Imagine being someone
unemployed, or maybe an illegal immigrant, or maybe simply someone desperate
for work and getting the opportunity to make some extra money by cleaning out a
warehouse in Philadelphia's Logan section. Could easily happen.
What shouldn't have
happened is what it did happen to those workers. The owner of the building,
Gene Cornell Smith, 46, of Lumberton, Burlington County., knew the building was
full of asbestos, a carcinogen. He even put out a bid for removal. Guess Smith
didn't like the estimate, since he found an associate, Clarence Cole, who was
willing to hire unqualified day laborers to do the job. Neither Cole nor Smith
provided equipment or training to these workers. Tipped off, city officials
ordered Smith to close up the site and hire a qualified contractor. He did not,
and allowed asbestos emissions to continue.
Smith was sentenced to 42
months in prison Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe in
Philadelphia. In January, a jury convicted him of conspiracy and five counts of
violating the Clean Air Act. Cole pleaded guilty in January and was sentenced
in June to 24 months in prison. Federal Superfund money had to be used to
clean up the contamination caused by the illegal work ordered by the two men.
"These defendants
knowingly removed asbestos-containing materials illegally, putting workers and
the general public at great risk," said David G. McLeod, Jr., Special
Agent in Charge of EPA's criminal enforcement program for the Middle Atlantic
States, said in a statement. "The real victims in this case are
neighboring residents who have no way to protect themselves against this type
of environmental crime."
I don't know why McLeod
had to distinguish between the residents and the workers here. Both are victims
-- and in the case of the workers, Cole and Smith knew they were deliberately
putting them directly in harm's way. What will happen to these workers, who are
probably poor and vulnerable if they are working as day laborers, if and when
they get sick?
Source: Philly.com
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