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December 30, 2013
Chattanooga, Tennessee - On December 23, a federal appeals court upheld the 2012 convictions of James Mathis and Donald Fillers. Both Mathis and Fillers were convicted of conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act in 2012, when improper methods were used to dispose of asbestos during the demolition of a textile mill. As a result, the asbestos became airborne, increasing the potential for exposure.
The defendants’ challenge was that there was inadequate evidence to convict them of the charges, but several witnesses attested to the air contamination in the area, and many testified that they had seen asbestos littered around the site.
The ruling also affirms Fillers’s four-year prison sentence and $20,000 fine, as well as Mathis’s 18-month sentence. Fillers was given a heftier punishment because, as the court put it, he “knowingly acted with others to unlawfully remove asbestos from the site.” The violations include failure to wet the hazardous material and failure to contain and dispose of the material in a timely fashion.
Mathis acted fraudulently by assisting Fillers in the unlawful activity. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must be notified of any demolition activity ten days before the work begins, and one of the requirements is a description of the amount and location of asbestos. Mathis broke the law when he agreed to file a false notice, prosecutors said, since the notice gave an inaccurate estimation of the amount of asbestos at the site.
Asbestos exposure can lead to numerous types of health problems, including several cancers, such as mesothelioma. There are very specific procedures for the safe and lawful removal and disposal of the hazardous material that can be performed by an asbestos abatement professional.
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