Brussels gave Spain an ultimatum in December 2025: transpose the European directive on asbestos or face the EU Court of Justice. The Ministry of Labor has spent months finalizing a royal decree that will tighten the rules for any company that could come into contact with this material.
Why Spain is under European pressure
The EU directive on protecting workers from asbestos was supposed to be in force in Spain since December 2024. It was not. Brussels sent a formal notice with a two-month deadline to respond, under threat of referral to the Court of Justice.
This is not a minor formality. In 2021, Spain was the fourth EU country with the most work-related deaths attributed to asbestos: 212 deaths out of 2,380 across the whole Union. Only Italy, Germany, and France recorded more.
What changes with the new royal decree
The Ministry of Labor's draft introduces changes that directly affect the operations of any company that works with, or in, buildings that may contain asbestos:
New exposure limits. Measurement will no longer be done with optical microscopy, but with electron microscopy, which detects much finer and more dangerous fibers.
Mandatory inventory in buildings prior to 2002. If you manage industrial facilities, warehouses or plants from that era, you need to identify if there is asbestos before any intervention.
Priority to safe removal over encapsulation. Covering asbestos is no longer the default option.
Guaranteed grooming time: 10 minutes before each meal and 10 when leaving work for employees in exposure areas.
Expansion of recognized pathologies, including ovarian cancer as a disease derived from asbestos.
Strengthening the health registry of exposed public health workers.
Which sectors have the greatest exposure
Around 2,700 companies have carried out or are carrying out activities with exposure risk since 2004, and close to 70,000 workers have been or are in contact with these fibers, according to the Epidemiological Surveillance Programme.
Construction and rehabilitation of buildings prior to 2002.
Naval and railway industry.
Industrial plants with old installations: pipes, insulation, covers.
Maintenance of logistics warehouses and factories built before the 2000s.
Three steps your company can take now
The royal decree has no official approval date, but the European deadline is already running. Waiting for it to come into force before acting is the most common mistake — and the most expensive one.
Audit your facilities. If you operate in buildings built before 2002, commission an inventory of asbestos-containing materials now. The assessment process takes time, and the obligation will arrive all at once.
Review your measurement protocol. If you use optical microscopy, that method will stop being valid. Contact your external prevention service to adapt the procedure before it's required of you.
Document and record in real time. The new decree strengthens documentary control over exposed workers. An up-to-date record — not just on paper — makes the difference during an inspection.
Documentation is where companies fail
Asbestos is a known risk, but the documentary management of exposure remains the weak point in many industrial plants. Recording who was exposed, when, and at what concentration values is what separates compliance from a penalty.
Safe records every intervention in risk zones with visual evidence, tracks the workers involved, and generates the documentary history you need to demonstrate compliance to the ITSS.Request a demo and see how it works in your plant.