Several federal and state complaints against asbestos-abatement and demolition firms operating in Massachusetts have sprouted in the wake of the region’s construction boom. Involving mostly small companies and immigrant workers, the cases allege wage and benefit violations as well as improper exposure to asbestos fibers, which contain cancer-causing carcinogens.
Registered asbestos-abatement jobs climbed to more than 25,000 in 2016, a 64% increase in five years, according to Massachusetts Dept. of Environmental Protection statistics. MassDEP also conducted more than two times as many inspections in 2016 than in the previous year.