This afternoon, the Basque authorities restrictions have been lifted in Muskizbut the fear still remains. Living in the shadow of the largest refinery in the Basque Country, Petronor, has turned this Biscayan municipality into a scene straight out of England at the end of the 19th century. Its streets have been empty, schools with minimal activity and neighbors equipped with masks. The mist that covered the town on Thursday and part of Friday was not fog, but a toxic cloud.
The invisible escape. It all started on Thursday morning due to a technical incident in a gasoline tank at the petrochemical plant, which caused the evaporation and emission into the atmosphere of the volatile fraction of the fuel. According to the Muskiz city councilbetween 10:15 and 11:00 a.m., stations such as the one in the San Julián neighborhood recorded peaks of between 100 and 200 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³) of benzene.
To put the figure in perspective, the regulatory limit value for the annual average is just 5 µg/m³, meaning that emissions far exceeded the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, the chemist Néstor Etxebarria (UPV/EHU) warned that not only benzene escapedbut also toluene and xylene, completing the dangerous chemical cocktail known as BTEX, very volatile and toxic substances.
The real danger of hydrocarbons. To understand the severity of the leak, it is necessary to explain what benzene is. Simply put, it is a colorless, volatile liquid with a sweet smell. that penetrates very easily into the bloodstream through the lungs. In the short term, acute inhalation causes poisoning similar to that of solvents: drowsiness, dizziness, headaches, tremors and, in severe levels, loss of consciousness.
However, the real danger lies in its long-term effects. International health and environmental agencies (IARC, ATSDR, EPA) classify benzene as a confirmed human carcinogen (Group 1). This substance directly attacks the bone marrow, depressing the formation of blood cells, which can trigger aplastic anemia and acute myeloid leukemia. The WHO itself assumes in its guidelines that, being a genotoxic agent, there is no exposure threshold that the human body can safely tolerate. Any dose, no matter how small, increases the risk.
Communication chaos, dizziness and fear. Despite the obvious chemical danger, the management of the crisis has outraged those affected. Although the escape occurred on Thursday morning, The Mail denounced that the Basque Government It did not issue preventive confinement recommendations until 8:17 p.m., ten hours after the incident. The usual Petronor emergency sirens, which sound every Thursday as a drill, remained silent yesterday, and neither mass alert was sent (ES-Alert) to cell phones because Public Health considered that “it was not an emergency.”
While the Local Police patrolled with megaphones asking residents to lock themselves in, the director of Public Health, Guillermo Herrero, minimized the crisis in Radio Euskadiensuring that there was no “risk for the population” and that a “normal life” could be led. This vision contrasted head-on with that of the mayor of Muskiz, Eduardo Briones, who to the microphones Chain Being, He recommended not going out because “it is better to sin by excess.”
The human impact was immediate. In statements to The MailItxaso Etxegarai recounted how her asthmatic daughter lost her appetite and suffered severe headaches, while her eyes stung. For his part, retiree José Taboada had to go look for his wife at work because, after inhaling the air, “he had gotten dizzy” and “had lost consciousness a little.”
Panic also crossed the walls of the refinery. chow to detail The Jumpdozens of contract workers abandoned their jobs on Friday morning. “No one has told us anything clearly. While we are waiting, we are at the site of toxicity,” an operator reported to the BEsuffering from a sore throat. Unions such as LAB and CCOO demanded the paralysis of the plant.
Impunity and legal loopholes. This episode is not an isolated event, but rather the straw that breaks the camel’s back for a population accustomed to living with industrial pollution. In fact, it is the third incident in just two months (in December there was another leak, and this same Sunday an electrical failure caused immense flames and black smoke)
As detailed by the chemist and environmental disseminator Julen Rekondo in COPE chainthe problem lies in a flagrant legal vacuum: Spanish regulations sanction companies if they exceed the annual average of benzene, but does not contemplate punitive limits for sharp point peaks. This allows serious episodes not to count as an infraction.
Neighborhood fatigue. Petronor’s shadow is long. The refinery is responsible of more than 10% of greenhouse gas emissions and Public Health data show that the Muskiz area registers mortality rates from lung cancer between 11% and 45% higher than the Basque average.
Added to this is citizen distrust due to “revolving doors.” The residents gathered this week remembered that former senior officials of the Basque Government, such as Josu Jon Imaz or Iñaki Zudaire, ended up occupying positions of maximum power in Petronor and Repsol, which raises doubts about the rigor of institutional control. To channel this satiety, the neighborhood platform “Las Karreras Variant Stop“has called a protest demonstration for this Sunday, March 1, at 12:00 p.m., demanding real solutions.
The air clears, but the indignation remains. The sirens never sounded, but the silence in Muskiz has been deafening. Although at two in the afternoon on Friday, February 27, the authorities lifted the preventive confinement when benzene stabilized at 2 µg/m³, normality here is a fragile concept. The gas will dissipate with the wind currents, but the uncertainty of living in a chemical Russian roulette remains entrenched in the lungs of a people who demand to stop being the collateral damage of industrial progress.
Image | Zarateman and Gustavo Fring
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