March 16th, 2008

A contractor that left a worksite while asbestos was being removed has been sentenced to home confinement and a fine. The man was working on a Pennsylvania elementary school when the incident occurred.

A man accused of leaving his workers at a site without supervision plead guilty this week in a case involving asbestos exposure at a Pennsylvania elementary school. The man was alleged to have left the renovation site of the school knowing that his workers would not complete the work correctly, putting the public at risk of asbestos exposure. The man was sentenced to six months home confinement, 50 hours of community service and he must reimburse a company $6,097 for the cleanup of asbestos released at the site as a result of the unsupervised work.

The man was potentially putting the public at danger, since asbestos can be deadly if it is disturbed. When doing construction in an area containing asbestos, the area must be sealed from the public and workers must follow strict guidelines for handling or removing the substance. Only workers with abatement licenses are allowed to remove asbestos in order to reduce the chance of asbestos-related diseases, like mesothelioma, occurring. Mesothelioma is a form of lung cancer that results from asbestos fibers being stuck in the lungs. Officials did not have any reason to believe that the work put the public in danger of asbestos exposure.