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MASSACHUSETTS MAN SENTENCED FOR ILLEGAL ASBESTOS REMOVAL
Release Date: 11/04/99
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FOR RELEASE: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1999
MASSACHUSETTS MAN SENTENCED FOR
ILLEGAL ASBESTOS REMOVAL
ILLEGAL ASBESTOS REMOVAL
John Dawson of New Haven, Conn. was sentenced on Oct. 28, to serve 13 months in prison and required to pay a $10,000 fine by the U.S. District Court in New Haven. Dawson previously pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Air Act in connection with the illegal removal of asbestos-containing material during the conversion of a former YMCA building in New Haven into an apartment development in 1997. The defendant used untrained and undocumented workers from Mexico to remove asbestos from boilers, piping and floor coverings at the building. The workers were locked in the building and were not provided with equipment to protect them from inhaling asbestos fibers and asbestos fibers were released into the air at the construction site where workers and others could inhale them. Inhalation of asbestos fibers can cause lung cancer. Asbestos filled garbage bags were also illegally disposed of in various locations around New Haven. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut.
R-137 ###
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