Thin air causes “itchy eyes”, fainting and even “sores”. Employees of the National Center for Microbiology, fed up with the repetition of the same situation for the third year, protested this Thursday at the doors of the institution in Majadahonda (Madrid). “We cannot avoid this situation, which reminds us of what happened with asbestos. We don’t know what the consequences will be in the future,” explains one person out of a hundred protesters, who prefers to remain anonymous.
The truth is that the center failed to resolve the situation that began in October 2022, when the substance poisoned 48 workers, forced a weekly restriction of working hours and disrupted work with research animals at the center, as revealed by elDiario.es with documents obtained Nietzsche’s horse. The landscape hasn’t changed, the workers say, and concerns remain: “Mice in an animal facility miscarry, so we don’t know what might happen to women who are of childbearing age, for example,” they say. About 500 people pass through the Majadahonda campus of the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) every day, of which 300 enter and leave the building of the National Center for Microbiology.
Acrolein has been ruled out as a possible cause
After investigating what could be behind these irritations and poisonings, scientists concluded that it must be the substance acrolein. This chemical is produced in combustion processes, incineration, in landfills and is contained in aquatic biocides. It is toxic by inhalation or ingestion. The problem is that it has not been used in the center and it has not been established where it could have come from. However, those involved point out that this hypothesis has recently been dismissed, although they haven’t been given much explanation as to why.
A year later, the situation was repeated. There were also workers with eye and mouth disabilities. ISCIII did not reveal how many people needed help, although Labor sources estimated it was something similar to 12 months ago. And just like then, the source of the problem could not be found.
“They send us to MAPFRE, but because MAPFRE does not have notification from the institution that there is a problem with the gas, when we go with abrasions on the tongue or nose, they simply say that we have it, an abrasion, but they cannot justify it. as an occupational disease. “I went to the social security doctor to put it in my clinical history,” says one of the people who work at the lab.
“If there are serious consequences for our health in a few years, surely no one will be responsible for it. What if five women in the lab have breast cancer in a few years? How are they going to prove that it was because of what they were breathing here, when one in three women already suffer from it? But they removed litters of mice a long time ago because they were not thriving and no longer breeding,” explains the worker.
In both cases, the leaks were detected since October. And in 2024, the same thing is happening, according to what the workers tell elDiario.es. The origin of the chemical agent remains a mystery, although it is believed to be related to the heating system. “I didn’t have any symptoms of anything in the summer, but it was turn the heating back on or whatever they did, come back now in October and start having symptoms,” says one sufferer.
“Equipment meets standard”
The institute explains to elDiario.es that “the facilities comply with the standard regarding ventilation” and assures that “at no time have any toxic substances of any kind been detected nor has there been any leakage or release of any toxic substance”. However, he admits that “automated ventilation control in facilities may be insufficient when certain circumstances arise, such as the accumulation of activities or processes that produce large amounts of odors, such as sterilization, cleaning of equipment or production of certain products. which may cause discomfort to workers.”
Management states that “renovations have been planned to increase ventilation flow” at the facilities. In addition, they ensure that they order “restriction of activities, implementation of maintenance and inspection procedures for the equipment and ongoing monitoring by the Institute’s occupational health services.”
This Wednesday, workers received a message calling for an “informational meeting” on Oct. 29 about “the audit and actions taken regarding the air quality status of Building 53. They will also be informed of new measures to be taken,” the release said.
“An outside firm was hired to conduct an audit of the ventilation system and they also came up with inconclusive results,” say the workers, who were told by the Occupational Health and Safety Department that it was a “draft.” But they insist that “a sore is not a suggestion.” “It happens to more than one of us, and often. There are people who even fainted and fell on the floor,” says a person employed at the center who prefers to remain anonymous.
They assure that if they were dedicated to another sector, they would have “given up” a long time ago, but they emphasize that, given that it is a center that receives samples from all the hospitals in Spain, they cannot and do not want to do so: “It’s about people .”
