German Utility RWE Announces Asbestos Death Toll
Friday August 3 113 PM ET
By Claire-Louise Isted
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's second biggest utility, RWE, said on Thursday that 85 of its workers had died from asbestos-related diseases since the 1980s.
The publication of the data follows a controversial report called "Deadly Dust,'' which appears in this week's issue of the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel. The report questioned the late timing of RWE's health-checks.
"The works cooperative of precision and electrical engineers today presented data on asbestos-related illnesses in the company,'' RWE said in a statement.
"There have been altogether 119 cases of recognised asbestos-related occupational diseases at RWE since the 1980s, of which 85 of the affected individuals have died,'' it added.
RWE Power and RWE coal subsidiary Rhinebraun recorded respectively a total of 60 and 59 cases of workers with asbestos-related illnesses, including asbestosis, lung cancer and cancer of the pleura.
"These figures show that the decision to continue occupational health asbestos prevention through a widespread programme of advice and examinations was right,'' RWE said.
But Der Spiegel argued that RWE was prompted to start an extensive examination programme only following the "chance'' discovery that 12 workers had died from asbestos-related cancer between 1982 and 2001 at the firm's Niederaussem power plant.
"Why is the RWE chief Dietmar Kuhnt only now reacting, a good 10 years after asbestos was banned because of its cancer producing effect, with such extensive measures?,'' it said.
"Are there more than the 12 known deaths at other RWE power plants?''
Cancer through exposure to asbestos can often produce no sign of illness for up to 35 years, and because of this long latent period, an increase in these cases can be expected until 2015, the magazine said.
Two thirds of the precision and electrical engineer cooperative's annual spending on occupational illnesses goes to asbestos sufferers, amounting to 85.3 million marks, it added.
The magazine anticipated RWE's explanation for the timing of the examinations as simply the result of its recent merger with former rival VEW.
In direct reply to Der Spiegel's report, RWE issued a statement earlier this week, explaining the health programme.
"As a consequence of the merger of RWE and VEW and the associated restructuring of the group, regulations and processes are being harmonised in many areas, including occupational health,'' the RWE statement said.
"In this connection, the question of dealing with former asbestos-exposed workers has also been intensively worked on since the spring of 2001.
"The aim is, in view of the very long time before a possible malignant outbreak of an asbestos-related disease, to guarantee a unified process in the future.''
RWE Power and RWE Rhinebraun said they will offer all current and retired workers from the companies' plants a further examination in a staggered process to try and prevent possible asbestos-related diseases.
"According to investigations by work cooperatives, the number of asbestos-related illnesses show, in all RWE companies, a rather modest trend compared with other utilities,'' RWE said.
"This additional precaution will result in at most a few isolated casesbecause even with high asbestos dust exposure, only a small number of malignant diseases is expected.''