MIAMI, United States.- CubaNet spoke this afternoon with Cuban doctor Alexander Figueredo about the health consequences of the fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base, which has kept the country on edge since Friday, August 5.
The cloud of pollutants that surrounds that province, and that has already reached Havana and Mayabeque, can cause a series of diseases and ailments in the short, medium and long term in Cubans, and the regime has not addressed the issue with the responsibility it requires, warns the doctor.
For Figueredo, little has been reported in the official press about what should be done, and in reality he considers that many more people should be evacuated from areas surrounding the incident.
“The dictatorship is not giving the exact measures on what Cubans should do,” said Figueredo, and he also warned that this fire is going to have a great impact on the environment and on the water and soil, and that the consequences will be seen in the future. short, medium and long term.
“Environmental contamination of this nature brings health complications, mainly in the respiratory tract,” explained Dr. Figueredo.
Asthmatics are the most affected by this situation, and the repercussion is immediate, also for those who suffer from chronic respiratory diseases.
“In the long term it can cause pneumonia and lung cancer, which can be a little later. Cardiovascular, nervous system, liver, and kidney diseases can also appear in the long term, ”Fuigueredo told journalist Camila Acosta during an interview.
The acid rains caused by these black clouds also contaminate the soil, the doctor called attention to the apparent calm shown by the island’s regime.
For them, he assured, the priority is to maintain “an image of calm, and to show that nothing has happened to international public opinion, when we are really talking about something of great importance.”
Dr. Alexander Figueredo, who arrived in the United States just a few weeks ago, after a journey of more than three months through Central America, also said that the surgical masks that the Cuban government has suggested using to protect oneself from the polluting gases of the fire actually “They are not good for this type of contamination.”
We all know that there is nothing in Cuba, he lamented, but “the masks that should be used in this situation are the N-95, professional, and they are the ones used internationally.”
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