Over 200 demolitions of older buildings containing asbestos were criticized last year by the Work Environment Authority, a review by Ekot reveals.
This concerns both large and small companies that have breached the strict safety regulations. For example, the sanitation of a group home in Uppsala was criticized, where workers washed themselves in the house's laundry room, which risked spreading asbestos fibers. In another case, in a municipal rental apartment in Hallstahammar, the sanitizers did not have control over the ventilation – which made it impossible to know if the room was free from asbestos dust when the work was finished.
We conduct many controls, many inspections regarding asbestos, because asbestos is a hazardous substance. It goes deep into the lungs, the smallest fibers can cause great harm and very serious tumor diseases, says Johanna Ingemansson Christiansson, unit manager at the Work Environment Authority, to the radio.
Asbestos was completely banned in 1982, but was previously widely used in construction.
