‘On 8 and 9 March 1999, insect eradication fumigation took place on the eighth, ninth and tenth floors of the hotel, against an infestation of fleas and bedbugs. On 10 March, several of us chambermaids were ordered to give some of the rooms on those floors a really good cleaning, but at no time were we told about the fumigation. Neither was the workplace trade union committee. Our orders were to clean just with water, we were given floorcloths but no protective equipment, we just had our usual short-sleeved uniform, no masks or anything. We got really thirsty and felt very ill, that night we all slept very badly, with itching and a sensation of suffocating, but as they hadn’t told us the truth about what had taken place, we didn’t realise what was happening to us. The next day we went to work and I was ordered to go to the eighth floor, with a colleague, and go through the rooms again and make them ready for guests in the afternoon. So the dust that was impregnated in the furniture and the carpet was stirred up again. On 12 March, I went up to the tenth floor to help two colleagues and the Department for Health and Safety at Work came to take samples from several rooms. I carried on working until 31 March, even though I felt very tired and I was undergoing tests, but then I couldn’t carry on any longer and had to be rushed to hospital, as I felt so terrible.
‘That was six years ago now and since then my life has changed drastically. They gave me incapacity benefit (for the kind of work I used to do, at 55% salary rate), although I tried to get total incapacity benefit (100% salary rate) because I can’t work at all now, as everywhere you are exposed to cleaning chemicals, perfumes, air fresheners. They denied me total incapacity benefit so I’m just getting a monthly pension of €400 plus an extra €179 in recognition of the lack of safety precautions. The workplace inspection authority found that the precautionary measures for occupational risks had not been met and they fined the company. I got the maximum additional payment because of the seriousness of the bad practice.
‘But in addition to our health problems, we are struggling with all the court cases for compensation and appeals. One of my colleagues is terminally ill with cancer and during her court case on 13 December 2004, she had to sit through seven hours only to hear that the court did not recognise the accident, so all she can do is claim ordinary sickness benefit. And now they want to take away our additional allowance for breach of safety measures, because they claim that the fumigation used a cyfluthrin pyrethroid and our symptoms can’t be caused by that. But the workplace inspection report nº IC/ B/ 2729.99 declared that a cyfluthrin pyrethroid, permethrin, tetramethrin, diazinon and piperonyl butoxide were found.’
The Association for People Affected by Chemicals and Environmental Radiation (ADQUIRA), was set up in 2000 to help people exposed to harmful chemicals in the workplace or elsewhere. ADQUIRA provides medical information, emotional support and legal advice. Its members also collaborate with health professionals to improve their quality of life, get a better understanding of health problems and to prevent further damage from toxins in the living environment. www.adquirabcn.com
[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 68, June 2005, page 5]