A state investigation revealed that a Vermont anti-poverty group did not tell their employees that one of their facilities contained asbestos, potentially putting their employees at risk.

Northeast Kingdom Community Action is a nonprofit that provides social services. According to records from the Vermont Occupational Health and Safety Administration, they paid almost $3,500 in fines for violations found at their St. Johnsbury facility.

Inspectors went to the facility in December after a then-employee filed a complaint. They visited the two main parent child centers that house playgroups and provide parenting services. They found floor tiles directly under two employees’ chairs were made of 5% asbestos.

“The floor tiles at these two locations show significant deterioration and are breaking and being crushed to powder by employees sitting in rolling desk chairs,” an investigator wrote in a report for the case, which was closed after the group paid penalties and temporarily abated the problem.

According to OSHA, floor tiles that contain asbestos typically do not release asbestos particles into the air if they are unbothered, but if they start to deteriorate, they can release asbestos.

“You do want to treat it seriously because you can generate dust,” said Bruce Lippy, director of safety research at the Center for Construction Research and Training. He also said the risk of asbestos-related diseases contracted from floor tiles is very low, but that shouldn’t stop employers from taking care of tiles that are deteriorating and alerting employees.

Investigators found at least one employee was sweeping the floor near the damaged tiles and did not know about the asbestos. Though the debris swept up tested negative for asbestos, the investigators concluded that sweeping could have caused exposure.

The report found tiles and materials throughout the building contained asbestos, but the organization’s executive director said the whole building has been renovated with new flooring to address the risks identified in the report. She was not with the organization when the survey was commissioned and did not know why previous management had not alerted employees.

A spokesperson for the state Department of Labor said that since the asbestos contained in the old flooring materials generally cannot be spread through the air unless the materials were damaged, the facility’s replacement of the flooring was an acceptable abatement of the situation.

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