From a garrison town of the Soviet army, Milovice in Central Bohemia has turned into a popular place within 30 years. Tourists are attracted by the wild horse reserve, cycle paths have sprung up in the vicinity, and festivals are held at the former airport. But today, people are afraid to go to the airport again. Even to the nearby area. “Enter at your own risk,” warn signs after the discovery of cancer-causing asbestos. “We have a strange feeling,” the locals confide.
Filmmakers like the airport in Milovice. In the new series Volha, Kryštof Hádek is looking for color television, while action hero Dolph Lundgren is fighting international terrorism in the film Sagittarius. The airfield and its surroundings seem to have fallen out of a war picture. Concrete roads are surrounded by trees, between them are the ruins of hundreds of buildings – barracks, washrooms and warehouses. Soviet army crews served under communist normalization.
Not a step further, the sign warns of crushed eternite containing cancer-causing asbestos. | Photo: Tomáš Klézl
Although the city is only less than a kilometer away and the airport is adjacent to a frequented wild horse reserve, you won’t meet a live animal here. The silence is broken only by the wind and the chirping of birds. Since the end of April, the frosty atmosphere has been enhanced by warning signs placed at every step: “Enter at your own risk!” In addition, when the siren goes off, the person screams. Even if it’s just a regular exam on the first Wednesday of the month.
It is the beginning of May, five weeks from the moment when the only thing started to be talked about in connection with the 12,000 Milovice. About asbestos.
“We are used to the fact that there are places here that you don’t normally go to. But I didn’t think that there could still be something poisonous here after Rusáci,” declares a woman from the nearby Boží Dar housing estate. Just walk a few meters from the road to the airport, along which thousands of cars travel in the summer to the local Votvírák or Let It Roll festivals, and the poisonous substance is there. Several long pieces of black material – Eternite roof slabs – lie in the rubble among the trees.
In the second half of the last century, they were commonly used as a covering. They were fireproof and durable. But it turned out that inhaling the asbestos fibers that made up the boards can cause cancer. When the Soviet army left Milovice in the early 1990s, the fabric was supposed to disappear.
At the end of March, however, it became clear that there is still more asbestos in the area today than the authorities, experts and locals thought. The company RP Mladá, which demolished the buildings after the soldiers between 2012 and 2014, undertook in the contract with the region to safely remove the debris. She received 92 million crowns for it. Instead, hundreds of tons of Eternite can be found here, mostly crushed and buried underground. The contamination is considerable, the Czech Environmental Inspectorate estimates.
And not just under the trees near the airport, where people go to sit down according to the thrown alcohol bottles and potato chips bags. This spring, asbestos was also found on four kilometers of the cycle path around the track to the village of Zbožíčko – both underground and on the surface.
According to the investigation, the dangerous substance was part of the recycled material used in the preparation of the trail. “They made her pretty, everyone was happy with her. Now it has become clear how they cheated us,” says Jana Bustová, a young woman walking her dog nearby. The road is now protected by barriers and signs warn that those who continue on, risk their health. “I used to come here every day. Now I feel weird,” the young woman continues as the dog drags her away.
“People used to come here to run, walk with their children. Now they are afraid, you won’t see children here at all,” says a man in his forties who wishes to remain anonymous. He adds that locals are now unsure if they are in danger because they have been walking on asbestos for years.
The authorities also placed a document with an explanation from the Czech Environmental Inspection on the barriers. | Photo: Tomáš Klézl
There is no equipment to measure asbestos in the air
The signs can have a frightening effect on the residents of Milovice, but the Central Bohemian Region claims that it only had them placed as a “precautionary measure”. And the local calms down. “If any asbestos was really disposed of improperly to a large extent and was located underground, there is no risk during the normal movement of people,” states regional councilor Libor Lesák from ODS.
He promised an answer to the question of whether asbestos spreads through the air in Milovice in April. If so, not only permanent residents, but also visitors to the wild horse reserve and participants in summer festivals could be at risk. It was supposed to be measured from the end of April, but the region did not find a service provider – no state institution has the necessary technology. “Despite previous promises, it was not possible to find it even among private companies. Negotiations are still ongoing,” Lesák hopes for an early start of measurements.
However, the health risks for ordinary visitors are low, according to Tomáš Vodný, director of the Regional Hygiene Station of the Central Bohemian Region. If the material is not manipulated in any way, only a minimal amount of cancer-causing fibers is spread into the environment.
“The situation is different when breaking, drilling, crushing or grinding the material of which they are a part,” warns the expert. “This is precisely why special rules and procedures are established for demolition work on buildings with the presence of asbestos in order to prevent its release into the atmosphere,” he explains.
In order for a person to cause health problems, asbestos must be exposed to it for a long time and extremely intensively. This was the case for people who had previously worked with asbestos without protective equipment. For example, the company Valeo, which rents the airport to test assistance systems for cars, is now dealing with the safety of its employees, reported Seznam Zprávy. He is considering, for example, the provision of preventive inspections.
According to Vodný, they are not in danger either. “However, the situation could be different for persons who personally and long-term participated in the investigation of unprofessional disposal of asbestos waste,” says the head of Central Bohemian hygienists.
Asbestos in the Czech Republic
Asbestos began to be used as a building material already at the end of the 19th century, the biggest boom occurred in the 70s and 80s of the 20th century. It is non-flammable, non-conductive, acid-resistant, strong and flexible. Asbestos, also osinek in Czech, is the commercial name for minerals from the silicate group, which are united by their fibrous structure. The most famous example is Eternite roof tiles. It was also part of pipelines, risers, air conditioning systems and fire protection coatings. Experts have been warning about the harmful effects of asbestos on human health since the 1980s. Its fibers reach the lungs when inhaled, and in extreme cases can cause cancer with long-term exposure. Roofs, which can still be encountered in the Czech Republic, do not pose a great risk, it only occurs when handling them. When asbestos is broken or crushed carelessly, the most dangerous fibers are released. This is also why strict rules must be followed when removing roofs. Wear a protective suit and mask and report work to the regional hygiene station. Removal must be supervised by a qualified worker. Czechoslovakia limited the use of asbestos by law in 1984, it has been completely banned since 1999. The National Register of Occupational Diseases between 1994 and 2018 records 616 cases of diseases caused by asbestos. In 154 of them, there was a malignant tumor, after the spread of which the patient has only a few months to live.
Charges in a few months at the earliest
The level of pollution is determined on the spot by an expert who prepares an opinion on the extent of the damage. For now, detectives are investigating the case for suspected criminal offenses of unauthorized waste management and fraud. The company Mladá RP, which was in charge of the work, rejects the suspicion. According to CEO Oldřich Fiala, Eternit ended up in a landfill. The found asbestos was to be brought to Milovice by the companies with which his company cooperated, quoted Fiala Seznam Zprávy.
The police have not yet charged anyone and are awaiting the results of an expert examination. “This may take several months,” said Ondřej Moravčík, spokesman for the police presidium, to Aktuálně.cz.
The residents of Milovice are also waiting for it. They have months of uncertainty ahead of them before they learn how polluted the environment is. “It’s unpleasant. But what should I do? I remember that I used to go to the cycle path to run, probably at the exact moment when asbestos was being worked on. That was probably the most in the air. So it won’t get any worse,” says the man with a nervous smile with the dog while passing the “Enter at your own risk” sign.
Photo: Tomáš Klézl
Video: Back to the Middle Ages. “Extinct” ancestors near Milovice save ravaged nature (November 4, 2019)
Our forefathers | Video: Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
