Company sentenced, pleads guilty after indictment on worker safety, illegal asbestos in New Bedford, Fall River, Dartmouth

BOSTON/FALL RIVER — An environmental services company has pled guilty in connection with worker safety violations and illegal asbestos work allegations.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell announced in April of 2023 that Franklin Analytical Services, Inc. of Marion and its owners, Thomas J. McCoog, Sr. and Amy Franklin McCoog, also of Marion, were indicted by a statewide grand jury on 32 counts each of violating the Massachusetts Clean Air Act. The company and Thomas McCoog were also charged with one count each of reckless assault and battery causing serious bodily injury after an asbestos worker fell several stories through a roof after being repeatedly denied protective safety equipment. 

According to the Attorney General’s Office, all parties were sentenced to two years of probation. Additionally, the judge imposed a special condition of probation to ban the defendants from engaging in asbestos abatement in Massachusetts. The parties are also banned from supervising any Massachusetts worksite without completing an engineering survey and complying with OSHA regulations on fall protection equipment. The total fine amount is $293,750.

The AG’s Office alleged that the defendants conducted illegal asbestos work at sites that included former industrial and construction sites in New Bedford, Fall River, Dartmouth, and North Andover, and illegally transported uncovered asbestos waste through Brockton, West Bridgewater and Bridgewater while en route to illegally disposing of asbestos waste at a recycling center in Stoughton.

Asbestos is a hazardous material and known human carcinogen regulated under the Clean Air Act. It is used as fire proofing in a wide variety of building materials, from roofing and flooring, to siding and wallboard, to caulking and insulation. and is especially prevalent in older construction. If asbestos is improperly handled or maintained, fibers can be released into the air and inhaled, devastating the lungs, causing scarring, malfunction and potentially life-threatening illnesses, including asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma. Once disturbed, asbestos fibers can remain airborne, and therefore breathable for up to 72 hours. Because of the serious health risks associated with asbestos, there is no safe level of exposure.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection requires builders to conduct a professional asbestos survey prior to any demolition or renovation work, to notify MassDEP before working with any asbestos-containing material, and to carefully remove, wet, seal, and otherwise contain any asbestos-containing material to prevent the release of asbestos fibers into the air. Building sites and equipment must be carefully cleaned. Once removed, asbestos must be transported and disposed of at a special landfill.

The charges are the result of an investigation by the Massachusetts Environmental Crimes Strike Force, an interagency unit that includes prosecutors from the AG’s Office, Environmental Police Officers assigned to the AG’s Office, and investigators and engineers from MassDEP. The Strike Force is overseen by AG Campbell, MassDEP Commissioner Bonnie Heiple and Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper and investigates and prosecutes crimes that harm the state’s water, air, land or that pose a significant threat to human health, safety, welfare or the environment.

This case is being handled by David Wittenberg, Deputy Chief of the AGO’s Environmental Crimes Strike Force (ECSF), represented the Commonwealth in the prosecution with the assistance of Massachusetts Environmental Police detectives, MassDEP, the Department of Labor Standard, and the AGO’s Fair Labor Division, including Assistant Attorney General Amy Goyer and Investigator Greg Reutlinger.