EU parliament in Strasbourg hit by asbestos scare

Parliament’s  building in Strasbourg has again been hit by a health scare, it has emerged.

It follows the discovery of potentially-lethal asbestos in a number of technical facility rooms in two of the buildings in the Alsace city.

The asbestos poses no risk to public health but the parliamentary authorities have ordered an inquiry and independent experts will be hired in order to establish the exact levels of asbestos in the two buildings which were only recently acquired.

The Strasbourg building has something of a chequered history when it comes to health and safety and the latest discovery comes five years after it was hit by an outbreak of Legionnaires disease.

Legionella bacteria was found in the hot water pipes of the building after two people returned ill from a meeting.

The presence of the bacteria in the futuristic building, only inaugurated in 1999, was blamed on the fact that the hot water system is only used four day a month and is left for the rest of the time to stagnate.

Speaking of the latest incident, a parliament spokesman said, “When parliament was in the process of acquiring the Winston Churchill and Salvador de Madariaga buildings in Strasbourg, it asked for a study on the state of the buildings, as required by French law when purchasing buildings constructed before 2001.

“This study showed that there was asbestos in some rooms housing technical facilities.

“Higher levels of asbestos were found than originally estimated.

“This concerns only the limited number of rooms housing technical facilities which were already known to contain asbestos. No new sites have been found to contain asbestos. 

 “The asbestos found poses no risk to public health. Entry into the rooms in question is limited to specialised staff and the asbestos will be removed in the appropriate manner.

“Parliament’s position is that the costs both of the new study and for removing the asbestos must be borne by the previous owners."
  

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