MTA Depot Workers Exposed To Asbestos In East New York: Report

EAST NEW YORK, NY — Transit workers at an East New York bus facility could have been exposed to asbestos for years, the Daily News reported on Monday.

The lion's share of vents in the bottom three floors of the depot, where more than 1,000 people work, has for decades been home to asbestos-laced cloth that line them, the News reported. The asbestos was found earlier this year, but the News few MTA workers who work there have been informed of it.

The bus depot—where 700 bus operators and hundreds of other employees work— was built in 1947, a couple decades before people stopped using asbestos to line air-regulating equipment in the '70s, according to the News.

In addition to MTA workers, roughly 20 high school students who intern at the facility may have been exposed as well, sources told the News. Exposure to asbestos can cause cancer or asbestosis, a lung disease.

"It's pumping throughout the entire East New York building," an anonymous engineer said of the dangerous material. "They can mitigate this issue quickly and clean it up, but they won't do the work. "

Borough President Eric Adams, a mayoral candidate, blasted the MTA, and likened the situation to the authority using diesel buses in low-income neighborhoods —a practice he has criticized in the past.

"The negligence cannot continue," he told the News. "First it was dirty diesel buses polluting the air, now it's dirt clothes on air vents exposing workers to asbestos."