The 43 year old owner of a demolition company licensed for asbestos abatement has been sentenced to just over a year in prison and fined $1,000 for negligently abandoning asbestos safe-handling regulations. The sentence, passed by the U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell, is one of the first of its kind and may constitute the beginning of a firmer stance on safe asbestos handling procedures.
Scott Tucker, the owner of H & M Demolition Company based out of Holland, Michigan, demolished a condemned lumber mill without heeding the special precautions prescribed for buildings containing asbestos products. While state and federal regulations state that known asbestos contaminated products should be kept consistently wet and removed gently by hand to avoid producing airborne asbestos fibers, Scott had his team demolish tons of dry asbestos wall-board with an excavator. The debris was then transported to a cement recycling facility where it was processed alongside normal cement debris.
Asbestos regulations in the United States were developed to help the nation avoid the dangerous illnesses that can result from prolonged exposure to asbestos fibers. Asbestos products were used fervently throughout much of the twentieth century due to their cost efficiency, excellent insulating properties, and incredible fire retardation. Nowadays, however, it is known that accidentally breathing or ingesting microscopic asbestos fibers can lead to terrible diseases like mesothelioma, an aggressive and terminal cancer.
Plenty of asbestos still exists in buildings across America, but it’s not lying still in buildings where it produces the most serious threat. Only during renovation or demolition efforts does asbestos become truly dangerous, as it releases its toxic fibers into the air when crushed, broken, or otherwise aggravated.
Tucker’s failure to enforce the proper asbestos handling procedures in spite of having received the correct training knowingly put his employees, the employees of the recycling plant where H & M Demolition hauled the dangerous material, and the residents of nearby neighborhoods in harm’s way.
In the past violations of this sort have been punished almost entirely with fines, contracting license revocations, and other similar methods. U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell, however, was determined to send a message to would be asbestos regulation violators about the seriousness of negligence when it comes to toxic substances. Sentencing Tucker to more than a year in prison in addition to a $1,000 fine did just that.
“I am convinced that the message has to be sent out to the larger community,” he said. “This is not to be tolerated. This is also way out of bounds.”
