Asbestos Inspector Sentenced After Making False Statement About Flooring Sample’s Lab Results

An asbestos building inspector was sentenced to three years probation, a $25,500 fine and 100 hours of community service after pleading guilty to making a false statement in a Clean Air Act document, the Department of Justice announced.

Brian Thomas Rogers of Rogers Environmental LLC performed an inspection on a university building in South Carolina in 2018 and stated that the building had no asbestos-containing material, and renovations were cleared to begin.

However, after demos began in June 2018, a subcontractor removing bathroom flooring discovered flooring tile and black mastic under the top layer of flooring that the subcontractor suspected contained asbestos, according to the DOJ. The subcontractor called Rogers back the following day, and Rogers collected two additional samples for testing, reporting the following day that the two additional samples collected also contained no asbestos.

The subcontractor doubted the results, however, and collected two more samples from the same room, sending them to the same lab Rogers used for analysis. “The lab report indicated that asbestos was present in the two samples,” the DOJ stated.

The subcontractor notified the contractor, and a new building inspection company was contacted to collect samples from the entire site, where the amount of asbestos found was approximately 3,620 square feet, according to the DOJ.

Rogers admitted changing the original lab results from 20% asbestos detected to “none detected,” also admitting to emailing multiple false documents to the GC.

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