FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         ENR
TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1995                           (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888
 FLORIDA MANUFACTURING COMPANY FINED $1.5 MILLION FOR ILLEGAL
      TOXIC WASTE DISPOSAL THAT LED TO DEATHS OF TWO BOYS


     WASHINGTON, D.C. --  A Tampa, Florida manufacturing company
today was fined a statutory maximum $1.5 million for the illegal
disposal of toxic wastes that led to the deaths of two nine-year-old boys. 

     Previously, the plant manager and shop foreman of the
company, the William Recht Co., were sentenced to 27 months in
prison for their role in the disposal of the waste.

     The company does business as Durex Industries Inc.  It
makes rollers for the printing press industry.  In June 1992, the
two boys climbed into a dumpster outside the plant and were
overcome by toxic fumes from toluene wastes, a cleaning solvent,
which the company had been unlawfully disposing of in the
dumpster.

     On July 13, 1994, the company became the first corporate
defendant to ever plead guilty to a charge of knowing
endangerment under the Resource, Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA), the federal law that regulates the handling and disposal
of hazardous waste.  The two individuals, William and Duane
Whitman, were convicted on July 28 of illegal treatment, storage
and disposal of a hazardous waste.

     Today's sentence was imposed in U.S. District court in
Tampa.  In addition to the $1.5 million penalty, the company was
placed on five years probation and ordered to develop an
effective environmental compliance program.  

     The case was investigated jointly by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and the Environmental Protection Agency and was
prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis I. Moore and Special
Assistant U.S. Attorney W. Bruce Pasfield, U.S. Department of
Justice, Environmental Crimes Section.  

                              # # #
95-001