Earlier this year, a New York factory owner admitted to allowing his untrained workers to work with asbestos material thus subjecting them to asbestos exposure.

Recently, Anastasios “Taso” K., 32, was sentenced to two years of probation, 150 hours of community service and fined $15,000.

Why is Asbestos Exposure Harmful?

Asbestos
is a mineral that came into widespread use around the turn of the 20th century. It was very useful as fireproofing material and then later as insulation in many different applications.

However, early on medical researchers noticed that workers who worked with asbestos had greater health problems than those who did not. Asbestos exposure is connected to various lung diseases, like asbestos lung cancer and asbestosis.

Asbestos was gradually phased out and then banned in the 1980s following more widespread information on exposure and asbestos cancer risk. However, asbestos is still a part of many older buildings.

Additionally,  if a worker has had asbestos exposure, it can take many years for an illness to develop.

Because asbestos is made up of very small fibers, they can be inhaled. The microscopic asbestos fibers can stay airborne for a long time and when originally inhaled, make breathing very difficult.

When those asbestos fibers are inhaled or swallowed, they become trapped in the lungs or the soft tissues of the abdomen, increasing the potential for asbestos cancer risk.

The body cannot easily expel the fibers, so someone who has suffered from asbestos exposure can reap a whole host of asbestos related illnesses. Those lodged fibers irritate the soft tissue which leads to scarring. This can eventually cause lung cancer from asbestos or mesothelioma.

Annually, 2,000 to 3,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer from asbestos which is a rare lung cancer that is almost always caused by asbestos exposure. In addition to that, about the same amount of Americans die from asbestos-related lung disease each year.

It is estimated that about 200,000 people living in the U.S are suffering from the inflammatory lung condition known as absestosis.

Asbestos Exposure in a New York Factory

When workers work with asbestos, there are many precautions that should be taken. However, Anastasios did not train his workers on how to safely work with asbestos and therefore subjected them to asbestos exposure.

Regulations protect individuals who need to work around asbestos from asbestos exposure. Employers are required to let their employees know that there is a presence of asbestos and they must provide protective gear.

In 2011, an inspector with the New York State Department of Labor, Asbestos Control Bureau visited Anastasios’ factory after receiving a complaint.

That inspector witnessed large amounts of a fibrous material inside and near a dumpster which was later found to contain asbestos. The employees that were working with the fibrous material did not have protective gear on.

Authorities secured the area and arranged to further investigate the warehouse. They found many other violations regarding asbestos abatement and other safety violations.

One worker was only 16 years old. Other workers told investigators they were not provided with protective gear nor given training on how to safely work with asbestos.

The workers also said that Anastasios paid them to remove the material because a container company would not agree to do it.