. The European Commission, meanwhile, proposed a limit of 10,000 fibres per m³.

“Cancers related to asbestos are avoidable,” Deleu stressed. Doing “everything” to avoid them “starts with exposure limits,” he added.

As much as 78% of occupational cancers are related to asbestos, with an average delay of 30 years between exposure and the first signs of disease.

Once stricter limits are adopted, enforcement and use of more accurate measurement methods can begin. And the EU should not use methods that may also apply in Burkina Faso, noted Jukka Takala, president of the International Commission on Occupational Health.

“We want the best technology available for when we start measuring the risks,” Deleu added.

The Dutch have the most ambitious limit value in Europe so it can be done, EFBWW argues.

Construction workers at risk

Renovating houses is instrumental in reaching the EU’s climate targets. High energy prices only reinforced the benefits of building renovation, giving a sense of urgency to the construction sector.

“The Renovation Wave is taking place now,” the EFBWW secretary-general reminded, referring to the EU’s 2020 flagship strategy, launched as part of the European Green Deal. 

According to Takala, there is a clear relationship between renovation works and cancers related to asbestos.

“A large number of occupational groups will be carrying out work on roofs, heating systems, windows, bathrooms,” EFBWW wrote in a recent op-ed for EURACTIV.

This will likely cause a new spike in asbestos-related victims, which currently stands at 70,000 per year.

“Ninety-seven per cent of the directly affected workers are construction workers and workers from related industries,” Deleu stressed.

Compared to other industries, construction workers are much more likely to work in various EU countries – with a particular trend workers to move from East to West. Therefore, the level of protection must be high everywhere, attendees agreed.

“We heard the call that we need to lobby, we need to talk with the national ministries, with the member states,” Deleu said.

Commission less ambitious than Parliament

Asbestos used to be pervasive in the European construction sector.

In tackling the aftermath, the European Parliament has largely taken the initiative. In 2021, MEPs agreed on “historic” rules to protect workers from asbestos.

But one year down the line, not much of the Parliament’s ambition can be found in the Commission’s proposal. While Parliament called to expand the list of occupational diseases linked to asbestos, the EU executive decided to delegate the decision to an advisory committee on occupational health and safety.

The proposed fibre exposure limit appears untenable to workers’ unions. EU countries will be given large discretionary powers in implementing rules, such as asbestos removal strategies, which may cause issues down the line for construction workers who are highly mobile across the continent.

[Edited by Frédéric Simon/Alice Taylor]