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November 25th, 2005
The federal government in the United States has expressed concern over whether proper rules and regulations have been followed by the DC Government in relation to the removal of asbestos at a Northeast site. This comes after one of the district regulators was found guilty of bribery and extortion in relation to asbestos regulations.
Forty-three year old Jeffrey DeWhite Edwards was found to have offered to be less stringent on asbestos regulations to a contractor in exchange for $10,000 in cash. However, the contractor then contacted authorities to tell them about the bribe offered to them by the asbestos regulator.
Officials now say that identifying any issues could take years, and that any resulting health problems with local residents could take many years to surface. One official stated: "While reasonable people may differ on what form of containment, if any, should have been erected at the Benning Road site, it may be years from now when we are able to state whether non-friable procedures would or did cause any actual health risk to workers or citizens who lived nearby."
He added: "It may never be known, and the government did not seek to prove, whether the defendant was right when he said, in the first instance, that demolition could not be performed safely without full containment."
