After a decade of fraudulent reporting, three employees of a Utica, New York environmental firm have been found guilty of conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act— the Environmental Protection Agency’s code describing responsibilities for protecting the nation’s air and improving its quality. Nicole Copeland and Elisa Dunn, senior managers at Certified Environmental Services, and Sandy Allen, a CES employee face sentencing on February 25, 2011.
CES operated as an asbestos removal agency, allegedly ridding homes and buildings of the toxic chemical known to cause chronic and fatal respiratory diseases. Once materials containing asbestos have been tampered with, fibers are released and the risk of exposure and inhalation rises. The accused employees hid data and falsified reports; sending workers and families back to their offices and homes at risk from remaining exposed, asbestos dust.
“Falsifying asbestos reports and air quality data is a serious crime and undermines our nation’s efforts to protect human health and the environment,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance in her statement. “Exposure to asbestos can be fatal, and the conviction shows that the American people will not tolerate illegal activity that puts the public at risk of cancer and other serious respiratory diseases.”
Asbestos fibers are believed to be the sole cause of pleural mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lung lining. Mesothelioma can take twenty to thirty years to demonstrate symptoms after initial exposure and is difficult to diagnose. Prognoses are always bleak; patients diagnosed with mesothelioma average an eighteen-month life expectancy. There are no known curative mesothelioma treatments.
Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice, in a press statement, said ““Because of the dishonest and illegal practices of this company, many people were left unaware for years of their possible exposure to asbestos.” He continues, “Companies and employees will be fully investigated and prosecuted when they put the public’s health at risk by violating environmental laws.”
Aapex Environmental and Paragon Environmental, two other asbestos removal companies, have already pleaded guilty to cooperation in the conspiracy. Maximum fines and prison times for CES and its guilty employees are steep. Copeland faces a possible one hundred and ten years and $3 million in fines; Dunn faces a possible forty years with $1.25 million in fines; and Allen a possible fifty years with one million in fines. CES faces a potential $17.5 million in fines and compensation to all victims.
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