ALBANY, New York - Wanda Fay Scheler intends to file another appeal after the Department of Environmental Quality ruled that she must pay over $8,000 for violating Albany asbestos regulations.

Back in August, Scheler hired two workers to do some renovations at her 3755 Knot Butte Road rental property. The workers were supposed to paint, said Scheler, but they “pulled off a few shingles at the top of the house”. The DEQ didn’t view things quite so casually.

According to the complaint filed with the DEQ, the “few shingles” that workers removed just under 300 square feet of siding. They also removed an old stovepipe, and put the siding into trash bags, then put the trash bags into dumpsters.

On August 16, DEQ staff was expecting the property and noticed some pieces of siding scattered along the sides of the building, and saw that the insulation tape around the old stove pipe was “in very poor condition”.

The DEQ inspectors took samples from the two materials and had them analyzed at a laboratory. The samples taken from the siding debris proved to contain 10 percent chrysotile asbestos. The insulation tape contained 50 percent. Both contained well over the 1% asbestos rule followed by the DEQ - any material that contains more than 1% asbestos is regulated by the DEQ, who lay out specific guidelines for removal, handling and disposal.

Asbestos is a hazardous substance that separates into microscopic fibers when it is disturbed or broken. This property made it a very popular addition to many kinds of building materials for most of the last century. One of those material was asbestos cement, which was widely used as siding because it was lightweight, easy to install and nearly indestructible.

Unfortunately, when the siding is drilled, cut, sawed or broken, the tiny asbestos fibers are released into the air. Even tiny amounts of airborne asbestos can be a major public health hazard. Breathed in, the microscopic fibers can lodge in the lungs and other tissues, lying in wait for decades before causing mesothelioma, asbestosis, asbestos cancer, or lung cancer.

Tens of thousands of workers who installed asbestos siding and roofing tiles or worked with asbestos in other capacities have become ill with these deadly diseases, and many of them have died. The EPA lays out national regulations for the handling of asbestos, but state and local environmental agencies often place further restrictions on the handling of asbestos within their boundaries. Careful handling and appropriate precautions greatly reduce the risk of releasing asbestos fibers into the air.

According to DEQ inspectors in this case, the workers took no precautions when removing asbestos from Scheler’s building. Instead, they broke the siding when they removed it from the home and left debris openly lying around. The DEQ charged that the workers didn’t label and package the asbestos containing waste material properly. All asbestos containing waste and debris is supposed to be packaged in leak-tight containers and labeled to identify the contents as asbestos.

Scheler was fined for allowing unlicensed and untrained persons to remove asbestos and improperly dispose of it. She plans to appeal again.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 5:08 pm and is filed under Asbestos Exposure, Asbestos Litigation, New York. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.