Mesothelioma Risk Arises Through Faulty Asbestos Abatement Scheme
An environmental lab in New York was recently indicted for supplying contractors fake test results in an effort to hide shady asbestos removal techniques within homes, colleges and businesses.
The 16-count indictment came from a federal grand jury and accused Certified Environmental Services Inc. of conducting false air quality tests over the past 10 years. It is believed that the false air quality tests enabled contractors to mislead building owners into thinking asbestos was properly and fully removed.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Benedict said, “The air monitors were giving them false air results to cover up rip-and-runs. Laboratory reports were being generated and given to building owners to tell them that there was at or below detectable levels in their buildings. In other words, ‘It’s clean. You can go back in.’ In a lot of instances, that was utterly not so.”
A total of five Certified Environmental Services employees have been named in the indictment and the company was charged with Clean Air Act violations, mail fraud and making false statements to special agents of the Environmental Protection Agency.
The locations where asbestos was purposely left behind include a sorority house at Syracuse University, a furniture warehouse, the building housing Syracuse television station WSTM, a medical office building, a reading room at the Kellogg Library in Cincinnatus and a Jobs Corps building in Oneonta.
The charges against the five employees and Certified Environmental Services stem from the hazardous nature of asbestos. Failure to properly remove asbestos-containing materials can lead to asbestos exposure, which is noted to cause lung cancer, asbestosis and mesothelioma.
Mesothelioma is particularly harmful due to the severe latency period of symptoms, ranging anywhere between 20 and 50 years. In most cases, mesothelioma patients are diagnosed when the disease has already reached the advanced stages of development because symptoms are often confused with other, less serious illnesses.
In addition, the indictment stated Certified Environmental Services falsified lab reports and air tests for about 30 other properties in Central New York. Benedict said Certified Environmental Services participated with multiple contractors in central New York, but declined to say how many. The other contractors involved in the scheme have not been charged.
Additional information about mesothelioma may be found through the Mesothelioma Cancer Center.
