There are 33 specific recommendations in the report designed tostrengthen agencies' inspection practices, increase notificationsand data-sharing between agencies, and improve the safety ofabatement and demolition operations. The report refamiliarizesagency enforcement efforts to focus on a shared set of fire-safetyand life-safety concerns, regardless of which City agency isworking at a site.

Bloomberg said at a press conference that "asbestos abatement,construction and demolition work have their own inherent risks,especially when they intersect. After months of exhaustive analysisand review, the group I asked Ed Skyler to convene to review thisissue developed 33 recommendations to strengthen agency practicesand improve safety, and today, I am accepting them in full."

Last fall, a working group of City agencies began its review ofthe regulation of demolition and abatement operations, agencypractices regarding enforcement, and the way these operations arecarried out in the field. The working group draws members from theDepartments of Buildings, Environmental Protection, and Fire, aswell as from the Mayor's Office of Operations and the LawDepartment. The City has already begun to implement some of therecommendations in the report immediately, and will work withindustry stake holders and others to implement all 33recommendations as quickly as possible. The recommendations fallinto three groups: abatement operations; demolition operations; andinspections conducted by FDNY, DEP and DOB.