Testimony concluded Friday in the federal environmental trial of the longtime city manager of Elk City and another city employee.
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City Manager Guy R. Hylton Jr., 54, and city employee Chick Arthur Little, 56, are accused of knowingly using state inmates in 2003 to renovate a historic railroad depot that was filled with asbestos insulation.
Federal prosecutors claim they knowingly placed the inmates in "imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury."
Prosecutors also allege that they tried to cover it up with false statements to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.
A physician who testified for the defendants Friday said the inmates received high doses of asbestos but the duration of the exposure was not enough to cause serious bodily harm.
"There isn't much risk here at all," said Dr. Robert Sawyer, an occupational and preventive medicine specialist. "It's not a big deal."
However, Christopher Weis, a toxicologist for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, testified the inmates could have been exposed to millions of asbestos fibers a day by inhaling dust during the renovation project. Inhalation of these fibers could lead to lung diseases such as fibrosis and mesothelioma.
The inmates came form an eight-man project crew at the state-operated Elk City Community Work Center. Center officials said the asbestos issue first surfaced when an inmate on the crew approached them with concerns.
The Department of Corrections said the crew was pulled off the job after one week.
Inmates complained afterward of rashes and flu- and pneumonia-like symptoms.
Sawyer said the rash could have been caused by "nuisance dust" that was located in thermal insulation in the historic building and not necessarily caused by asbestos exposure.
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