The Besançon hospital trial opens this Wednesday. Its leaders are accused of knowingly exposing workers to asbestos for four years.
Did the managers of the Besançon hospital knowingly expose workers to toxic substances, asbestos in this case? The question is at the heart of a trial, the first hearing of which opened on Wednesday.
The regional hospital of Besançon (CHRU) is in fact prosecuted for having “let the employees of the technical and fire safety services work”, from April 2009 to June 2013, “while the management was aware of the presence of asbestos in its premises ”, and in particular in certain flockings, summarized the president of the court, Alexis Pernot, quoted by AFP.
Overwhelming elements
“This is the first time, to my knowledge, that a public establishment has been prosecuted for endangering others concerning the asbestos risk”, told the press Me Michel Ledoux, lawyer for the CFDT Health Federation and Andeva (National Association for the Defense of Asbestos Victims), which formed civil parties with around fifty hospital employees, as well as with the CGT, FO, SUD unions, and the hygiene committee , safety and working conditions (CHSCT).
It is Claude Evin who defends the hospital. The former Minister of Health, former director of the Regional Health Agency of Ile-de-France, has indeed resumed his activity as a lawyer. “There has never been exposure to asbestos dust beyond the limit thresholds set by the regulations, so there has been no endangerment,” he defends. According to him, “the hospital center has taken measures to protect the agents”.
In 2013, the technical staff realized that they had been exposed to asbestos, without protection, during training to protect themselves from this white powder, especially encountered during interventions in the false ceilings of the hospital. In 2011, a report from the labor inspectorate concluded that “the life of others was deliberately endangered”.
So far, only one employee of the CHRU, who retired in 1995, has been diagnosed with asbestos, according to the inter-union, who does not know whether he has filed a complaint.
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