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Holy Sheet Get the Asbestos Insulation Out of the Church
By asbestoshub | August 11, 2008
According to the New Jersey State Attorney General’s Office, 51-year-old Tyrone Maple pleaded guilty in July 2008 to unsafely removing asbestos from a Paterson, N.J., church, releasing hazardous dust and debris into areas that included a day care center.
According to the state Attorney General’s Office, Mr. Maple, of Bronx, NY, faces three years in state prison after pleading guilty to knowingly causing the release of asbestos.
Mr. Maple removed asbestos insulation at Friendship Baptist Church, 433 Park Ave., without a license and without observing federal and state laws intended to protect health and safety, according to officials. An area of the church leased by Whole New World Daycare was affected.
A probe by the state Division of Criminal Justice Environmental Crimes Bureau found that Mr. Maple, a church member who worked as a boiler repairman in New York, was not licensed to perform the work.
Nonetheless, Mr. Maple contracted with the church to remove the asbestos insulation from the church’s basement for $6,200.00 and performed the work in December 2007. That work entailed removing asbestos insulation from steam pipes so they could be safely repaired.
Complaints by a congregation member led to the church hiring an air monitoring firm in February 2008. Elevated levels of asbestos were discovered throughout the first floor of the building, including the area leased to the daycare center.
The church and center were then shut for several days while the asbestos dust was removed by a licensed asbestos abatement contractor.
Peter Aseltine, spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, said he could not comment on the health risk posed to occupants of the building. However, he noted that the elevated levels of asbestos in the building existed during a period of under two months before being discovered and remedied.
State Attorney General Anne Milgram said, “This crime could have posed serious health risks for the young children in that daycare center. To turn a profit, this defendant took chances with families who had few affordable alternatives for child care.”
Topics: Exposure |
