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Reno: Homeless, others exploited in hazardous jobs
April 24, 1998
Reno
Web posted at: 12:16 p.m. EDT (1616 GMT)WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno on Friday stepped up her agency's fight against the "criminal" and "cruel" labor practice of hiring homeless men and others to remove toxic asbestos and do other hazardous jobs without proper training and equipment.
She said there have been a series of incidents in which homeless men, teen-agers or workers hired by the day were used to carry out hazardous jobs, such as stripping asbestos from buildings. Asbestos is a hazardous substance known to cause cancer in humans. (
281K/24 sec. AIFF or WAV sound)
Reno announced the indictments of three contractors in Madison, Wisconsin, on charges of improperly removing asbestos from a manufacturing plant. The contractors "transported untrained homeless men from a Tennessee soup kitchen to Wisconsin and used them to remove asbestos," she said.
Friday's news conference
10 min. 30 sec. VXtreme video
The indictment also included charges that the contractors fraudulently used other people's social security numbers for the homeless men, so they could carry out the asbestos removal.
Federal authorities have tightly regulated the removal of asbestos, which Reno described as a "deadly pollutant."
"Knowingly removing asbestos improperly is criminal. Exploiting the homeless and other vulnerable people to do this is simply cruel," Reno said at a news conference in Washington.
"That's why we are so serious about stopping this type of crime and preventing it from happening elsewhere."
A worker, wearing protective clothing, removes asbestos The Wisconsin case is the latest in a series of such incidents that have been reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In January, the owners of a warehouse in Miami were sentenced to five months in prison for illegally using homeless men to strip 1,600 square feet of asbestos ceiling. The men, who had no special training or equipment, apparently were unaware of the dangers posed to their health.
"You might be able to get away with one exposure and not have any negative results, but we cannot guarantee that. And the more often you are exposed, the higher your likelihood of developing cancer," the EPA's Cindy Fraleigh told CNN.
It is common practice for homeless people to be recruited to do unskilled work, even though some of it is clearly dangerous, authorities said. The reason is simple: The homeless are anxious to work and accept low pay.
But federal agencies hope their increased vigilance and aggressive prosecutions will help stop such abusive, hazardous practices. Reno appealed to the public to notify authorities if they learn about such incidents.
Correspondent Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report.
Related sites:
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- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Occupational Safety & Health Administration
- American Lung Association - Asbestos
- Welcome to the Asbestos Institute
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