Certified Industrial Hygienist OSHA Expert Witness

Summary of Qualifications & Professional Experience

Toxic Torts

• Acrylates
• Aromatic HC Exposure
• Asbestos
• Carbon Monoxide
• Silica/Particulate
• Sulfur Dioxide
• Hydrogen Sulfide
• Monte Carlo Analysis

Construction

• Compressed Gases
• Crane Accidents
• Falls from Height
• Heat Stress
• Heavy Equip
• Multi-employer Worksites
• Trench Safety
• Welding/ Electrical/Fire

Industrial

• Confined Spaces
• Industrial Trucks/ Forklifts
• Machine Guarding
• Rail Car Tank Explosions
• Refinery Accidents
• Vacuum Trucks
• Walking/Working Surfaces
• Warning Labels

Specialized

• Chain of Responsibility
• Chem/Particulate Exposure on Barges
• Failure to Warn
• N.O.R.M.* *Naturally-Occurring Radioactive Materials
• OSHA/Safety Training
• Retroactive Exposure Estimates
• Risk Probability/ Causation
• Visual Perception

General

• Flammable Storage
• Illumination
• Lifting Injuries
• Retail Safety
• Slip/Fall
• Stairs/Railing
• Tripping Hazards
• Willful/Gross Negligence

Specialist in Industrial Safety and Health/Exposure Assessment. More than 35 years of experience and proven expertise in technical consultation; litigation support; onsite health, safely, and environmental evaluation; building microclimate surveys; commercial site assessments; and retrospective quantitative exposure assessments.
Certified Safety Professional
Certified Industrial Hygienist
International: inspections in Mexico, Estonia, Latvia, and Tataria.
Testifying expert in more than 120 federal and state cases since 1984.

Areas of Expertise

Safety: Accident investigation, construction, cranes, electrical, elevated platforms, falls from height, forklifts and industrial trucks, HazCom, heat stress, illumination, job safety analysis, lab safety, machine guarding, oil rig safety, product design, rail tank car chemical release, rail chemical safety, safety communication, scaffolds, tank cleaning, toxic waste, job safety training, trench safety, vacuum trucks, walking-working surfaces, welding safety.

Industrial hygiene. Air flow and dispersion, asbestos, aspergillosis on offshore rigs, barge exposures, chemical exposure calculations, chemical safety, ergonomics, furnace defects, labeling and readability, lifting injuries (NIOSH), mold, naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM), particulates, risk simulation using Palisade @Risk software, silica, toxic exposure assessment, visual perception.

Workplace sociology. Causation, chain of responsibility, administrative procedures, human factors, information flow, management of change, multi-employer worksites, organizational analysis.

OSHA/NIOSH/ANSI standards. Respiratory protection, toxic exposure, and safety standards. CSHO protocols. Issues related to the OSHA Field Operations Manual, e.g., willful citation criteria.

Exposure Assessments. Estimates using regional values and calculated with Monte Carlo simulation models. Exposure estimates obtained using quantitative and statistical techniques that meet or exceed requirements of the Daubert standard. Where appropriate, toxic exposure causation likelihood is calculated using Austin Bradford Hall criteria.

Recent Experience (2009–2018)

• Chemical Exposure Analysis
• Performed Monte Carlo statistical analysis of 1.8 million OSHA sample events for 524 chemicals and particulate to help determine likely parameters of workplace exposures
• Analyzed community exposure event associated with emissions from a railroad tank car
• Evaluated particulate exposures associated with NORM
• Evaluated radioisotope data versus specific International Classification of Disease (ICD) groups using advanced data modeling software (MARS,
• Random Forest, and TreeNet) and cluster analysis programs Systat 13 and Statistica 10
• Assessed exposure to asbestos, benzene, ethyl acrylate, ethyl methacrylate (sensitization), and silica

Safety Investigations

• Marine hanging staged suspended scaffold collapse (shipyard)
• Separator tank cleaning operation involving a vacuum truck
• Explosive gases found in municipal water storage tank
• Front-end loader fatality at rock crushing plant
• Welding / heat stress / impact injury
• Improper labeling and failure to warn involving a grain storage facility and truck operations
• Material handling protocols at multiple establishments
• Explosion/fire in confined space operation
• Air cylinder explosion
• Construction accident involving elevated work platform; ceiling collapse
• Oil rig collapse

Safety Communication

• Evaluated safety programs and training, including lockout/tagout, JSA, hazardous waste protocols, and confined space entry protocols
• Developed a series of safety manuals for oilfield operations
• Cases Involving Violation of ANSI & Federal (OSHA, NIOSH) Standards
• Evaluated contractor responsibilities related to muli-employer worksite protocols
• Evaluated negligence in view of criteria and protocols for willful citations published in OSHA’s Field Operations Manual

Professional Work History

President and Senior Consultant, LEGIS Corp. The Woodlands, TX (1982–Present)

Expert’s legal consulting practice includes litigation support and case assessment. As a consulting expert, Expert evaluates cases in terms of least, most, and most likely cost per investigation segment. Expert has served as an expert witness in both plaintiff and defense cases. His client list includes law firms in Chicago, Houston, Kansas City, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, San Antonio, Dallas, Reno, and Los Angeles. A case list is available upon request.
General litigation areas include retrospective toxic exposure analysis, industrial accidents, retail safety, multi-employer worksite issues, failure to warn, illumination, foreseeability, industrial truck (forklift) accidents, identification of responsibility in the management chain, product label readability, human factors, and risk perception. Expert also consults with corporate clients to assess safety issues and recommend improvements.

Clients include Precision Drilling, Century Development Corporation, Coventry Investments, Fireman’s’ Fund Insurance, MetLife (Metropolitan Life Insurance Company), PEMEX (collaborative work with Greene and Associates Engineering), IBASCO Engineering, Texas General Indemnity, MD Anderson Hospital, Sisters of Charity Hospital System, Surgis, Inc., TTT Industrial Contractors, Utility Fuels Corporation, UTSCC Engineering Services, and Global Natural Services.
The primary business consulting services of LEGIS Corp. focus on HazCom development, evaluation and development of safety manuals, Phase I assessments, technology risk assessments, OSHA regulatory compliance and potential liability issues, indoor air quality, and investigations in anticipation of litigation. Expert’s safety-related capabilities include causation analysis, process safety management, fault tree analysis, and layer of protection analysis (LOPA). Project management capabilities include PERT and timeline project charts, Critical Path, Resource Allocation, and Monte Carlo (beta) distribution models.

Industrial Hygienist / Safety Compliance Officer, Occupational Health and Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Labor (1974–1982)

As an OSHA Compliance Officer, Expert took part in more than 500 investigations and inspections across multiple industries and functions: petrochemical, shipyard, light manufacturing, construction (15% of all investigations), foundries, gasoline additives, agriculture, chemical manufacturing, storage and warehousing, training, toxicology, ventilation, noise, advanced industrial hygiene, accident investigation, and crane and gear certification. He was responsible for sampling 172 different chemicals during his tenure with OSHA. Expert also participated in special projects, including:

Directing an epidemiological field investigation on the relationship between rare brain cancers and chemical workplace exposures (1978–80). Expert received an OSHA Special Incentive Award and a letter of commendation from the Director of NIOSH for his investigatory effort resulting in “findings of national impact and importance.”

Performing catastrophic investigations after petrochemical explosions and grain elevator explosions.

Work Highlights 1989–2009

Produced more than 1,500 pages of technical reports for corporate clients and attorneys, including more than 4,219 reference notes and 600,000 words.
Logged more than 230 hours in deposition time and 46 courtroom hours; read nearly 75,000 pages of deposition testimony for plaintiff and defense clients. Conducted more than 500 inspections and site evaluations, including industrial sites in the United States, Mexico, Russian Federation, and Baltic states. Authored two books on industrial hygiene and safety; one article on toxic substance torts published in Trial magazine; two scientific papers on epidemiology (published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine and the Russian Journal of Ecology), a five- volume set of books on nuclear fallout in the United States, and a technical history of the US nuclear testing program.

Notable Past Projects

Health and safety evaluation: Sloka Paper Mill and Port of Ventspils, Latvia. Participated on the first US team to perform health and safety assessment in Soviet Latvia. Evaluation of Sloka Paper Mill focused on the laboratory; the port evaluation covered port and rail terminals, potassium salt storage facility, and the chemical/fuel storage facility and tank farm (1989).

Chief Instructor, Industrial Hygiene Certification Review. Developed and taught courses in Houston and Chicago for the American Industrial Hygiene Association’s certification review program (1989).

Evaluation of safety, security, fire protection, and business interruption: Petroleos Mexicanos. Participated in an engineering team review of nine refineries and other facilities located in Cadareyta, Nuevo Pemex, Tula de Allende, Reforma, San Martin Texmelucan, La Venta, Ciudad Pemex, and Reynosa (1991).

Exposure assessment of oil platform workers to aspergillus flavus and aspergillus fumagatus. Evaluated ventilation system on drilling platform off the coast of Qatar — the first evaluation to find aspergillus flavus in the ventilation system of an offshore platform in the Gulf of Arabia (1998).

Work hazard perception and worker error in forklift operations. Conducted assessments of incidents in Odessa, TX (1997) and Tyler, TX (1999).

Retrospective exposure assessment: Benzene exposures in a work population in Brownsville, TX. Evaluated exposure potential, workplace configuration, ventilation, and workplace protocols. Assessment included Poisson probabilities for random population and Monte Carlo and Latin Hypercube simulation using @RISK software (1999).

Exposure assessment of neighborhood near Brio waste site. Listed illnesses found at the site to determine potential relationship to estrogen agents. Determined route of exposure between the Brio site and neighborhood (1999).

Exposure assessment of a barge employee exposed to toluene. Conducted interviews, examined the work area, analyzed logs, certificates of analysis, performed Monte Carlo analysis with multiple variables, and testified in deposition (2006–07).

Cluster analysis of Hicks Table radionuclides as a function of nuclear device characteristics. Performed statistical cluster analysis of 57 radioisotopes in nuclear fallout as a function of device components (2004–06).

Retrospective exposure assessment: Silica exposure taking place at Ft. Benning, GA during the time period 1972–1974. Interviewed witnesses, located abandoned quarry, obtained samples for analysis, performed Monte Carlo simulation with multiple variables, and testified during the 2009 trial.

Analysis of Fire in Confined Space in Refinery. Evaluated fire blankets and deposition testimony to determine that fire permits were issued without first properly inspecting actual confined space worksite. (2016)

Evaluation of dynamics associated with an incident involving a separator vessel to determine high pressure source. (2016)

Community exposure involving sudden chemical release from rail tank car. (2015)

Education and Training

• B.A., Sociology. Central Missouri State University, Warrensburg, MO. 1969
• M.A., Sociology. Central Missouri State University, Warrensburg, MO. 1974
• Special studies in industrial sociology, public opinion/communication, and linguistics.

Additional post baccalaureate studies: Completed 100 hours in science courses including: physics, trigonometry, calculus, organic and inorganic chemistry, instrument analysis, biology, embryology, biochemistry, human physiology, endocrinology, and histology.

Selected Coursework and Seminars: OSHA Training Institute: Toxicology and Sampling Protocols, Noise Evaluation and Control, Crane Safety and Gear Certification, Ventilation System Evaluation, Advanced Industrial Hygiene, Accident and Fatality Investigation, Advanced Toxicology (1974-1981); Import-Export Bank Policies and Procedures (1993); National Conference on Ergonomics (1997); National Conference on Disease Clusters, Washington DC 2012.

Languages: Functional and semi-functional in Spanish (related to petrochemical work), French, German, Russian, Japanese

Technological Resources & Capabilities

Software
Platforms: Windows 7, Windows 10
Report applications: Microsoft Excel 97–2016; Microsoft Word 97–2016; Microsoft PowerPoint
Data mining / statistical applications: Spotfire Pro 4.0; Statistica 99; Systat 8.0, 10.2; MathCad 8.0; Cytel Software EGRET (Poisson regression)
Risk modeling applications: ResRad (radiation exposure estimation software)

@RISK 7.0 (Palisade risk simulation software)
Mapping and environmental simulation: Mapviewer 8.2
Cluster (multivariate) analysis: Statistica 10; Systat 10.2

Specialized Equipment includes:
DJI Pantom 2 Vision (application for commercial use pending)
Trifield 100XE voltage/magnetic meter
RAE Systems UltraRAE 3000 Benzene meters
Anderson microbiological sampler

Licenses and Certifications

• Certified Industrial Hygienist, American Board of Industrial Hygiene. Comprehensive Practice, 1978. Recertified through examination 2003, 2208, 2012, 2018 (current.)
• Certified Safety Professional, Board of Certified Safety Professionals. Most recent recertification through examination: 2014.
• Registered Consultant, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 1994.
• Licensed private pilot since 1967; single engine , land.
• UAS registration for DJI Vision Phantom 2

Professional Memberships & Nonprofit Board Membership

• American Board of Industrial Hygiene C.I.H. Board of Certified Safety Professionals C.S.P. American Statistical Association (2017) American Chemical Society (2017)
• American Society of Safety Engineers Mathematical Association of America (2013) New York Academy of Sciences (2013)
• National Disease Clusters Alliance (NDCA), board member, 2012 International Indoor Air Quality and Climate (1993)
• American Public Health Association: International Health (1992) United States Energy Association (1992)
• CIS–American Chamber of Commerce (1992)