Environmental Testing Fraud

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  Jan, 2001  by Jule Klotter

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In September 2000, a US federal grand jury charged five supervisors and eight chemists at Intertek's environmental testing laboratory in Richardson, Texas, with fraud. Government prosecutors say that test results were falsified and laboratory equipment used to measure toxins was poorly maintained in management's drive for higher profits. Intertek Testing Services Ltd. of London, which owns the lab, is not named in the indictment. However, its vice president for North America, Martin Dale Jeffus, is. According to The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Jeffus is charged with having "personally directed and trained technicians to falsify results to meet customers' quality-control specifications." Federal prosecutors claim that the results of 59,000 projects, involving up to 250,000 soil, water, and air samples, are in question. At this time, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agrees with Intertek's claim that the falsifications have not threatened human health.

Intertek claims that "whatever data manipulation it did was inconsequential and was meant merely to tidy up the presentation of results to meet customers' expectations." In order to rectify the situation, the corporation wants to "revalidate" the toxicity results by returning to raw test data and adjusting the results to compensate for the laboratory's failure to clean and calibrate its equipment. Although Intertek closed its Texas environmental lab in 1998, it still has several units in the US that specialize in testing products and commodities.

EPA officials say that laboratory fraud is increasing.

"Intertek Lab Fudged Thousands of Tests, An Indictment Says" by Peter Waldman and Jim Carolton. The Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2000.

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