Mold Awareness Week September 19-24, 2004 - Mold Victims Ascend on the Nation's Capitol -
Insurance Journal
This press release provides details on this week's goings-on in Washington where mold advocacy groups from across the country gathered in an effort to focus national attention on the "serious health effects of indoor molds in schools, homes, workplaces and public builings." The groups will apparently distribute packets to Congress members that include the latest medical research, anecdotes of those negatively impacted by mold growth, and information on health risks. See the article for more.
Mold forces changes in construction of new municipal building- Insurance Journal
Reports on a mold problem that's sprung up in the city of Maryville where a $20 million municipal building was found to have defective external sheeting. The discovery has slowed down the project and has forced contractors to strip out the product and tear down construction that's already taken place. The city says the product's maker, Georgia Pacific, will cover the costs of the repairs.
A CASE STUDY UPDATE
The Healthy House Project: Children With Chronic Respiratory Illness
By Kevin Kennedy
Could simple home maintenance and minor repairs actually improve children's health? The Healthy House Project is determined to find out and below we provide an update on their efforts to date.
THE PROBLEM
The simple question the Healthy House Project is hoping to find an answer to: Can basic improvements of the home and/or its mechanical components and maintenance lead to a reduction in symptoms associated with exposure?
The purpose of the project: to examine houses occupied by children with chronic respiratory illness such as asthma and see if there is a connection between the home they live in and any symptoms they are exhibiting as well as to determine what kinds of VOCs are most prevalent in Kansas City homes and whether any of these compounds are those that have been linked to specific health problems.
WHAT WAS AT STAKE
Asthma is an environmental disease, and asthma attacks can be triggered simply by exposure to air-borne contaminants. These attacks can be fatal, but they don't have to be. Avoiding, or at least minimizing the exposure to, those things that cause a particular child's asthma to flare, can reduce asthma flare-ups.
THE PROPOSED SOLUTION
The first step: take a comprehensive "snapshot" of indoor environments in Kansas City, Missouri homes, and then offer participants resources to make improvements. (The Healthy House Project is taking a sample in each house using PATI's tdT AirScan and MoldScan analytical products.)
WHAT WAS FOUND
The Healthy House Project has assessed 35 homes to date and has encountered several surprises. All HHP houses assessed to date have had some sort of moisture-related problems caused by leaks in either the foundation, plumbing supply, and/or plumbing waste drains. Among the surprising results:
- Twenty-five percent of homes assessed had active low-level gas leaks, and of these, three were related to a poorly operating stove.
- We found leaks in main gas lines, from un-tightened fittings on existing lines, and from old capped lines that had been out of service for years.
- Over half the houses tested so far have had what would be considered high indoor VOC levels.
- Nearly half of the houses surveyed had exhaust ventilation concerns. From detached vent pipes to non-existent ones, to exhaust pipes with long horizontal runs, it has been surprising how many were in poor condition.
- Thirty-three percent had visible mold problems. In most instances mold was found in basements with active moisture intrusion problems.
- Fifty percent of houses surveyed so far had high concentrations of fine and ultra-fine particles. Sources varied from the burning candles or incense and heated air fresheners, to tobacco smoke and heavy chemical application. In some cases, the particle count indoor was as much as ten times the outdoor concentration.
- All houses have had functioning furnaces, but only half had the right filter installed properly.
- Twenty-five percent of houses assessed had roach infestations. Of these, three had major infestations.
FUNDING
Primary funding was provided through a "Healthy Homes Demonstration Grant" administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and is a partnership between the Healthy Homes Network (HHN) of Greater Kansas City, and the Children's Mercy Hospital and Clinics (CMH) Environmental Health Program in Kansas City.
MORE RESEARCH
The Healthy House Project has been fortunate to have some important partners in this effort. The grant from HUD did not provide sufficient funding for additional analyses in all the homes enrolled in the study, so the Environmental Health Program is currently seeking funds from corporate sponsors to cover the costs of the additional studies. We'll continue to provide updates as the project continues.
HOW DID PATI HELP
PATI pitched in to this valuable study by providing its analytical services and by allowing its staff to be generous with their time, providing both technical advice and analytical services in the pilot phase of the program. PATI has made a commitment to our professional people to promote and better serve our profession and we'd like to thank PATI once again for the technical and financial support. It's making a difference for Kansas City families.
KEVIN KENNEDY is Program Manager of the Environmental Health Program, Department of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology at the Children's Mercy Hospital and Clinics in Kansas City, Missouri.
The HEALTHY HOUSE PROJECT
The Healthy House Demonstration Program is part of an initiative to develop efficient and cost-effective procedures for comprehensively assessing home hazards. The Kansas City grant is a partnership between the Healthy Homes Network, a non-profit organization whose members represent health departments, state agencies, and community organizations in the Kansas City area.
Mold problem popping out after storms -
Insurance Journal
Those hurricanes that have been pounding Florida have, as this piece reports, created mold-related problems across the state. The article: "Throughout Volusia and Flagler counties, homeowners are facing an invasion of mold that can rapidly develop and spread in as little as two days after water meets warm air." The piece profiles a couple whose house has been beseiged by mold growth and includes a comment from a mold expert who says of the mold problems he's seeing: "I've been here five years and this is the worst I've seen. It's because of the scale of the damage." Also included: a brief checklist of tips for homeowners whose houses have been attacked by mold and a statistic from the Environmental Assurance Group which says that mold cleanup of a contaminated house costs an average of $44,000.
Sanford, family move back into Governor's Mansion - Insurance Journal
Reports that South Carolina governor Mark Sanford and his family have finally moved back into the state's governor's mansion after mold forced them to vacate the more than 16,000-square-foot house back in June. The first couple of South Carolina apparently spent the summer in the property's 900-square-foot pool house with their four kids while workers removed the mold. The cost to the state: an estimated $1 million.
RECENT PATI PROJECTS
Below are just a few of the projects PATI has worked on in the past three months. We hope they give you a sense of the diversity of services we provide as well as an overview of the many competencies clients have benefited from.
- Saved a community millions of dollars by identifying an IAQ odor problem and aborting a school closing
- Improved the life/death efficiency in a fertility clinic production
- We analyzed off-gassing from changes in Spot Welding techniques and provided data used for decision making to avert a new IAQ problem. This Fortune 500 Company is using the documentation to change their worldwide welding procedures.
- Provided mobile laboratory services to a professional client for stack testing.
- Under NIOSH standards, saved a large city many jobs and millions of dollars by, at the last minute, aborting the closing of a convention center due to odor
- Provided our mobile laboratory services for 'out gas' studies to a manufacturer to improve jet engine efficiency
- Documented via laboratory reports mold studies for health safety in buildings
- Provided laboratory reports for liability documentation at fire and remediation projects
- Found high levels of VOCs in a building that were seven times above commonly excepted standards
- Developed calibration standards for a high technology product made by a manufacturing company
- Identified and quantified building, home and hospital odor complaints that led to the source identification and remediation.
PATI - The Proven Provider for Air Analysis.
PATI COMMENTARY: "Why is tdT Air Scan® different from the library search that other laboratories provide?"
PATI does not offer library searches to its clients for one simple reason: they are unreliable. Any laboratory with a computerized GC-MS can do a library search on all of the peaks in a chromatogram. Any operator, no matter what educational or experience level, can perform the library search operation after only a few minutes training.
This appears to be a wonderful application of modern technology; however, the library identification is frequently incorrect. Incorrect identification of compounds causes several problems, especially when a particularly hazardous compound is identified. This type of misidentification can mandate unnecessary and expensive follow-up testing, can cause grave concern when it is unwarranted, and can embarrass the submitter in front of his client.
Misidentification arises primarily because every library search routine will select one compound as the best match. Oftentimes the second best match, which is a completely different compound, is only minutely lower in its search quality. Also, different search criteria will result in the selection of different compounds as having the best match. In some cases, the computer will select an outlandish compound, which is totally inconsistent with the retention time. This uncertainty is seldom, if ever, transmitted to the submitter as part of the analytical report.
All of which argues for customized responses and expert specialized analysis as opposed to generalized, unreliable library searches.
Why do PATI Clients Return?
PATI's clients come back to us again and again. Why? Because we enhance their competitive position. In their projects, our professional clients look for PATI's science based innovative technologies and knowledgeable interpretations to Laboratory Reports for an answer to their questions that will maximize and guide their solution capabilities. They use our broad industry air analysis experience.
Prism Analytical Technologies, Inc., (PATI) offers the most accurate air analysis, FTIR / GC-MS databases, interpretive skills, and novel services in the industry. PATI is a leading specialty analytical laboratory in the United States that is devoted to the chemical identification, quantification, and analysis of contaminants in air, down to parts per trillion, including active Mold growth. Versatile Air Surveys are our specialty.
This comprehensive capability enables PATI to provide its clients with insights, objective data, options, and sound environmental technologies. We are able to competitively define what is in the air and furnish benchmarks via unique methodologies for our clients.
If you are an IAQ, IH, EH&S, PE or independent professional catering to Construction Contractors, Building Owners/ Managers, HVAC Air Handling, AIHA Industry Consultant, we provide services In-House or On-Site for the ultimate analysis of contaminants in air.
PATI Product Launch: TracScan™
PATI has a brand new product we're rolling out that we think is a considerable improvement over other products available in the marketplace.
TracScan™ is a simple-to-use method for identifying, tracking and monitoring over 300 specific VOCs.
TracScan™ also provides, in a comprehensive analytical report, information on 21 MVOCs and details the active and unseen mold growth that travels through walls, partitions and concrete walls.
TracScan™ Summary Reports are written in easy-to-understand English and are accompanied by a PATI Library Report that includes findings on the detected primary compounds as well as a Detailed Analytical Report that indexes the TVOCs for all the included VOC categories.
Among
TracScan™'s features:
- Identifies and Tracks 300+ specific VOCs
- Identifies and Tracks 21 MVOCs
- Determines the level of active, unseen mold growth
- Summary report written in plain English
- Summary PATI Library Report of primary compounds
- Detailed analytical report
- TVOC indexed
- VOC categories include:
- solvents
- cleaning agents
- fuels
- paints/varnishes
- odors
- hazardous VoCs
- fragrances
- off-gases
TracScan™'s development is informed by more than a decade of PATI's research and application studies. An extremely cost effective method, TracScan™ accurately answers the question "What's in my air?" with consistent and reliable results.
Try TracScan™ today and you'll find a reliable baseline for routine and event driven testing and a firm framework and foundation for future analysis.
ABOUT PATI
Prism Analytical Technologies, Inc., (PATI) is the leading analytical laboratory in the United States that is devoted to the chemical identification and analysis of contaminants in the air. PATI's expertise includes:
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's)
Semi-Volatile Organic Compounds (SVOC's)
Microbial VOC's given off by actively growing molds (MVOC's)
Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAP) / Toxic Organic Compounds (TOC)
Plant Emissions
Process and Industrial emissions
Vent and Stack emissions
Product Off-gas
Particulates in Air
Over the last 12 years PATI has pioneered the development of several technologies for the analysis of air. These technologies include, for example, custom thermal desorption tubes and glass encapsulation to keep them free from contamination during storage. They also include the concept of tdT Air Scan® which utilizes a thermal desorption tube and then couples Fourier Transform-Infrared (FT-IR) spectrometry and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) during the analysis to quickly and inexpensively identify and quantify hundreds of VOC's using only one sample. PATI is also the only laboratory that has been successful in developing a technology, called Mold Scan™, to determine mold metabolites on the parts per trillion level.
Our team of Analytical Chemists includes only degreed and highly trained analysts, the majority with advanced degrees. We have an industry-leading management and scientific team headed by Lester H. Keepper, President, and Randall Fike, Ph.D., Chief Technical Officer. Additionally, Martin L. Spartz, Ph.D., is a company Director and, in addition to developing our FT-IR capabilities, has been responsible for the design and development of mobile, open path FT-IR methods for the EPA.
PATI supports many CIH, IHIT, CEHS, CPE, and CSP professionals and multidisciplinary consultants who are seeking to solve air quality problems. PATI's clients include mold investigation and remediation professionals, safety specialists, medical doctors, manufacturing engineers, hospital administrators, public health departments, building owners and inspectors, commercial property managers, engineering and construction firms, insurance investigators, emergency response teams, real estate brokers, and legal professionals. Contact PATI to discover the positive impact we can have on your air quality projects.
To request more information on our products and services please click here - we'll respond as quickly as possible.
When integrity, accuracy, and technical support are critical, you can rely on PATI - THE PROVEN PROVIDER.
SUBSCRIBE
To receive upcoming issues of Trapped Air in your email please click here to fill out a convenient form.
Copyright © 2004 PATI, Inc. All rights reserved.
