17:00 - 19:30, International Conference Hall
Plenary Session 6
Identification, Management and Removal of Existing Asbestos
Chairs: Shigeharu Nakachi and Anders Englund
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Susana Muhlmann
Architect, Asbestos Removal Procedures and Legal Aspects Technical Advisor, Government of Buenos Aires, Argentina
ABSTRACT
On 1999, the Government of Buenos Aires City decided to deactivate and demolish Caseros Prison, a 21 story-high concrete construction located in the City, inside a residential area with some small factories and only one block away from the National Hospital of Paediatrics.
Empty since 2000, the building was programmed to be demolished one year later, however, it is still on foot.
A division of the Army, a Battalion of Engineers with expertise on explosives was commissioned to blow the jail in 2001, but just before the demolition attempt, asbestos was discovered in the cellar by the inspectors of the Ministry of Health together with a German expert and, because of that, the City authorities stopped the massive implosion.
Since then, as for the Government of the City environmental policy, it was decided that, despite the lack of local standards, the asbestos would be removed according to safe procedures.
It was necessary to work on a basic legal frame, new documents; to explain once and again the basis of the asbestos procedures to all people involved (from members of the Government to neighbours); to give training to a branch of the Army specialized on Biological, Chemical, and Nuclear Emergencies, to call diversity of specialists, to estimate budgets on tasks never done before.
It took two more years and a wide team work among civilians and military, public and private organisms, local and international advisors, to make this project become true.
the aim of this presentation is, then, to show how, the Government of Buenos Aires City, together with all the institutions and individuals involved and the invaluable assistance of international experts, adjusting step by step foreign standards to the Argentinean reality, was able to develop a big scale asbestos removal project, fulfilling all security measurements and procedures, establishing the legal and technical background to develop the local regulations.
It will be an honour to share this experience with our colleagues and collaborators of the international asbestos community.