Indoor Air Quality Expert Witnesses: 9

Clinton J. Ford, MS, ACA, CGC, CIAQM, CIE, CMR, CRMI, has over 30 years of Construction experience and has obtained both field experience and education in the following four distinct but often related disciplines of Construction, Environmental, Real Estate, and Insurance.

Mr. Ford served 25 years as a State Certified General Contractor working on projects ranging from $5,000 to $50,000,000 and has spent over 20 years providing construction consulting and expert witness services.

Mr. Ford holds many titles with decades of experience in the construction/environmental industries and was a former continuing Educations Sponsor for the Florida Construction Industry Licensing Board.

Over the years, Mr. Ford has combined his extensive construction knowledge with cause and origin of water intrusion and environmental issues offering an exceptional understanding of Building Science and its relationship to contamination from biological agents such as Toxic Mold, Mycotoxins, Bacteria, and Endotoxin’s.

Litigation Support - Mr. Ford offers attorneys consulting and litigation support assistance in Building Construction and Environmental Claims that have resulted in property damage, personal injury, and/or wrongful death. He offers pre-litigation counseling, damage and loss estimating, forensic building construction investigation and analysis, pre-trial and trail consulting services and trial testimony. He individually tailors preparation for each case in order to provide the greatest benefit and impact in either a defensive of offensive posture.

Areas of Expertise:

Building Codes / Building Permits Building Construction Construction Accidents Construction Safety Construction Claims Building Contractor Termination Licensure Issues

Construction Cost Estimates / Analysis Water Leaks / Moisture Intrusion Contamination Environmental Damage Indoor Air Quality Mold & Fungal Causation Property Damage Assessment

View Clinton Ford's Consulting Profile.

Peter Jaramillo, CIH, is a Certified Industrial Hygienist with nearly 40 years of experience in Occupational Health & Safety and Public Health. As Principal at Delta Bay Consultants, he has helped hundreds of satisfied clients improve workplace and site safety conditions, meet and exceed regulatory criteria such as OSHA, Cal/OSHA, EPA, NIOSH, and ACGIH, and successfully litigate occupational injury and illness claims.

Litigation Support - Mr. Jaramillo is a  subject matter expert on legal claims related to Occupational Health & Safety. He has provided expert witness services for numerous cases involving exposures to Coccidioides immitis (the "Valley fever" pathogen) in the California Central Valley. He has also supported various cases involving exposures to both Chemical Hazards such as welding fumes, diesel exhaust, and bunker fuel, and Biological Hazards such as histoplasma (a fungus in material contaminated with bird droppings) and Valley fever.

Services include legal research, supporting data collection, including contaminant sampling; document review (industrial hygiene and technical reports, medical records, lab results, chemical data); third-party reviews of previous investigations; and report writing.

Areas of Expertise:

Industrial Hygiene Health & Safety Occupational Health Indoor Air Quality Air & Noise Biological Hazards Chemical Hazards Construction Safety

Valley Fever COVID-19 Environmental Laboratory Safety Emergency Preparedness OSHA Workers Compensation Ergonomics

In addition to his own industrial hygiene firm, Peter has served as a corporate CIH for the Oakland office of Intertek/PSI for many years. In 2010, Peter supervised ship decommissioning efforts for the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill cleanup in Pascagoula, MS. He provided decontamination oversight, trained workers, reviewed confined space entry data, and provided recommendations for safety procedures. As the on-site CIH for Merck's San Francisco campus in 2009–2010, Peter directed the animal allergens program, conducted risk assessments, managed the industrial hygiene database, and made regulatory compliance recommendations.

View Delta Bay's Business Consulting Profile.

For over 45 years, Chuck Dutill, P.E., D.F.E. has been performing Hydrology and Environmental Engineering nationwide. He has focused on wastewater, stormwater, flooding, sewers, septic systems, groundwater, drainage, runoff, hydrology, hydraulics, backups, drinking water, and air quality. 

Litigation Support - Mr. Dutill has spent approximately 30% of his professional time providing expert witness services for over 45 years. Approximately 40 to 45% of his expert witness services have been for defendants and about 55 to 60% for plaintiffs. He has issued 200 to 205 expert reports, been deposed approximately 45 to 50 times, and testified in federal and state court (including jury and non-jury trials) approximately 40 to 45 times. 

Forensic cases have occurred in approximately 40 states. As indicated in feedback from attorneys on expert witness cases, some of his strengths include understandable guidance, responsiveness, timeliness, communication, effective report writing, strong testimony (including on cross), efficiency, organization, and assistance with framing case issues. 

Expertise:

Hydrology Sewer Water Flooding  Groundwater  Hydrogeology  Drainage  Wastewater Treatment Septic Systems Utility Sewer Systems  Sanitary Sewage  Mold  Stormwater Management  Hydraulics  Hazardous Waste  Drinking Water Waste Management

Erosion Soils  Pumping  Water Quality  Air Quality  Wells  Runoff Backups  Water Mains Storm Sewers  Detention  Contamination  Spills  Pollution  Sinkholes  Sedimentation  Wetlands  Infiltration/Inflow  Dams  Floodplains

Toxicity  Remediation  Grading  Health and Safety Modeling  Odors  Combined Sewers  Overflows  Aquifers  Water Distribution Water Treatment Hydraulic Fracturing  Hydroplaning  Monitoring  Metering Maintenance  Design Construction  Inspections

CV Available Upon Request View Mr. Dutill's Consulting Profile.

Andrew Allocco, PE, is a leading Construction Consultant, Florida Certified Contractor, Florida Licensed Public Insurance Adjuster and Real Estate Broker. With over 45 years of experience in his fields of expertise, Mr. Allocco's services are sought by individuals, corporations, developers, and law firms to oversee and advise on construction projects. He is the current owner of construction, real estate, and engineering consulting firms.

Background Experience - Mr. Allocco is the President of Indian River Construction Services, Inc. Prior to his current role, he served as the President of Better Homes Construction Services, Inc. of Miami, Florida, which performed in excess of 40,000 Building Inspections. As a Forensic Consulting Engineer, he inspects Commercial, Residential, and Industrial Facilities before, during, and after construction. He assists property owners with complex insurance claims, some of which involve significant and lengthy litigation

Mr. Allocco is not only licensed in the State of Florida as a Professional Engineer and Licensed Public Insurance Adjuster, he holds more Florida certified contractor licenses both presently active and past than any other individual in the State

Litigation Support - Since the early 1970s, Andrew Allocco has been an Expert Witness in many court and arbitration cases involving disputes between owners, builders, contractors, and architects. He has extensive knowledge of the court litigation process and has assisted law firms in providing facts and questions to be used during depositions and discovery motions. Mr. Allocco's services include inspection reports on the status of the property, depositions, trial testimony, arbitration, and mediation hearings.

Areas of Expertise:

Roof Analysis Balcony Inspections Structural Condition of Buildings / Drone Inspections Highrise Buildings Smart Buildings / Energy Use / Conservation Sick Buildings HVAC  Water Intrusion

Sewer Charges Swimming Pool Spa Fire Piping Motors Machinery Roads Fencing

Insurance Litigation and Structural Consulting - Mr. Allocco is also called upon by insurance companies and attorneys representing property owners to help adjusters evaluate loss. He has been retained to investigate the cause of structural failures, determine the extent of the structural damage, develop subrogation information, prepare the scope of repair, develop a repair design, draft specifications, and more. Mr. Allocco also has experience with code upgrades and notice of dangerous conditions, including hurricanes such as Hurricane Andrew.

View Andrew Allocco's Consulting Profile.

Dr. Eric N. Brown, CIH, CSP, is a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) and a Certified Safety Professional (CSP), with both certifications in good standing with the issuing boards. Dr. Brown holds a Doctorate in Public Health with an Industrial Hygiene specialization from the University of California at Los Angeles, and a Master’s degree in Public Health with an Occupational Health specialization from the Medical College of Ohio. He has over 20 years of experience in:

• Mold
• Health and Safety
• Industrial Hygiene
• Indoor Air Quality Exposure Assessments

Litigation Support - Dr. Brown has been a designated expert in hundreds of cases, been and has testified in both trials and arbitrations. His expertise has never been successfully challenged. His services are available to attorneys representing both plaintiff and defendant. 

Areas of Expertise:

Asbestos Bad Faith Construction Safety Environmental Ergonomics Hazardous Materials Human Factors Engineering

Industrial Hygiene & Mold Landlord / Tenant Lead Poisoning Occupational / Environmental Health OSHA Safety Wrongful Death

Howard M. Kipen MD, MPH, is Board certified in Internal Medicine and Occupational Medicine. Dr. Kipen earned a BA from UC Berkeley, MD from UCSF, and MPH from Columbia University. He currently serves as Director of the Clinical Research and Occupational Medicine Division and Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at Rutgers University. Dr. Kipen’s research focuses on clinical and epidemiological studies of the health effects of Indoor and Ambient Air Pollution. His research uses both controlled exposure models with ozone, fresh aerosols, and diesel-enriched on-road exposures, primarily with drives on the New Jersey Turnpike. A new EPA study examines health benefits of portable air cleaners for reducing indoor air pollution levels. Biomarker outcomes presently emphasized are exhaled breath oxidative stress and invasive and noninvasive measures of vascular function. Dr. Kipen has published morethan 200 articles on environmental / occupational health. Scholarly Activities:

• Former Chair, NASA Human Research Program’s Advanced Environmental Health / Advanced Food Technology Standing Review Panel
• Member, National Academies Standing Committee on Medical and Epidemiological Aspects of Air Pollution on U.S. Government Employees and their Families, 2016
• Chair / Member Multiple Ad Hoc Grant Review Panels (e.g., NIEHS, Department of Defense)
• Governor’s Appointee, Public Employee’s Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, New Jersey Department of Labor
• Member, Public Health Scientific Advisory Board, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

Litigation Support: Dr. Kipen has 35 years of litigation experience. He has expertise in various Toxic Torts including asbestos, benzene, mold, air pollution, occupational and environmental cancers, and other diseases. He also has expertise on "Multiple Chemical Sensitivities" (MCS). Dr. Kipen has particular experience as an asbestos plaintiff's expert and both plaintiff and defense experience with other toxic torts. His services include medical record review, thorough reporting, depositions, and trial testimony as needed.

The experts at Minnich and Scotto, Inc. are Meteorologists – each with 40+ years' experience in providing a wide range of ambient air-related and meteorological services to attorneys, local communities, industry, and government.  

Litigation Support - Established in 1996, their business has evolved over the years based on changing client needs – originally providing predominantly high-end, “boutique” consulting services to industry and government (such as real-time, emission-rate measurements of airborne toxins from hazardous waste sites and other large area sources), and today offering a variety of technical services to environmental attorneys in support of toxic tort cases, including reconstructive analyses to assess past exposure to hazardous air pollutants (HAP) and other air toxins.

Minnich and Scotto's unique skill set – owing to a high level of proficiency in diverse disciplines such as ambient air monitoring, air dispersion modeling, CERCLA (Superfund) and Clean Air Act regulations, forensic meteorology, and environmental quality assurance – has often led to development of winning legal strategies for our attorney clients which otherwise might not have been envisioned. They have extensive knowledge in the following areas:

Regulatory:

• CERCLA and Clean Air Act Compliance

Ambient Air Monitoring and Sampling: Strategy and Design Technology Selection Analysis Techniques

Air Dispersion Modeling: Strategy and Design Model Selection and Execution Model Calibration / Validation

HAP Emission Investigations: Real-Time Emission-Rate Assessments Exposure Assessments and Reconstructions

Meteorological Consulting: Chemical Accidents Reconstruction Toxicology Investigative Support

Quality Assurance: 

• DQO Process Compliance
• Monitoring / Sampling Plan Assessment

Timothy R. Minnich, President, MS, QEP, is a Meteorologist and Atmospheric Scientist with over 40 years experience in the design and management of a wide range of ambient air and meteorological investigations under CERCLA and the Clean Air Act. He is a recognized technical expert on high-profile legal cases, with assignments involving forensic meteorology and reconstruction of inhalation scenarios in relation to community exposure to hazardous air pollutants (HAP). 

Mr. Minnich is accomplished in presenting conclusions and opinions derived from analysis of complex technical data in a well-reasoned and easily understood manner. He is a skilled technical writer and proven manager in a highly specialized arena. He is a nationally recognized expert in the application of optical remote sensing (ORS) for hazardous waste site remediation. He has designed and managed more than 25 ORS field investigations and air dispersion model validation studies since the promulgation of U.S.EPA (EPA) Method TO-16 for open-path FTIR (Fourier-transform infrared) spectroscopy in 1988. 

Mr. Minnich was an instructor for several half-day continuing education courses on calculating emission rates from ground-level sources.

Robert L. Scotto is a Meteorologist with over 40 years of experience in the design, management, and execution of a variety of air quality investigations. He is a specialist in Clean Air Act permitting, and is an expert in a broad range of CERCLA-related QA/QC issues. 

Mr. Scotto is a highly skilled air dispersion modeler and has extensive experience in customization and validation of AERMOD – USEPA’s most recent guideline air dispersion model. In addition to having co-founded Minnich and Scotto, he has held significant positions with other organizations, including vice president of ETG Services and zone-wide QA manager for NUS Corporation, USEPA's Field Investigation Team (FIT) contractor. In this latter capacity, Mr. Scotto was responsible for QA program implementation in all four USEPA Zone I FIT offices (Regions 1 through 4). The total value of that contract was $300 million.

Nancy M. McClellan, MPH, CIH, CHMM, is an award winning, Industrial Hygiene and Safety expert with over 25 years of broad international experience practicing, teaching and authoring to anticipate, recognize, evaluate, control and prevent workplace health and safety hazards in high hazard industries.

 Prior to her independent expert and consulting practice, Ms. McClellan practiced industrial hygiene management as a Board Certified Industrial Hygienist on a global scale for both AbbVie, a major producer of highly potent biopharmaceuticals and LafargeHolcim, the world’s largest building materials corporation.

She currently provides industrial hygiene and safety legal expert, management, training, and select field services to sectors such as the pharmaceutical, automotive, military, hospital, electronic, food, chemical, and commercial real estate industries. 

She is the Chair of the University of Michigan Graduate School of Public Health COHSE External Advisory Board and an international AIHA Distinguished expert lecturer.

Ms. McClellan is domestically and internationally recognized for leadership service to the IH profession for the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), the American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH), the Occupational Hygiene Training Association (OHTA) and the Joint Industrial Hygiene Ethics Education (JIHEEC) Boards of Directors and Committees. She currently serves on the AIHA Executive Board of Directors.

As a result of her well-practiced ability to describe science in lay terms, Ms. McClellan was interviewed in October 2020 on the ABC Network’s Good Morning America program regarding Covid pandemic controls, as well as a number of ABC News and professional journal articles regarding the association between HVAC systems, Indoor Air Quality and the Covid pandemic to advance public and worker health protections.

Ms. McClellan has extensive expertise in Pandemic, Covid-19 Response Management, including chemical and non-chemical disinfectant exposure evaluation and real estate/facility controls.

Good Morning America Pandemic / Indoor Air Interview 

Litigation Support Goal - Nancy McClellan seeks to continue a 50/50 defense/plaintiff practice that presents challenging cases determining worker and/or public exposure to chemical, biological, physical or ergonomic hazards. Her services include thorough review, reporting, depositions, and trial testimony.

Areas of Expertise:

• Chemical and biological airborne and dermal exposure assessment and modeling
• Bioaerosol Assessment and Pandemic Control Programs 
• Indoor Air Quality and Air disinfection Technologies Evaluation
• H&S Policy and Program Development and Audits
• Highly Potent Compound Containment 
• Workplace Hazard Risk and Exposure Assessment 
• USP 800 Safe Hazardous Drug Handling Conformance
• Hearing Conservation Program Development and Controls
• Respiratory Protection Evaluation and Program Development
• Worksite Ergonomic Evaluation and Controls

View Nancy McClellan's Consulting Profile.

I bring diverse, combined education, licensing, and credentialing in geology, biology, and hazardous materials management. Indoor air quality as related to asbestos, mold, lead, building hazards, vapor intrusion, OSHA worker and occupant complaints.

I manage a firm of environmental and industrial hygiene professionals while serving as an expert in my diverse field; I have over 70 retained cases complete. I can cost effectively support engagements that may require extensive data gathering across an expanded time frame. I apply my capabilities and credentials across commercial, industrial, and oil & gas settings, with a technical focus on highly regulated industry and real estate.

I have been steadily retained for expert witness services since 1995.

I specialize in structural fire forensic investigation and testing, routinely leverage post-flood emergency response expertise in buildings, specific to microbial disinfection, mold mitigation, and source mold under forensic methods of investigation that may exist under alleged building construction defects. I possess expertise in building systems and mitigating hazards from structures in advance of demolition for asbestos, lead, and other regulated materials.  I prepare, implement (and/or critically review) asbestos specifications, mold remediation protocols, OSHA-driven lead specifications, and remediation soil management plans.

I have evaluated diverse workplaces following loss reports due to alleged safety and public health concerns and offered mitigation strategies for worker safety under OSHA complaints, especially regarding respiratory protection. I have served as an expert for multiple worker injury and wrongful death allegations within the context of environmental exposure.  

View Ms. Franks' Consulting Profile.