TOLEDO.- The city of Toledo will have a asbestos map in which both public and private buildings that contain this material will be detailed, not only the existing spills already known and indicated in plots of the Santa María de Benquerencia neighborhood. For this, an economic item will be allocated, the amount of which has yet to be detailed, in the 2025 budgets.
An announcement made by the mayor of the city, Carlos Velázquez, during his speech at the inauguration of the National Congress on Asbestos organized by the El Tajo Neighborhood Associationwith which the capital of Castile-La Mancha joins the Spanish cities committed to giving visibility to the health, social, environmental and legal problems that arise from the presence of this material both in buildings and in discharges.
Congress in which they wanted to emphasize that asbestos kills, as stated in the motto with which this neighborhood group in Toledo has been raising its voice for years to demand solutions to the discharges with which they live in the neighborhood, and to put on the table the serious health problems it causes, counting among its speakers with specialists in pulmonology, oncology and preventive medicine and public health, among others.
Likewise, the problem of asbestos has also been addressed from the environmental point of view, both its consequences – including pets who are also victims of its presence in the environment – and the requirements for its removal.
A context in which the Toledo councilor has committed to mapping asbestos in the city, starting with municipally owned buildings, “because we are not going to limit ourselves to demanding from other administrations what they have to do,” said Velázquez, ensuring that “we try to fulfill what is our obligation and our powers to set an example.”
Although without specifying the amount, he has assured that next year’s budgets will include an “important” item to prepare this detailed map and that once the data is collected, work will be done on a planning to progressively remove asbestosbecause “the solution is to remove it and treat it as what it is, dangerous waste.”
And so, he has insisted on his Government’s intention to “set an example” and do “what we can” within the scope of its powers and scope, which in this case is “that map that no one is going to do for us.”
An instrument that “will give us more strength to demand from the rest of the administrations competent authorities, fundamentally the regional Administration as head of Environment and Health matters, who also fulfill their responsibilities,” he added.
Among those attending this congress were also several representatives of the Municipal Socialist Group, from which they have committed to “follow carefully and be vigilant” so that the City Council’s commitments in this fight against asbestos are fulfilled.
We have attended the National Congress on Asbestos in Toledo. We thank the @avveltajo their drive to make this event possible. We commit to continue paying attention and being vigilant so that the City Council’s commitments in this fight are met. pic.twitter.com/mwuIoY9YON
— Ayto Toledo Socialist Group (@psoe_toledoayto) November 16, 2024
The socialist councilors, as well as the mayor and his government team, have thanked the El Tajo Neighborhood Association for their presence and support in this initiative, although they have also pointed out that they “would have liked other administrations with powers in health “they would have accompanied them, “as had happened in the congresses prior to this one,” they stated.
The IU- Podemos councilor in the Toledo City Council, Txema Fernández, has also expressed his support for this initiative, who precisely in the last debate on the state of the city held at the beginning of October, brought a proposal for the City Council to prepare “with of urgency” a census of buildings in the city with asbestos, as well as lots that contain this material “for public knowledge and subsequent decision-making.” Initiative that was rejected in the vote on the proposals put forward by the municipal groups, although now the Government team has decided to make it their own and commit the map with a budget item for the next year.
Fernández recalled today that asbestos “is a public health problem” and that in Toledo “we breathe it every day”. He has also stressed that its consequences “transcend many legislatures” in the Toledo City Council, due to the determination to “not comply with the laws that protect us from this material with the same zeal as other laws.”
Asbestos is a public health problem that in #Toledo we breathe it every day.
As its consequences transcend many legislatures in the @ToledoAytothey insist on not complying with the laws that protect us from this material with the same zeal as other laws. pic.twitter.com/lcM7WdDqqc— Txema Fernández Sánchez (@TxemaFernndez4) November 16, 2024
Finally, for their part, the neighborhood group has stressed the importance of make visible “this problem that many ignore” and that “a few do not do what is necessary to make it visible.” And, they conclude, “it is not just a problem in our neighborhood, it is a problem in the city.”
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