Man sentenced 10 years for asbestos crimes

A man from Illinois has been given a 10-year prison sentence for illegally removing asbestos as well as exposing workers to it.

Duane O'Malley, 59, of Bourbonnais was convicted back on September 26, 2001 for illegally removing, handling and disposing of asbestos from a building in Kankakee in August of 2009. According to ENS, on July 26, 2012, a Federal District Court Judge, Michael McCuskey, decided to hand down a sentence of 10 years in prison to O'Malley. O'Malley was also ordered to pay $47,086 in restitution to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for cleanup efforts of the asbestos. O'Malley was also slapped with a fine of $15,000. According to Mesothelioma, O'Malley had workers from his company, Origin Fire Protection, remove asbestos insulation from the building but the workers did not use proper methods to remove it. The workers placed the asbestos in bags that were not marked and then the bags were dumped in an open field, where the general public could access the debris. Some people of the public may have been exposed to the asbestos fibers, which in turn could cause cancer. According to Rockford Register Star, U.S attorney Jim Lewis said that O'Malley did not care about the health of his own employees when he ordered them to remove the asbestos. Lewis went onto say that O'Malley just wanted to increase his profits and that he also disregarded the health of the general public.