The López Piñero Institute for the History of Medicine and Science (joint centre of the University of Valencia and the CSIC), based on the "Palau de Cerveró", presents the seminar "Amianto: de problema laboral a riesgo ambiental, 1960-1980" (Asbestos: from labour problem to environmental risk, 1960-1980), next Tuesday 16 April, at 17:00, in the assembly room of the Institute. The seminar, which is framed within the cycle of activities "Atmosferes tòxiques: Salut ambiental i ocupacional en l’era industrial" (Toxic environments: Environmental and occupational health in the industrial era), will be delivered by Alfredo Menéndez-Navarro, professor of History of Science (University of Granada).

The objective of this seminar is to explore the process of consideration of asbestos as a risk for the general population. Asbestos is a fibrous mineral with fire-resistant qualities used in a large number of industrial processes and manufactured products. The international alarms that arose in the middle of the 60s over the carcinogenic potential of asbestos and the environmental dimension of the problem had very little impact in Spain. Media treated the risks of asbestos in the 60s mostly as a labour problem like Pneumoconiosis, limited to certain risks sectors. However, at the beginning of the democratic transition news focused on the treatment of asbestos labour risks associated to industrial disputes soon gave in to the consideration of asbestos as a risk for the general population given its condition as carcinogenic and the fact that it was all around used in a great array of industrial products and consumer goods. Trade union mobilisation played an essential role in this process of social resignation to the problem, when they built up their public denunciation campaign around the labour and environmental carcinogenic risks. This bet on the denunciation of the environmental dimension of the problem and the promulgation in 1984 of the Regulation on Labour Risks of Asbestos contributed, finally, to minimise the labour impact of the risks of asbestos in Spain.

Alfredo Menéndez-Navarro is professor of History of Science in the University of Granada. His main line of research is the history of occupational health. In this doctoral thesis (UGR, 1992, extraordinary award) he analysed the labour risks and the process of introduction of aid resources in the mercury mines of Almadén during the 18th and 19th centuries. Subsequently, he has analysed professionalisation of occupational medicine in Spain and has devoted special attention to the development of campaigns on labour risks and occupational diseases such as silicosis and ankylostomiasis in contemporary Spain. Currently, he leads the project "Los riesgos del amianto en España (1960-2002)" (The risks of asbestos in Spain 1960-2002), a multidisciplinary project whose fundamental objective is the historical analysis of the rise of health problems caused by the occupational and environmental exposition to asbestos in Spain, as well as the strategies in such risks and their evolution in Spain among 1960, period where consumption intensified, and its definitive ban in 2002.