After a report from the Detroit Free Press exposed a problem with lax punishment for asbestos violators, the state of Michigan’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration is going to ramp up their efforts to protect workers from asbestos hazards and other hazards that are common to demolition sites.

The Michigan OSHA (MIOSHA) branch has announced that for the next year they are going to increase unannounced inspections at demolition sites around the state, and they say it is in part because that article highlighted just how bad the problem is. Workers who were working around high levels of asbestos were not given the right protective gear and some were not even told there was asbestos present.

The paper uncovered the fact that there were 4,000 asbestos violations in Michigan between 2009 and 2016, and in two-thirds of those instances there were no fines issued. No serious violation incurred the maximum fine of $7,000, and no repeat or willful violation got the maximum penalty of $70,000. A spokeswoman from MIOSHA, Tanya Baker, said she did not think the newspaper’s numbers accurately reflected what was going on as they looked at every violation individually and the agency sometimes grouped related violations and only handed out one fine to the group. However other former OSHA officials said they would never group violations, and if penalties were really going to be used as a serious deterrent they should be handed out individually.

The Detroit Free Press also reported that certain Michigan companies were employing teenagers, immigrants, ex-cons, or homeless people to do asbestos removal. The paper said those people might not know who to complain to or might even be too afraid to complain about unsafe working conditions.

MIOSHA has assigned six inspectors to visit at least 20 sites around the state to make sure they are following the proper safety procedures.