"Asbestos, we thought it was a product that protected us" 
Claude Tange shows a deck asbestos one of the oldest pieces of protective clothing for employees of the Factory of Downs.
Claude Tange president of the Association for Defending Victims of asbestos from the steel plant of the Dunes (ADVASUD)-CGT. For him, every word counts. For ten years, he takes care to recall, in memory of time spent in contact with the fiber killer.
BY LAWRENCE LEYS
one large plastic bag, pulls out a Claude Tange Asbestos long coat, apron, asbestos, asbestos gloves and a pair of sandals with thick wooden soles lined with a layer of asbestos. Asbestos everywhere! "
We thought it was a product that protected us. It was mandatory to wear this equipment to prevent burns and metal splash or walk on hot plates, otherwise it was a warning! Nobody told us it was dangerous. "He called it"
collectibles - replaced in recent years by outfits with aluminum - and then adds: "
exhibits . He would be well-produced as evidence in a trial in magistrate oh wait! A trial that denounce "
industrial crime" of "bosses
" more committed to trade profitably as preserving the health of their employees.
'SGC label inscribed in our constitution "
We recognize here the arguments of the CGT, but how surprising? "Our name - Association for Defending Victims of asbestos from the steel plant Dunes-CGT - speaks for itself. The label CGT is written in our statutes. "He recalls the question asked by a participant who attended a general meeting a few years ago:" Is the symbol of the union does not discourage victims from coming to join us? " I remember. I replied: "The door of the association is open to enter, it is also open to exit." And wham!
Claude Tange does not bother paraphrasing. Just listen to talk about working conditions in the steel plant Leffrinckoucke he has known from 1976 to 1994. "Delegate staff and union official " he, he assures, "is all positions in the steel industry: founder, pontonnier ... . " We knew there was asbestos everywhere in the manufacturing process, in the protection of men, tools, machines. To preserve heat in the ladle is placed above the asbestos bags of 25 kilos. In the ingot, we put the asbestos dust. We manipulated the bags by hand, without a mask . "The raw material fed into the plant to be melted also contained these carcinogenic fibers: old cars, old stoves, insulated piping business disassembled ...
"Asbestos does not sort out the staff"
Completed this period? Not at all! Diseases, including cancers of the pleura and lung, can be triggered for decades after exposure without respiratory protection. And without distinction, " Asbestos does not sort out the staff: managers, engineers, technicians, supervisors ... "lists Claude Tange.
Since June 2000, he chaired the ADVASUD-CGT he founded. " Initially, we had 26 members, now over 500. In ten years, there were 87 deaths among our members. "
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in La Voix du Nord, Dunkirk edition of April 18, 2010
