Three IAQ Organizations Accept Unifying Proposal

Jury Orders Landlord to Pay Record Mold Payoff

Mold Requirements Die at Hands of Fla. Governor

Toolbox Stocked with Moisture-detection Equipment

What’s Bugging You?

VOICES

“From my reading of it, I won’t be able to file a complaint. … In the 1960s, we didn’t know anything about asbestos. Now I’ve got something that could kill me.”

— Leukemia and asbestosis sufferer Oscar Chaires, 35, quoted last month in the Palm Beach Post, commenting on a piece of state legislation that would limit people’s ability to file litigation over asbestos

“I’m just legislating that liquor cannot be served in bars, restaurants and nightclubs because I don’t want it to be served. I will allow teas, sodas and milk – for now. And if the drinkers insist on drinking alcohol – and they will – they can just step outside on sidewalks with their flasks and drink.”

— Carol Schwartz, a member of the Washington, D.C. City Council, upon introducing mock legislation to protest the council’s consideration of adopting a citywide ban of smoking in bars and restaurants

Word on the Street 

BETTER OFF WET THAN KNOCKED OVER?
“Using high-tech engineering principles, an MIT/Harvard team has developed a low-tech solution to the problem of how to build homes in tsunami-prone areas,” states a May 26 press release from the news office of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “The team recently produced an architectural model for a Sri Lankan house that essentially would allow a powerful ocean wave to go through the house, instead of knocking it flat,” MIT’s press release continues. One source at MIT was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, “Of course, you would have water in the house, and there is no way to avoid that, but the houses will be much more resilient.”

IAQ HOME MAKEOVER
Lennox Industries last month kicked off its second annual Lennox Home Comfort Makeover Contest. “Homeowners can enter for the chance to see their house transformed into a healthier, more tranquil environment,” the company said June 1 in a press release. “The grand-prize winner ... will receive personal consultations with [design expert Victoria Schomer], who will provide interior design recommendations for creating a more comfortable living space. The winner will also meet with a Lennox home comfort specialist, who will perform an air quality test that measures the most common indoor air quality factors... Based on the consultations, Schomer will implement a $35,000 interior design makeover, and a team of indoor air quality experts will install a new Lennox Integrated Home Comfort system...” Official entry forms and the official rules are available at www.lennox.com.

EXPO SELLOUT
Organizers of the October 2005 Combined Annual Meeting & Exposition of the American Indoor Air Quality Council, Indoor Air Quality Association and Indoor Environmental Standards Organization expect booths in their exhibit hall to be sold out by the end of July. In the first week of sales alone, 57 of the 117 available booths were sold. The Oct. 6–9 convention and Oct. 6–8 trade show are expected to draw more than 1,500 people to Orlando, Fla.

BURY THE HATCHET
The Air Conditioning Contractors of America released a joint statement with the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers last month, announcing that the two groups will cooperate on a load-calculation standard. In May, ASHRAE offered a 45-day public review of a proposed load-calculation standard, to which ACCA expressed opposition, citing “significant flaws in its application to small commercial buildings.” Greg Leisgang, chairman of the ACCA Board of Directors, said in an ACCA news release on May 13, “A separate standard is required to address the unique needs of light commercial applications from those of large commercial, industrial and institutional applications.” According to the two groups’ joint statement, ASHRAE’s proposed Standard 183P “will be processed through ASHRAE’s standards writing procedures as an American National Standard” while ASHRAE’s 183P committee will add a trio of new members nominated by ACCA. “The proposed standard will reference the cooling load temperature difference load calculation method provided in ACCA’s Manual N,” said the joint release. The two groups’ agreement is their second such collaboration this year on a standards-writing project; ACCA and ASHRAE directors signed agreements earlier this year to combine their forces in producing a standard for HVAC-system maintenance.

HAVING THEIR SAY
The California Air Resources Board’s in-depth report on indoor air quality released four months ago may earn the state government body the only regulatory voice for indoor air issues. The board, which is the equivalent of the Environmental Protection Agency within California, has never had any regulatory oversight for IAQ issues since it was founded in 1967. This could change next year if state legislator Sally Lieber has her way. An article published June 10 by the Sacramento Bee said the member of the Assembly Select Committee on Air and Water Quality plans to introduce legislation in January 2006 that would give CARB regulatory oversight for indoor air. The article said a similar legislative attempt to this end three years ago failed due to “industry opposition” but that the legislation did make it possible for CARB to report on indoor air.

THREE SMOKES AND YOU’RE OUT
A jury in Boston decided that if you smoke enough cigarettes, you can be kicked out of your condo. Erin Carey and Ted Barr had rented a one-bedroom unit in Boston and ran a business out of it. Once evicted by landlord Neil Harwood after receiving multiple complaints from neighbors about excessive smoke in common areas and in other units, the couple began to fight their eviction in court. One member of the condo association board was quoted June 26 in the Boston Globe as saying, “One time, after spending about an hour in the unit upstairs from them, I went home smelling like I had been in a bar.” The Globe said Carey and Barr’s lease did allow them to smoke and did not set any limit on how much they were allowed to smoke.

CLEARING THE AIR
Dr. Richard J. Shaughnessy will have two papers published that ask the question: What is an effective air-cleaning device? Shaughnessy, who is a professor with the University of Tulsa’s Indoor Air Program, has co-written the two papers with Dr. R. G. Sextro of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. According to Shaughnessy, “The first is a shortened version accepted for the Indoor Air 2005 conference in Beijing this September. The historical development of the metric and relevance to today’s air-cleaning products will be discussed. This presentation will provide comment on the testing process, discuss its applicability to various contaminants and evaluate the resulting performance metrics for effective air cleaning.” Shaughnessy said the second paper was submitted to the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health. He said he was also submitting a rewrite of the American Lung Association’s document on residential air-cleaning devices and finalizing work contracted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission that may lead to federal government action on air-cleaning devices.

Three IAQ Organizations Accept Unifying Proposal
Members to Vote at October Meeting on Referendum
To Consolidate Operations of IAQA, AmIAQ, IESO
By Steve Sauer

Three national IAQ organizations are planning to realign their activities and combine efforts in an attempt to reduce redundancies that have long existed in the indoor environmental arena.

According to a plan announced jointly by all the groups last month, the American Indoor Air Quality will be reorganized to serve exclusively as a certification body and the Indoor Air Quality Association will serve exclusively as a membership association, while the Indoor Environmental Standards Organization will serve as an industry standard-setting body.

Last month’s milestone declaration further links these three groups, which announced in February that they would combine forces with a joint meeting to be held Oct. 6–9 in Orlando, Fla.
“Recognizing that significant duplication in programs and activities existed, the leaders of the three organizations began meeting late last year to discuss cooperative ventures,” the groups explain in their joint statement issued June 24.

“Those meetings led us quickly to the conclusion that we needed to do more than just cooperate, we need to consolidate programs to more effectively serve our industry,” IAQA President Robert Baker said in the statement.

Because the bylaws of IAQA and IESO require members’ approval of the proposed unification and consolidation plan, they will be asked to vote on the matter during the October meeting. “If approved, the associations will assume their redefined roles and responsibilities on January 1, 2006,” according to the joint statement.

As a certifying body, AmIAQ will inherit the four certification programs that previously belonged to IAQA and IESO, adding them to the ranks of AmIAQ’s seven existing certification programs. According to the plan, AmIAQ staff will administer the certification programs out of their existing offices in Arizona.

Statistics provided to IE Connections indicate that nearly 6,000 certifications are currently valid among the three organizations.
“The industry needs an independent certifying body with board-awarded credentials based on experience, education and testing,” said AmIAQ Executive Director Charlie Wiles in the joint statement. “AmIAQ has the knowledge and expertise in place to continue that role, and we will now revise our goals, mission and bylaws to reflect our new duties in serving as the industry’s premier certification body.”

AmIAQ is currently run by a three-member board of directors, and its bylaws have never required the election of new or different directors. Since its foundation in 1993, AmIAQ has also historically refused to identify the members of its certification boards. However, amendments to the Council’s bylaws will allow for a careful transition to a democratically elected leadership, according to the plan.

Because IAQA will serve as the membership association, AmIAQ and IESO will no longer offer memberships or provide member benefits. Instead, current members of either group will automatically become members of IAQA.

The latest membership figures for AmIAQ show the organization has the largest membership of the three, with 2,800 current members. IAQA reported 2,400 members, and IESO reported 1,000 members. IAQA will provide for this new membership base – about 5,500 not duplicating members already belonging to more than one organization – all of the member benefits it currently offers, as well as benefits offered by AmIAQ and IESO that it does not currently offer. IAQA and IESO will no longer serve as a certifying body or offer certification-oriented training classes.

The Indoor Environmental Standards Organization will exist with the sole purpose of promulgating industry standards and working with other standard-setting organizations. It will be governed by a board of directors consisting of a pre-determined number of representatives. Procedures for a democratic succession of new board members, as well as standards committee members, will be created.

“We view the evolution of IESO into a purely standards-setting body as a natural progression for the association,” said IESO President David Fetveit in the joint statement. “IESO was created to write standards and we have already shown success in this area.”

Under the plan, AmIAQ will be self-funded through certification fees and related income. IAQA will be self-funded through membership dues, meeting registration fees, publication sales, and related incomes sources. IESO will be funded by contributions made by IAQA, AmIAQ and other organizations that may be invited to participate in standard-setting programs.

The presidents of all three organizations made themselves available to IE Connections last month to answer questions about theirs plan to consolidate activities. Our questions and their answers follow:

On Membership and Member Benefits

IE Connections: With an industry association membership that is about 5,500 strong, what sort of things do you hope the Indoor Air Quality Association will be better equipped to do?

Robert Baker: We have only recently started to engage in public advocacy in the interest of better indoor environments. With our membership of slightly over 2,000, we experienced mixed results and those we interfaced with questioned that we represented a significant share of the industry. With the membership increased to 5,500, this becomes much less of a question. In addition, as the single largest organization in the indoor environment community, we will be highly sought after by many to work on various projects of mutual interest.

IEC: How will the unification affect the existing chapters of the American Indoor Air Quality Council, both in terms of memberships and operations?

Charlie Wiles: The IAQA has assured us that there’ll be no significant change in the chapter operations. The chapters exist to conduct workshops – typically inexpensive, half-day venues for those within an hour’s drive – to enhance their professional persona. All of the current chapter directors believe chapter attendance will significantly increase, which allows them to continue their goal of providing workshops for learning, sharing and networking.

Baker: During the discussions that led up to this realignment of activities, we carefully studied the chapters’ structure and operation. We feel the chapter operation at present is sound and well managed. We do not intend to make any changes other than providing dedicated central resources to assist the chapters in meeting their goals and objectives. We do plan to expand the number of chapters and feel existing chapter membership will expand due to the increase in the membership pool they will have to draw on.

IEC: Over the years, members of AmIAQ and IAQA have been known to perceive that the organizations were competing or feuding. What can you offer about the organizations’ peaceful coexistence?

Wiles: The American Indoor Air Quality Council has always considered sharing and networking as our basis of success; therefore, we believe anyone having such an ill perception simply hadn’t taken the time to investigate both organizations thoroughly.

Baker: I guess that previous to the past several months – during which I have gotten to know Charlie and Carolyn quite well – I would view my personal relationship with AmIAQ as “viewing or admiring from afar.” I had spoken or corresponded with Charlie on occasion about matters of mutual interest, and that has always been cordial and professional.

For the past several years, both IAQA and AmIAQ have been busy building their respective programs and pursuing their missions. They have both contributed much to the industry. When I set the agenda for my term as president of IAQA, it contained a strong component of establishing closer ties and “building bridges” to other organizations. As part of that, we looked for opportunities to work more closely with AmIAQ and others. To quote an old saying, “The rest is history.”

IEC: How much overlap is there between the memberships of IAQA and AmIAQ?

Wiles: As of January 2005, there were 243 members with dual membership in the American Indoor Air Quality Council and the Indoor Air Quality Association. There were even fewer dual memberships with the Indoor Environmental Standard Organization.

IEC: Because IAQA will be a membership organization and AmIAQ will offer the Certified Residential Mold Inspector program, IESO loses some big components of its original setup. Is this in keeping with the founders’ vision?

David Fetveit: IESO’s mission statement is “to be the foremost developer and provider of voluntary consensus indoor environmental quality standards…” Nowhere in the mission do we set out to be a membership or certification organization. The membership and certification components evolved out of necessity to fill a void in a specific market and to support the organization financially. Now that we can partner with what we believe are the best membership and certification organizations in the industry in IAQA and AmIAQ respectively, we will be able to focus on the core vision laid out by the founders without sacrificing the programs we have built.

IEC: What are the best new member benefits IAQA will be able to offer?

Baker: Clearly, all of us will enjoy greatly enhanced networking opportunities both within an expanded IAQA and with others in the industry and our sister organizations. This will significantly expand membership value. We will also have the purchasing clout to negotiate additional benefits that we are just beginning to investigate.

On Training and Certifications

IEC: Some people in the industry may not be familiar with AmIAQ’s existing certifications. What efforts will be made to introduce them to the seven different certification programs and select the one that is best for them?
Wiles: The names of the AmIAQ’s existing certifications are descriptive of their focus. While we will continue to promote our certifications as we have in the past, we will have twice the number of members within the unification promoting a consolidated certification program.

IEC: Also, how will consumers be informed of the available industry certifications to know which list they should use to choose the person coming into their home or office?

Wiles: Three separate organizations will be combining their marketing abilities to steer the industry, the public and the government toward what will become the premier certification program in the indoor air quality industry.

IEC: Will the unification bring about a greater need for non-certification courses IAQA will put on?

Baker: Although I cannot cite specifics because we have just started to consider all of the possibilities, this opens up rich new opportunities for IAQA to help the IAQ industry mature and grow. An important part of that will be expanding education in ways we could only dream of previously.

On Standards and Committees

IEC: What standards are necessary from this point forward?

Fetveit: Any standards that are currently not available from ASTM [International] or any ANSI-accredited standards-setting body are sorely needed. The standards currently under development include IAQ sample collection procedures and a mold inspection screen for school facilities.

IEC: What other organizations may be invited to participate in IESO’s standard-setting programs?

Fetveit: IESO develops standards in volunteer-based committees. We certainly need qualified individuals to contribute their expertise and welcome anyone who has the expertise and is willing to assist. We hope to be a “greenhouse” for initiating consensus standards in the market to give accredited standards-setting bodies (e.g., ASTM) a starting point, as well as some breathing space, as these standards take considerable time to develop.

IEC: Will contributions be made on an annual or some other regular basis, or will they be made only when new standard-setting projects are introduced?

Fetveit: IESO expects that the standards development budget will be relatively minimal in the big picture and it will not be difficult to keep these programs funded sufficiently.

IEC: How will IESO interact with IAQA’s Research Committee or other similar bodies that could have something to say about standards-setting projects?

Fetveit: The most significant benefit for IESO under this unification and consolidation plan is our access to a larger group of qualified individuals who assist in the development of IESO standards. With the added awareness and education to the combined groups, we expect more standards – and high-quality standards to be developed. IESO expects that committees from all three organizations will contribute to the direction of IESO standards-setting activities as far as the types of standards that are needed in the market.

IEC: What effect will the realignment have on the existing IAQA committees?

Baker: The IAQA Guidelines Committee will cease to exist as this function will move to IESO. In addition, all certification responsibility of the IAQA Education and Certification Committee will move to AmIAQ as the independent industry certifying body. We will seek current members of these committees to seek involvement in the respective councils and committees in the sister organizations.

IEC: What sort of an effect do you believe the realignment will have on the amount or types of research IAQA is willing to sponsor?

Baker: Research is a combination of support and ideas worthy of investigation. We hope to maintain a more active research program with more resources to support the effort and a more geographically diverse population to draw on.

IEC: What do you have in mind as far as additional representatives from government or academia who may serve as IESO directors or standards committee members?

Fetveit: Again, IESO has an open invitation to all qualified individuals who have expertise to contribute.

A Michigan circuit court earlier this year deemed an apartment-management company to be negligent in its mold-cleanup efforts years ago in the Troy, Mich., residence of Esmeralda Mahaffy.

In its April 19 verdict, jurors awarded $925,000 in personal damages to Mahaffy, who they believe will continue to suffer illnesses from that prolonged mold exposure due to the neglect of her apartment owner, Maple Creek Estates LLC.

The award was described as “possibly the state’s largest personal injury award for mold-related illnesses,” according to an article published June 5 in the News-Herald in Southgate, Mich. That article also stated that Maple Creek Estates plans to appeal the verdict.

A June 2 press release on Business Wire drew much attention to the lucrative verdict in Mahaffy’s favor. It said the verdict could be translated into a victory for tenants everywhere, holding landlords accountable for a higher standard of liability.

“The case may set a liability precedent for property managers and landlords that negligently maintain their commercial residential properties and fail to follow established industry guidelines for the clean up of water intrusion and mold damage,” states the press release, authored by The Quell Group, a PR firm located in Troy, Mich.

However, the Press-Gazette in Green Bay, Wis., reported June 24 on an equally noteworthy jury verdict that went exactly the opposite way: against the tenant and in favor of the landlords.
 

“Two Door County landlords virtually walked away from a civil lawsuit Thursday that sought to pin blame on them for a 2001 mold infestation at their Baileys Harbor apartment complex,” the Press-Gazette article began. “Landlords Robert Doneff and Richard Langdon were not only exonerated – the 12-person jury also found that the apartment residents who filed the suit were negligent with respect to their own personal property.”

IE Connections spoke with two attorneys not involved in the Mahaffy case and asked them to speculate on the significance of the jury verdict in favor of the tenant.

WHAT ATTORNEYS ARE SAYING
One of the major reasons cases settle is due to the uncertainty of trial. When this case went to a mandatory case evaluation that is in effect in the local jurisdiction, the three-member panel valued it at $100,000. In fact, the $925,000 number is a bit exaggerated as the current judgment amount is approximately $755,000. Note that the demand made by the plaintiff was $350,000 prior to the jury verdict.

One of the basic problems for the defendants in this case was that the remediation and renovation was not done completely. After the initial work was performed, the Band-Aid solution was removed and extensive mold damage was found below the surface. This cover-up approach reflected poorly on the defendant and I am sure stuck in the minds of the jurors as they decided whether the appropriate steps were taken to remedy the problems that the plaintiff was complaining about.

Not only are jury verdicts tough to predict, but even the rulings by judges on evidentiary points are difficult to predict. Here, the judge allowed Dr. Eckart Johanning to testify about the plaintiff’s future anticipated mold-related illnesses, despite the fact that the Institute of Medicine basically contradicted his position.

The specifics of the trial testimony and rulings are still unclear. The case is on appeal, both on a statute-of-limitations argument (that is, whether the plaintiff knew or should have known that she had a mold-related illness for too long before filing a lawsuit) and on the expert admissibility issue.

— David Governo, Partner, Governo Law Firm LLC, Boston, Mass.

In California, where I practice, the Health & Safety Code already requires landlords to keep their premises free from water intrusion and mildew buildup. In fact, when I file lawsuits for tenants with mold problems, I simply quote the code. The issue of what level or kind of mold is a problem is not part of our laws, though.

The first thing I noticed about the decision was it was based on the plaintiff’s asthma attacks. I suspect what was presented to the jury was evidence that mold – even if it is not a toxin-producing species – can be an allergen for many people, and was for this particular person.

It seems to me that most people involved in mold matters skip over the allergy issue and go right to the issue of whether the mold is “toxic.” Many indoor molds do not produce toxins, and those that are capable of producing toxins do not always produce them. Even if a mold is producing toxins, a person has to ingest them.

However, even a species that does not produce toxins or one that can produce toxins, but is not producing them, can cause allergies. Repeated exposure sensitizes the person, making the allergic reaction worse. Simply put, I think it is much more likely that a person is going to have mold allergies than they are to have poisoning from mold toxins.

Second, the fact that the jury apparently considered mold-remediation guidelines is really important. [A press release from the plaintiff’s side] says, “The published guidelines are easily available on the Internet but this apartment manager never bothered to investigate the appropriate protocol, neglecting his duties to the paying tenant to provide a safe and habitable living space.”

There is still a huge argument (at least in litigation) about what appropriate mold containment and remediation protocols are. It’s interesting to note that this happened before the release of the Institute of Medicine’s “Damp Indoor Spaces and Health,” which has exacting standards for mold remediation. The fact that the court allowed the evidence in, and that a jury found those are the standards to be followed, is very interesting.

— Cynthia Coulter Mulvihill, Shareholder, Hyde Mulvihill, Monrovia, Calif.

Qualifications for mold remediators and assessors that lawmakers had green-lighted in May will not become part of the law after all.

Gov. Jeb Bush vetoed House Bill 315 late last month, issuing a letter in which he voices the need for regulation of the fields of home inspection, mold remediation and mold assessment. However, he states that this bill would have resulted in “unintended consequences, including putting some legitimate and responsible employees out of business.”

Bush expressed skepticism about some areas of the bill that would have been difficult for some businesses and individuals to keep up, emphasizing that the limited availability of insurance and the need for education and experience might have kept some people from complying in time. Provisions related to mold remediation and assessment would have gone into effect Oct. 1.

Bush’s June 22 veto letter indicates that this deadline might have been too soon of a deadline for some certified individuals to comply with the bill’s minimum requirements for education and experience. Additionally, Bush writes that “the bill appears to arbitrarily require high school and college degrees while presenting no clear reason why.”

HB 315 would have required nonprofit organizations to certify only mold assessors with either four-year college degrees or a combination of two-year college degrees and three years of documented experience. However, not all of the prominent nonprofit organizations offering mold certifications for assessment required applicants to possess college degrees.

Similarly, remediators certified by nonprofit organizations would have needed high-school diplomas, another requirement that was absent from many of the leading mold-remediation certification programs.

“The bill grandfathers some home inspectors but does not provide for the grandfathering of responsible and experienced mold assessors and remediators,” Bush writes. “This will likely put employees and companies that cannot complete the bill’s education and training requirements by January 1, 2006 out of business.”

Bush’s letter also faults the bill for being “somewhat ambiguous” and lacking “clear guidance” as to “what kinds of curriculum and/or standards are necessary” within the home-inspection and mold industries. (In a related story, the National Clearinghouse for Worker Safety and Health Training last month issued guidelines for a mold-remediation curriculum; see article on page 13.)

Some in the industry believe that experience sufficiently qualifies people, along with knowledge demonstrated via testing. For instance, it is possible for consultants with five years of relevant experience to be certified by the American Indoor Air Quality Council if they pass the specified exam, never having attended a college course or completed any mold-related coursework.

“It has always been my philosophy that experience is a better instructor than a classroom,” said AmIAQ Executive Charlie Wiles last month. “It is also my philosophy that classroom instruction is necessary to establish a proper foundation of knowledge and to provide a venue for expressing differing viewpoints and opinions. Obviously, a combination of a proper knowledge base challenged by lots of field experience will provide the most competent certificants.”

Commenting on the bill’s requirement that all mold assessors and remediators carry liability insurance policies specifically for mold, Bush writes, “There is some question as to whether these policies will be available by the required date of October 1, 2005.”

The Indoor Air Quality Association, for instance, recently conducted a pilot program to offer group insurance as a member benefit. “The program offers mold-specific insurance, including general-liability and/or errors-and-omissions coverage, through three different top-rated insurance companies,” IAQA President Bob Baker writes in a message included in the association’s newsletter. “The preliminary results of the pilot program indicate that established companies will be able to secure insurance at lower rates and/or insurance that provides broader pollution coverage.”

Bush continues, “There is a further concern that this [insurance requirement] will have the unintended effect of allowing insurers to deny payments for mold claims under a homeowner policy if work on a home has been performed by a mold assessor or remediator.”

The governor’s letter ends with a note that provides hope that legislation would take shape in the coming months to satisfy his concerns. Bush said he has directed the Department of Business and Professional Regulation to propose a new legislative solution, working with various stakeholder groups.

HB 315 had passed both houses of the state legislature with near-unanimous approval on May 6, the last day of the 2005 legislative session. The state legislature is scheduled to reconvene in March 2006.

“I encourage legislators to participate in this process,” Bush writes, “and hope that they will work with the department to find a solution that protects the public while providing a constructive business climate in which legitimate and responsible Florida businesses can compete.”

Toolbox Stocked with Moisture-detection Equipment
Michael Casanova
IAQ Coordinator
Lee County Facilities Management
Fort Myers, Fla.

A main concern for me as a facility manager and IAQ coordinator is building envelope water intrusion. The roof and external walls are usually my first focus when looking for the cause of an indoor air quality problem. I always respond to an IAQ assessment work order with my high-tech toolbox equipped with a laptop, several IAQ monitoring kits, a combustible gas meter, portable temperature and humidity loggers, an infrared thermometer, a small high-intensity flashlight and a CD camera. But my two most prized and important tools are the infrared camera and moisture meter.

Our facilities management team was initially introduced to infrared thermography via an aerial operation service. Using a helicopter, the company offering us this service can provide us with infrared images of our more than 150 rooftops. These infrared reports helped us get a clear focus on roof replacement and management, and we significantly reduced the scale of planned roof replacements. Sectional roof replacement made much more business sense in some instances when total replacement was based solely on the age of the roof. Total roof replacement decisions are sometimes made when annoyance levels rise. With infrared, we were also able to oversee, on a yearly basis, a multi-year warranty for new installations. If necessary, this service could be used to resolve a legal issue against a building contractor by documenting water infiltration into new roofing.

Here in the southeastern United States, dampness that seeps into roof insulation makes the air-conditioning system work longer and harder to overcome the generated heat. It’s been proven that the energy savings and longer roof life are worth the time and dollars invested to keep your building’s rooftops dry. This does not take into account the expenses saved by reducing mold concerns and addressing poor indoor air quality complaints due to roof leaks.

One of the earliest building envelope seminars on moisture control and water management I recall attending was a 2002 ASHRAE seminar in southwest Florida. It was presented by none other than the great Dr. Joseph Lstiburek. His lecture that day was as eye-opening as an article he contributed to ASHRAE Journal that December, which stated: “Water comes in four forms: solid, liquid, vapor and adsorbed. All four forms can cause grief to building owners, designers, and contractors. When water causes building problems, investigating and diagnosing the problem can be challenging because water constantly changes it form inside a building and within its materials. The investigator must hunt down the water by thinking like water.”

In his presentation, Lstiburek preached that water always changes its behavior and that its form is never stable: “Evaporation, condensation, capillary suction, gravitational flow, vapor diffusion and mass flow of moist air are happening all at the same time inside building cavities and materials.” After attending his seminar, I utilized the moisture meter more effectively.

About a year later, I was introduced to the hand-held infrared. Now, not only can I think like water, but I can capture it lurking in areas not visible to the naked eye. Of course, I still need to back up these findings with my moisture meter.

Our sales representative told us that no matter what infrared camera we decided to purchase, training on how to use the camera should not be an option. I’m glad we listened to him because the right training maximizes your camera investment. So we purchased two cameras: one for IAQ investigations and the other for the preventive maintenance crew.

Nine maintenance staff members and I trained on the proper use of the camera by taking the Infrared Training Center’s Level I Thermographer certification. I highly recommend this comprehensive fundamental course for new users of infrared equipment.

How Infrared Thermography Works

According to our training manual, thermography enables us to see and measure heat. All materials on earth emit heat energy, in the infrared portion of the spectrum. Unfortunately, the unaided human eye cannot see in the infrared. Infrared images allow the camera user to see thermally, revealing temperature anomalies that in turn identify potential problems in buildings and their component electrical, mechanical, plumbing and waterproofing systems.

Today’s lightweight and rugged infrared cameras can not only see in real time but can also record infrared images and measure the temperatures of target objects quite accurately – to within 0.25 degrees Fahrenheit. Points of possible concern show up clearly as hot or cold spots in relation to their surroundings. Recorded thermal images can be easily inserted into reports and widely distributed, greatly facilitating communications among the trades, attorneys, and other professionals and serving as invaluable, rational, evidentiary data in cases involving controversy.

We went on to learn about the beginnings of infrared and of Sir William Herschel, who in the year 1800 performed a simple experiment that led to the detection of infrared radiation. Herschel was an astronomer and telescope maker and was quite familiar with optics and lenses. As a youth, you may have done what William did: He took a magnifying glass and focused the sunlight that passed through the lens onto a small area until the light radiation is refracted and the area got hot. This made Herschel wonder about how a prism also refracts light radiation and additionally breaks white light into a variety of colors. He surmised these multi-colored lights might have the ability to heat objects unequally, so as a scientist, he thought it would be appropriate to persist with his prism experimentation.

He used a piece of paperboard with a narrow slit in it and sampled the various colors produced by the solar radiation of the prism. The selected colors reflected onto blackened bulbs of a thermometer, and he recorded the results. He found that the color responsible for radiant heat could not be detected by the human eye and was located just beyond the red part of the visible spectrum. The bottom line on Herschel’s experiment is that when an object becomes warmer, it emits more infrared radiation. This is the energy detected by the recent infrared camera equipment.

ITC’s Level I course manual is a great reference source and study guide for me. The Building Science Institute now offers a one-day training and certification course called Infrared Building Science, which focuses on the detection of moisture and mold- growth conditions using the infrared camera. It is designed specifically for the experienced water damage/restoration technician who is a first-time infrared camera user. If a fellow facility manager is thinking of taking one of these thermography courses but is balking at the cost, let me remind you of how much labor time you will spend using only a moisture meter.

In contrast, one should not solely rely on infrared without the assurance of a moisture meter because one weakness of infrared imaging is that a reflection of light may be mistakenly interpreted as a wet spot. A previously stained ceiling tile that is now dry could also be mistakenly perceived as a wet area. This is when the moisture meter should be used to back up your assumptions that what you see in the camera is indeed damp or wet.

As a facilities person with many buildings to maintain, I had the luxury of on the job experimental camera use every day. Allow me to share with you a few of my experiences using infrared and a moisture meter as part of my investigational routine. Lee County leases a 900-square-foot duplex apartment that was being used by our emergency medical technicians. An old water heater developed a very small leak, and in a matter of a few days that the unit was not being used, the entire dwelling ceramic tiles and carpet flooring were soaked. The building owner called in a local disaster cleanup company, which did the standard water extraction with floor fans and dehumidifiers.

After receiving my work request to follow up and investigate this incident, I scanned the entire area with my infrared camera and moisture meter. I found more areas that would have been overlooked because they assumed that the water had not infiltrated the adjoining apartment. Apparently, they used only a moisture meter and their field experience but not infrared to determine the extent of water damage to the flooring and walls.

The next day, the building owner was given a professionally written report that had the county logo on it. It contained infrared images and digital photos detailing the exact areas that needed to be dried out. The landlord was very appreciative and relieved to know that the ugly expenses of mold problems were averted by my assessment of the property.

We at facilities management also rely on restoration companies to dry out a building, and infrared saves us dollars on drying an area that is already dry. The difference in one day of rental fees can be significant depending on the square footage. With my infrared camera, I have the ability to scan and map the wet areas; then, I can go back the next day with a moisture meter test for myself the percentage of moisture that is still in the materials that I have scanned.

On another day, my laptop computer fielded a work request from our library system asking for help after a sizable water leak into the building occurred due to a roof replacement project. Two of the rooftop HVAC units drain lines got filled with debris and caused the drain pans to overflow directly onto the administrative office’s ceiling tiles.

After the cleanup of the wet ceiling tiles and insulation was complete, I scanned the ceiling tiles to make sure they were all dry. All of the tiles were dry, but the infrared camera detected that some the insulation above them was not. I was able to look into the camera screen a see a blue blot of moisture coming from the fiberglass insulation sitting on top of the dry ceiling tile. I moved the ceiling tile and placed my moisture meter to the insulation to confirm this visual anomaly and the audible alarm went off, and the percentage of moisture in the insulation showed digitally on my meter. A moisture meter and the naked eye wouldn’t have found the wet insulation hiding above a dry ceiling tile. This of course helps to reduce mold colonizing in an area that is not visually obvious. Also, by not having to remove tiles to detect a few pieces of wet insulation left behind by the restoration crew, I avoided dislodging dirt and other particulates all over the desks and computers.

I can’t imagine reverting to the bad old days when I would treat wet building materials by opening windows and turning down the temperature on the air-conditioning “to let everything dry out.” In certain states and depending on the time of year, this method might partially dry out wet building materials, but not in hot, humid Florida. Eventually, I caught up with the times and employed the use of shop vacuums, floor fans and dehumidifying units to dry out water damage.

If a facility manager wants to be sure of the proper way to deal with building water damage, the IICRC S500 Standard and Reference Guide for Professional Water Damage Restoration is a good place to start. This document will familiarize you with the best practice for water-damage restoration, including psychrometry science and practice related to atmospheric air mixtures. It explains how to remove humidity from the air as fast as, or faster than, the evaporation process.

Michael Casanova is IAQ coordinator for the Board of County Commissioners in Lee County, Fla. An IAQA-certified indoor environmentalist and IAQA-certified mold remediator, he handles all IAQ claims and investigations for the facilities management department. Along with facilities management Director Rich Beck, Casanova founded the Florida Inter-County IAQ Council. He is also an elected board member of the Indoor Air Quality Association and chairman of a group of more than 60 Fla. government employees who are responsible for IAQ in public buildings throughout the state. Casanova can be reached at mcasanova@leegov.com or (239) 479-8564.
 

What’s Bugging You?
Jeffrey C. May
Manager
May Indoor Air Investigations LLC
Cambridge, Mass.

My wife and I spent a week in Mexico this spring and stayed at a small bed-and-breakfast. While packing to leave, I lifted a shirt from the dresser, and a cockroach dropped out of the shirt onto the floor. I was horrified, but I reacted quickly enough to squash the interloper flat.

Needless to say, when we arrived home, our luggage did not enter the house without careful scrutiny of the contents first!

It’s not only small hotels in foreign countries that are being plagued by pests. Last year, the Helmsley Park Hotel in New York City had to settle with a Mexican businessman who suffered numerous bedbug bites in the hotel.

He further alleged that the infestation followed him home in his luggage to Mexico. (Tit for tat, I suppose.)

Unlike cockroaches, which have been a persistent problem in urban apartments, bedbugs were virtually unseen for decades. They are currently making a comeback, which theorists attribute to reductions in pesticide use. Bedbugs feed on their hosts – sleeping human beings – at night. A bedbug harborage is usually located conveniently near the food source – in mattress crevices, bed frames or floorboard gaps near the bed or behind wall hangings. About a quarter to three-eighths of an inch long, bedbugs are attracted to the heat, moisture and exhaled carbon dioxide; they suck blood out of the host and then lumber off engorged, leaving behind them itchy bites that swell.

Bugs, whether visible or microscopic, are not welcome guests – with the possible exception of spiders, which some people believe are signs of good luck. (Of course, I disagree, but I’ll say more about this later.) Mosquitoes, sucking head and pubic lice, and chiggers and scabies have plagued mankind for millennia. Their bites can itch and cause rashes and other skin problems. In addition, we can unsuspectingly inhale allergen-containing fragments of body parts and excretions of any type of insect. The fecal material of non-biting bugs like mites and cockroaches often contains digestive enzymes such as proteases, many of which are potent allergens. Protease-activated receptors are on the surfaces of many cells, and activation of these is responsible for some of the cellular responses and, ultimately, the physiological symptoms resulting from allergen exposure.

Excretions
For barely visible organisms – such as mites, which range from 100 to 350 microns in size – the fecal pellets are microscopic. For larger visible bugs like roaches and wool moth larvae, the pellets are visible. Some excreted matter is mushy; other excretions are virtually solid. Bugs with high-protein diets (e.g., house dust mites, which eat skin scales; wool moths and carpet beetles, which eat keratin from hair; or spiders, which imbibe proteinaceous fluids) cannot excrete excess nitrogen in soluble form (such as animal urine, which has dissolved urea containing two nitrogen atoms per molecule) because the organisms cannot afford the relatively huge water losses required to solubilize the urea. Whether solid or mushy, fecal excretions are often coated or filled with guanine (a highly water-insoluble organic compound, containing five nitrogen atoms per molecule).

If you look under a spider web, you will find sucked-dry bugs, sliced from the web by the spider’s “housecleaning.” You will also find many white dots, looking like paint spatters, one 16th to one eighth an inch in diameter, often with dark centers. Around a decimated carcass of a moth or bee, you may find brown rings of dust that are the frass of a carpet beetle larva. (Each pellet contains partially digested bites of the meal.) Under a rug consumed by wool moth larvae, you will find colored dust, which are the frass of these creatures. Each individual pellet contains approximately equal-sized lengths of partially digested wool fibers that still retain the color of the original fiber.

(Once, I was quite excited to discover that I was not alone in my arcane interest in bug stuff. I received a call from a New York City police lab that was trying to identify a decomposed body. Apparently, carpet beetle larvae had turned the victim’s hair to frass, which, for those of you without a dictionary, is “debris or excrement produced by insects” according to Merriam-Webster). The inquiry pertained to the feasibility of determining the hair dye used by the victim. I advised them to obtain an infrared spectrum of the fecal material, as this would provide the needed information, since most of the hair, though fragmented, was intact.)

The fecal pellets of a house dust mite, or HDM, are typically 10 to 25 microns, which makes them small enough to become aerosolized but big enough that they settle out of the air within seconds to minutes. Since the intact fecal pellets are not found in air unless surfaces are disturbed, dust rather than air is sampled for mite allergens. (However, A. Woodcock and others in 1999 determined that about 20 percent of aerosolized mite allergens are carried on particles with sizes between one and four microns; in addition, mites are allegedly coprophagous, so it is possible that their fecal pellets are reduced in size because the mites gnaw on them.)

Other insect droppings are far too large to be aerosolized whole, but allergens can nonetheless become airborne and be inhaled. For example, the surface of a larval wool-moth dropping is coated with a layer of spherules (probably containing guanine). About a micron in size, these spherules (cemented together by a “mucilage,” visible in scanning-electron microscopy) are readily dislodged when disturbed. Spider droppings consist of almost pure guanine crystals (1–3 microns in size), also stuck together by a mucilage. I believe in both these cases, the mucilage contains allergenic proteins.

So, why are spiders not good luck? Since they eat only live insects, having lots of spiders means having lots of other bugs too. If you can’t see dried-up insects on the web or under it, the spider is preying on tiny booklice and mites that proliferate in conditions of high humidity and, while alive, leave behind microscopic, allergenic droppings. Thus, extensive networks of spider webs under fiberglass ceiling insulation in a basement or crawl space are often a sign of excess moisture, invisible (extensive) growth of Aspergillus, Cladosporium or Penicillium mold in the insulation and sometimes equally invisible, massive infestations of mold-eating mites.

Are You There?
Since allergens from dust mites and cockroaches are significant causes of asthma, determining (and eliminating) exposures is of utmost importance. (The amount of allergen in a single HDM fecal pellet is enough, during a prick-test, to provoke a weal on the skin of a highly sensitized, mite-allergic individual.) There are readily available tests for HDM and cockroach allergens. Dust is accumulated, usually by a vacuum collection device, and sent to a lab for analysis that uses monoclonal antibodies.

There are also two home tests for HDM allergens in dust. The first (Fisons’ “Acarex”) detects guanine in the dust, on the assumption that any guanine present in a bed or couch originated from the mite fecal pellets. In the test, methanolic potassium hydroxide (caustic!) and potassium nitrite are used to diazotize the amine nitrogens on the guanine in the suspended dust; a dipstick with reactant is inserted into the suspension, resulting in the formation of a dye in the dipstick, the intensity of which can be compared to a color card that is included.

In my experience, the Acarex test provided too many false positives (though the test may prove more useful as a measure of overall insect activity in dust). Recently, Indoor Biotechnologies has started selling a more precise, rapid “Mitest” that reacts only with specific HDM antigens from Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and D. farinae. Droplets of a buffered suspension of collected dust are placed in a well above a nitrocellulose sheet imbedded with reactants. The antigens diffuse down the sheet and combine with the reactants. In a window of the kit, the darkness of an indicator strip is compared to the color of three control strips to determine the presence of low, medium or high levels of antigens.

Determining the presence of HDM and roach allergens is essential, but there are hoards of other bugs, such as booklice, spiders, silverfish, wool moths and about a dozen other species of mites that cohabit in buildings. (Most of these creatures do little more than masticate, fornicate, and defecate.) Exposure to these unwelcome denizens can cause sensitization and exacerbate allergy and asthma symptoms, and yet, there are no readily available tests kits for their allergens (nor do allergists have antigens for prick testing to determine sensitization). So although qualitative and quantitative dust sampling for allergens is important, I believe that indoor samples should also observed by microscopy.

More Forensic Scatology
One of my very first IAQ investigations was in a single-story, slab-on-grade music building in a wooded area at an independent school. Teachers and students would get hoarse during classes and rehearsals. Two teachers who spent the most time in the building were experiencing asthma and allergy symptoms. There was a mildew odor in the building, and a dehumidifier ran constantly.

I took two vacuum dust samples from the carpet; I sent one to a lab for HDM-allergen analysis, and I observed the other sample with a microscope. The dust contained many, many mite fecal pellets. I reported back verbally to the school that there was a huge mite problem in the carpeting, only to be horrified when the lab test results came back negative for HDM allergens. I was so embarrassed that I never billed the school for the testing.

In hindsight, this proved to be a mistake on my part because, at the time, I did not realize the incredible specificity of the lab testing, which detected antigens only from the two species of HDM. The fecal pellets I had observed in the sample came from mold-eating mites, which did not contain cross-reacting antigens. Thus, building occupants were probably sensitized to mite allergens (and/or sensitized to the mildew growing in the carpet dust) that could not be detected with the analytical test.

In another example of how useful sampling and microscopy can be, several years ago, I purchased an expensive wool sport coat. The jacket never bothered me in the store, but when I wore it at home, I began to cough and wheeze. I placed the jacket in a large garbage bag, held the mouth of the bag tightly around an inverted personal air sampler, and kicked the jacket a few times with the sampler operating. I then stained and observed the trapped dust sample with a microscope. I was shocked to find several HDM fecal pellets.

When dust mites are foraging on skin scales in carpeting, they pick up accumulations like rust and soil particles; when they are foraging in beds, their diet is only skin, and their excreta contain only partially digested skin scales. The HDM pellets from this jacket were quite homogeneous, suggesting a bedroom origin (rather than the retail store). I realized that the jacket must have been purchased and then returned by a customer who had a serious HDM infestation. Dry-cleaning and heat both denature HDM allergens, so eliminating the problem was easy.

Bug BBQ: Steam Vapor
Although there are chemical treatments for carpeting (tannic acid sprays, benzyl benzoate and borate dusts), the safest way to eliminate many bug infestations is with the use of superheated steam, otherwise known as steam vapor treatment. This is very different from either steam-cleaning and washing, both of which use just hot water. When hot water hits a surface, the material is heated as the water cools. The net result is a temperature far below the boiling point of water. When steam vapor hits a surface, the vapor condenses to water at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, after delivering a punch of 540 calories per gram of steam (the heat of vaporization). This temperature is high enough to cook any bug in the path of the steam (and even denature some of the proteins and thus destroy some of the allergens present). Since steam is a gas, unlike water (which is repelled by hydrophobic surfaces), the vapor almost instantly penetrates fabric, carpeting, and even thin cushions. And since very little water is used, surfaces dry within hours rather than days, thus minimizing the chances of ensuing mildew growth.

Conclusions
As you can imagine, my searches for bug fecal material have taken me (donned in a durable protective suit and a respirator) into odd places: an attic filled with thousands of empty moth larval cases and hundreds of thousands of spider droppings, as well as an indescribable crawlspace beneath the leaky kitchen grease trap in a college dorm, where dead roaches and droppings littered the floor, and booklice turned the glue traps solid white. I won’t go on, but suffice it to say that some of the sacrifices I have made have been for naught. My precious spider droppings were lost by the lab I sent them to (before they could be tested for antigenicity against a pool of patient serum). And the roach droppings I collected in a plastic sandwich bag vanished from my desk. I had hoped to obtain a scanning-electron micrograph of the sample because with light microscopy, I had seen that the droppings were littered with mite eggs and crawling with mites fornicating under groves of Aspergillus conidiophores. The insignificant plastic bag must have fallen from my desk and been scooped into a waste paper basket.
Opportunities like these come up only once in a lifetime!

Jeffrey May is co-author of “The Mold Survival Guide: For Your Home and for Your Health,” and author of “My House is Killing Me! The Home Guide for Families with Allergies and Asthma,” both published by Johns Hopkins University Press. Currently at the press is his next book, “My Office is Killing Me,” which will deal with IAQ problems in offices, schools and businesses. May’s company, May Indoor Air Investigations LLC, investigates IAQ problems throughout the United States. He can be reached by e-mail at Jeff@mayindoorair.com or by phone at (800) 686-1055