The Jupol union of the National Police denounced in a press release “the “negligence” of General Directorate of Police regarding the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) to national police officers and student police officers displaced in the areas affected by DANA in Valenica, which left 220 dead and several missing.
According to this organization, the agents who work at Ground Zero “do not have any valid protective equipment to be able to carry out the tasks assigned to them”, guarantee your safety and health“.
Furthermore, Jupol reported that it was learned that “the mere provision of this type of protective equipment, is limited to sending a batch of surgical masks expired for more than a year“.
Masks which, in addition to being expired and therefore devoid of protective effectiveness, “would not be those indicated and recommended by the health authorities, who recommend the use of FP2 masks”.
For all this, and since the work of National Police agents began in the areas affected by the DANA and the floods that followed, the Jupol union has requested that “all intervening agents be provided with the means of protection adapted to the conditions of the places where they carry out their work.
These measures would include “PPE coveralls, FP2 masks, protective glasses, latex and/or nitrile gloves and rubber gloves, disposable coveralls and rubber boots“.
Likewise, the union organization also requested “the provision of waterproof pants, which facilitate their cleaning and reuse, as well as the change of uniform clothing.”
According to Jupol sources, The interior has already removed the expired masks that were sentapparently because of an “error”, but the agents still do not have the rest of the necessary equipment to carry out these tasks with all security measures.
Health control
On the other hand, Jupol indicated that it would ask the General Directorate of Police that, “in order to guarantee the health of the agents, the necessary means be put in place to be able to carry out health checks on responding agents“in the reconstruction of the area.
Concretely, Jupol proposes that these checks be carried out “at the moment when they finish their work in the areas concerned and thus avoid the development of possible illnesses and/or infections that they may have contracted during the assigned tasks.
Victims
The total number of deaths recorded due to DANA and the floods that affected the province of Valencia on October 29 increased to 220after the lifting of the lifeless body of a woman in the municipality of Torrent.
For its part, the number of active missing persons reporting files remains at eight, according to the report established by the Data Integration Center (CID).
Autopsies were carried out on the 220 deceased and 219 of them were perfectly identified: 170 by fingerprints, 45 by DNA analysis and 4 by hospital identification during his lifetime. Therefore, the latest death is awaiting identification.
