Fresno knew its illegal lab was dangerous, tried to warn others
FRESNO, Calif. (KGPE) – New bombshell emails revealed that the City of Fresno knew about the hazards inside of the Fresno illegal medical lab at the end of 2022.
According to the email, a code enforcement employee raised several red flags that revealed it was in a zoned area that allowed the lab to make and sell in-vitro testing yet the company still was able to move to Reedley.
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Those same emails revealed just how hazardous the conditions were inside.
These emails from a code enforcement employee raised several red flags about the Fresno lab.Download
“Highly flammable materials, immediate safety hazard, and spillage, contamination, cross contamination of chemicals” were the words a Fresno code enforcement employee used in emails to describe what was found inside of this illegal Fresno medical lab back in 2022.
The lab operated in Fresno for years and despite a small fire and several electrical hazards, it flew under the radar until a joint city and county inspection in October of 2022.
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The code enforcement employee then sounded alarms over concerns the company was not only utilizing “various chemicals and bringing in test samples of various biological origins but they were disposing of the materials into the wastewater system.”
Code enforcement confirms the City of Fresno tested the wastewater and nothing hazardous was found but there was still no OSHA certification and several local and state permits were expired.
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The conditions were bad enough to prompt a code enforcement employee to send emails to Fresno County Environmental, the State Department of Toxic Substances, Cal EPA, and the state Environmental Protection Agency warning of the hazards and sharing concerns that the company could try and dispose or transport the chemicals not in a “safe and legal manner.”
Because chemical labs are regulated by the federal government with those regulations enforced through the state, the city and county have no jurisdiction over labs like these which allowed the Fresno lab to pack up and move to Reedley under a new name.
Around a month later it was discovered by city code enforcement and since then has been shut down.
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