Doctor Ilcho Efkoski, specialist in occupational medicine, comments on the events surrounding the fire in "CodAnd asbestos. According to him, the citizens in the area around the place where the fire took place should not have anything more than short-term, low exposure to asbestos fibers from this fire, which most likely will not produce health problems such as lung or pleural cancer.

"When it comes to fires and asbestos, you should know that there is a risk to human health when inhaling asbestos fibers when they are released in higher concentrations and when people are exposed to them for a long time, and this is most often found in workers. in occupational exposure to asbestos (high concentrations of asbestos fibers are released during the breaking, crushing, grinding and shredding of asbestos-containing materials and products). "Asbestos does not burn or emit toxic gases, it does not dissolve in water, and its fibers are carried by smoke and dust, which is why people living in the area can probably be exposed to them for a while, and so far we are fine." he.

Dr. Efkoski adds that in occupational medicine, always the advice for employers working with asbestos is to ensure that workers are not exposed to a higher concentration of 0,1 asbestos fiber per 1 cubic centimeter of air, measured in terms of 8 hour weighted time average (PVP).

Outdoors the air cubes are too large to allow for a higher concentration of asbestos fibers in such fires (unless standing next to the source or the fire is not in a factory producing asbestos), which in most situations is not expected affected citizens to have health problems. Let us repeat once again: Negative health effects from exposure to asbestos fibers have been observed in workers who have been exposed to higher concentrations than recommended for the workplace over a long period of time (for years !!). Short-term exposure can be problematic only if it is intense !, Efkoski is decisive.

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