Borough Hall Renovation Crew Claims Asbestos Exposure

By Alison Gonzalez

Published on September 25, 2007

The crew, made up of two correction officers and six inmates from the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility, had been tearing up carpet and floor tiles in the ground floor's Topographical Unit.

According to Paul Zanelli, an officer on the scene, the workers were never warned of any danger nor were they offered dust masks for protection, even though at one point it became so dusty in the room that the inmates were choking and the air conditioner had to be turned on.

It wasn't until several hours later that Nicholas Dmytryszyn, an environmental worker on the scene, told the officers the tile might contain a dangerously high level of asbestos.

Later tests showed the floor tiles contained 4.3 percent asbestos by weight, more than four times the amount of asbestos that requires the hazardous material only be removed by specially licensed engineers.

Since the incident was reported, Zanelli was ordered not to take the crew back to the building. Instead, they have been picking up trash along the highway.

The $1.3 million renovation project on the French Renaissance-style building was completed this summer and is currently open for business.

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