You can get sick just by living in Sint-Niklaas.
It is a disgrace that this was hardly investigated.
To denounce this, Johan de Vos wrote The book of Sint-Niklaas about his city.
"Today the chapter on asbestos in Sint-Niklaas is causing quite a stir. Yet, what I wrote every resident of Sint-Niklaas knows, it is no news. What is news, however, is the fact that it was written and printed in a book."
Belgium biggest consumer of asbestos
For years Belgium was the biggest consumer of asbestos in the world. This while asbestos not only makes people sick, people also die from it.
The extremely fine fibres of asbestos are so light that they remain in the air for a long time and are easily inhaled. This is how diseases such as asbestosis and various kinds of cancer arise.
Asbestosis was already established in the 1920s, but it took until 2001 before the production, use and placing on the market of all applications of asbestos were prohibited by law.
The disease of Sint-Niklaas
In Sint-Niklaas, Scheerders van Kerchove Verenigde Fabrieken (SVK) used asbestos for all possible applications in building materials such as corrugated sheets, flower boxes, pipes or insulation.
Asbestos Fund
In 2007 the federal government sets up the Asbestos Fund. People diagnosed with mesothelioma or asbestosis can receive a monthly compensation.
Since the creation of the Asbestos Fund in 2007, only one Belgian took up the fight against asbestos. Eric Jonckheere, who lost his father, mother and two brothers to pleural cancer, received compensation after years of litigation against Eternit.
Sint-Niklaas, 30/03/17
Source: Knack