July 18, 2010
Your home environment is related to many health effects, ranging from allergies and asthma triggered by dust mites, mold and pest residue to cancer or death from combustion pollutants or dangerous fumes.
The good news is that you can make your house a healthy home for your family by applying these seven principles of healthy homes
Dry:Damp houses provide a nurturing environment for mites, roaches, rodents, and molds, all of which are associated with asthma.
Clean: Clean homes help reduce pest infestations and exposure to contaminants.
Pest-Free: Recent studies show a causal relationship between exposure to mice and cockroaches and asthma episodes in children; yet inappropriate treatment for pest infestations can exacerbate health problems, since pesticide residues in homes pose risks for neurological damage and cancer.
Safe: The majority of injuries among children occur in the home. Falls are the most frequent cause of residential injuries to children, followed by injuries from objects in the home, burns, and poisonings.
Contaminant-Free: Chemical exposures include lead, radon, pesticides, volatile organic compounds, and environmental tobacco smoke. Exposures to asbestos particles, radon gas, carbon monoxide, and second-hand tobacco smoke are far higher indoors than outside.
Ventilated: Studies show that increasing the fresh air supply in a home improves respiratory health.
Maintained: Poorly-maintained homes are at risk for moisture and pest problems. Deteriorated lead-based paint in older housing is the primary cause of lead poisoning, which affects some 240,000 U.S. children.
John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
www.Microshield-ES.com
www.CFL-IAQ,com
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Residential IAQ | Tagged: ACAC, air quality, Apartment mold, CETC, ciec, condo mold, Florida Mold Law, healthy home, HOA, iaqa, IESO, indoor air quality, john lapotaire, John P. Lapotaire, microshield, mold, mold inspection, mold pretreatment, mold prevention, mold remediation, mold removal, mold testing, new home mold, School mold | 
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Posted by John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
July 18, 2010
Indoor airPLUS Advantages
Improved Indoor Air Quality
More than 30 additional design and construction features are included in Indoor airPLUS homes to help protect you against moisture and mold, pests, combustion gases, radon, and other airborne pollutants in your home.
Minimize Pollutants
Moisture and pest control, among other things, can help protect your family by eliminating common allergens from entering the home, such as mold and pest residue. Your builder will provide a first line defense against pests like cockroaches and rodents, by fully sealing, caulking, or screening where pests enter your home.
Improve Comfort
Your Indoor airPLUS home can provide a more comfortable living environment because it includes properly engineered HVAC system sizing, improved duct and equipment installation, improved filtration, and whole-house and spot ventilation to dilute and remove indoor pollutants.
Protect Against Combustion Pollutants
The home provides protection from potential exposure to combustion pollutants by the installation of heating equipment that cannot spill combustion gases inside the home and preventing pollutants in the garage from entering your house. Also, carbon monoxide alarms are in all sleeping areas.
Home Maintenance
After purchasing a home with the EPA Indoor airPLUS, you’ll receive a manual explaining your home’s indoor air quality features and how to operate your home to continue minimizing the risk of indoor air quality problems. In addition, your home will have a label as proof that it was built to the high indoor air quality specifications if you resell the home.
Energy Efficient
All Indoor airPLUS homes must first earn the ENERGY STAR label. ENERGY STAR qualified homes use substantially less energy for heating, cooling, and water heating thereby reducing your contribution to climate change.
John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
www.Microshield-ES.com
www.CFL-IAQ,com
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1 Comment | Residential IAQ | Tagged: ACAC, air quality, Apartment mold, CETC, ciec, condo mold, Florida Mold Law, healthy home, HOA, iaqa, IESO, indoor air quality, john lapotaire, John P. Lapotaire, microshield, mold, mold inspection, mold pretreatment, mold prevention, mold remediation, mold removal, mold testing, new home mold, School mold | Permalink
Posted by John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
July 18, 2010
Chapter 468, Part XVI, Florida Statutes, provides for licensure and regulation of mold assessors and remediators. The law became effective July 1, 2010, and provides that the mold related services licensing program will be administered by Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR).
DBPR has chosen ACAC to provide the license examinations required by Chapter 468, and has approved six ACAC certification exams for this purpose:
Mold Assessor Exams
All of the following tests are approved by DBPR for the Florida mold assessor license. License applicants may register for the exam of their choosing
Council-certified Indoor Environmentalist (CIE)
100 question exam on the investigation of indoor environmental issues including asbestos, lead, HVAC, building science, chemicals, mold and microbial contamination.
Council-certified Indoor Environmental Consultant (CIEC)
120 question exam on the investigation of indoor environmental issues including asbestos, lead, HVAC, building science, chemicals, mold and microbial contamination.
Council-certified Microbial Consultant (CMC)
120 question exam on the investigation of suspected microbial contamination, including the design and execution of microbial sampling regimens.
Mold Remediator Exams
All of the following tests are approved by DBPR for the Florida mold remediator license. License applicants may register for the exam of their choosing:
Council-certified Microbial Remediator (CMR)
100 question exam on proper techniques for microbial remediation in the indoor environment.
Council-certified Microbial Remediation Supervisor (CMRS)
120 question exam on proper techniques for microbial remediation in the indoor environment.
Council-certified Indoor Environmental Supervisor (CIES)
120 question exam on proper techniques for remediating environmental issues including asbestos, lead, hazardous materials, chemicals and microbial contamination.
John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
www.Microshield-ES.com
www.CFL-IAQ.com
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9 Comments | Commercial IAQ, Flood Information, Hurricane Information, Residential IAQ, Storm Damage Information | Tagged: ACAC, air quality, Apartment mold, CETC, ciec, condo mold, Florida Mold Law, healthy home, HOA, iaqa, IESO, indoor air quality, john lapotaire, John P. Lapotaire, microshield, mold, mold inspection, mold pretreatment, mold prevention, mold remediation, mold removal, mold testing, new home mold, School mold | Permalink
Posted by John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
July 18, 2010
Some air cleaners are designed to produce ozone which is a strong oxidizing agent and a known irritant of the lungs and respiratory system. Studies have shown that ozone, even at high concentrations, is not effective at killing airborne mold or surface mold contamination. Even if mold was killed by ozone, the health threats would not be reduced until mold contaminants are removed through cleaning. Health experts, including the Minnesota Department of Health, do not recommend the use of ozone to address mold or any other indoor air problems.
John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
www.Microshield-ES.com
www.CFL-IAQ.com
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20 Comments | Commercial IAQ, Residential IAQ | Tagged: ACAC, air quality, Apartment mold, CETC, ciec, condo mold, Florida Mold Law, healthy home, HOA, iaqa, IESO, indoor air quality, john lapotaire, John P. Lapotaire, microshield, mold, mold inspection, mold pretreatment, mold prevention, mold remediation, mold removal, mold testing, new home mold, School mold | Permalink
Posted by John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
July 16, 2010
ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.2-2010, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings, is the only nationally recognized indoor air quality standard developed solely for residences. It defines the roles of and minimum requirements for mechanical and natural ventilation systems and the building envelope intended to provide acceptable indoor air quality in low-rise residential buildings.
The 2010 standard encourages home retrofits to improve indoor air quality through allowance of alternative methods for meeting the standard’s requirements regarding kitchen and bathroom exhaust fans. The standard currently requires fans in those rooms.
“This change makes the standard much easier to use in home retrofits, which is very important considering massive federal and state government efforts in this area,” Steven Emmerich, committee chair, said. “For example, installation of new equipment in some existing homes can be a barrier in terms of expense and practicality. Under the alternative compliance path, the overall whole-house ventilation rate can be increased to compensate for insufficient or non-existent bathroom exhaust.”
The overall approach to residential ventilation in the standard has not changed since the 2007 version was published, such as whole house mechanical for most houses, local exhaust in baths and kitchens and some source control measures.
Additional improvements to the standard include more accurate factors for intermittent whole-house systems; changes to better limit unintended (potentially contaminated) air transfer from garages, leaky ducts, adjacent housing units, and other such spaces; and deletion of an exception for certain climates that had allowed the use of windows instead of fans given that studies have shown that windows are not used enough and are unreliable for ventilation.
The cost of Standard 62.2-2010 is $54 ($46, ASHRAE members). To order, contact ASHRAE Customer Service at 1-800-527-4723 (United States and Canada) or 404-636-8400 (worldwide), fax 404-321-5478, or visit http://www.ashrae.org/bookstore.
ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is an international organization of some 50,000 persons. ASHRAE fulfills its mission of advancing heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world through research, standards writing, publishing and continuing education.
John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
www.Microshield-ES.com
www.CFL-IAQ.com
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Posted by John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
July 16, 2010
ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2010, Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality, sets minimum ventilation rates and other requirements for commercial and institutional buildings.
“Since first being published in 1973, the standard has provided the basis for ventilation system design throughout the industry,” Roger Hedrick, committee chair, said. “The 2010 standard furthers ASHRAE’s work in ensuring acceptable indoor air quality, while also heeding the need for energy efficiency as we strive to find ways to help designers tailor ventilation system designs to each particular application.”
Among the changes to the 2010 standard are modifications to the Natural Ventilation Rate Procedure, which now requires most buildings designed to meet the natural ventilation requirements also include a mechanical ventilation system designed to meet the Ventilation Rate or IAQ procedures. The mechanical system is to be used when windows are closed due to extreme outdoor temperatures, noise and security concerns.
“Most buildings using natural ventilation in the United States are high-rise residential buildings that often have no form of outdoor air intake other than operable windows,” Hedrick said. “This results in buildings with inadequate ventilation, because occupants often leave the windows closed in order to run the air conditioning, keep out noise, etc. The committee felt it needed to strengthen the existing prescriptive requirements to ensure adequate ventilation and their corresponding IAQ benefits are available to occupants.”
Another change relocates requirements related to exhaust systems to a new section, clarifying that exhaust requirements apply to all buildings regardless of the procedure used to determine outdoor air intake flow rates.
The IAQ procedure, which allows for the calculation of the amount of outdoor air necessary to maintain the levels of indoor air contaminants below recommended levels, has been made more robust by increasing requirements for using the “similar building” design approach and clarifying other requirements.
“The standard now contains, in informative Appendix B, a table of volatile organic compounds that designers might want to consider as possible contaminants of concern,” Hedrick said. “To encourage designers to consider ‘additivity’ when applying the IAQ Procedure, some guidance from the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists has been included.”
The cost of Standard 62.1-2010, Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality, is $69 ($59 ASHRAE members). To order, contact ASHRAE Customer Service at 1-800-527-4723 (United States and Canada) or 404-636-8400 (worldwide), fax 404-321-5478, or visit http://www.ashrae.org/bookstore.
ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is an international organization of some 50,000 persons. ASHRAE fulfills its mission of advancing heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world through research, standards writing, publishing and continuing education.
John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
www.Microshield-ES.com
www.CFL-IAQ.com
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1 Comment | Commercial IAQ, Flood Information, Hurricane Information, Residential IAQ, Storm Damage Information | Tagged: ACAC, air quality, Apartment mold, CETC, ciec, condo mold, Florida Mold Law, healthy home, HOA, iaqa, IESO, indoor air quality, john lapotaire, John P. Lapotaire, microshield, mold, mold inspection, mold pretreatment, mold prevention, mold remediation, mold removal, mold testing, new home mold | Permalink
Posted by John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
July 14, 2010
Florida’s mold-related services law, which went into effect on July 1, 2010, requires that all mold assessors and mold remediators obtain a license to work in the state.
Individuals currently practicing mold assessment and remediation will be pleased to learn that the state law includes a “grandfather” clause allowing applicants to qualify for the license until March 1, 2011.
Florida will accept “grandfather” applications from two types of people:
1. Individuals who are certified as mold assessors or mold remediators by state or national associations that require a proctored examination in mold assessment or mold remediation. These grandfather applicants must also submit proof of completion of at least 60 hours of education in mold assessment or at least 30 hours of education in mold remediation.
2. Individuals who can demonstrate at least three years of field experience in mold assessment or mold remediation. As proof of field experience, these grandfather applicants must submit 40 invoices for mold assessment or mold remediation services.
Individuals who do not meet either of these criteria for grandfathering may obtain a license by taking one of six ACAC certification exams and completing Florida’s initial license application.
John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
www.Microshield-ES.com
www.CFL-IAQ.com
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2 Comments | Commercial IAQ, Flood Information, Hurricane Information, Residential IAQ, Storm Damage Information | Tagged: ACAC, air quality, Apartment mold, CETC, ciec, condo mold, Florida Mold Law, healthy home, HOA, iaqa, IESO, indoor air quality, john lapotaire, John P. Lapotaire, microshield, mold, mold inspection, mold pretreatment, mold prevention, mold remediation, mold removal, mold testing, new home mold, School mold | Permalink
Posted by John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
July 14, 2010
Applying for the Florida Mold License is easy!
As of July 1, 2010, all mold assessors and mold remediators must obtain a state license to work in Florida. The Department of Business & Professional Regulation (DBPR) has delayed enforcement of the law until July 1, 2011 to allow license applicants to acquire the documentation, training and examination required by the law.
Additionally, the state law includes a “grandfather” clause, which allows applicants to qualify for the license until March 1, 2011 without taking an examination. ACAC certificants are already qualified for the license according to this clause, and ACAC recommends that certificants who wish to work in Florida take advantage of the grandfathering opportunity as soon as possible.
To complete the application, you will need:
•A copy of your current ACAC certificate
•Proof of a successful ACAC examination
•Proof of 60 hours of approved training for assessors and 30 hours of approved training for remediators
•Background check and fingerprints
•Proof of insurance: all applicants must hold $1 million dollars in general liability insurance (assessors must also carry $1 million in errors and omissions insurance)
John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
www.Microshield-ES.com
www.CFL-IAQ.com
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1 Comment | Commercial IAQ, Residential IAQ | Tagged: ACAC, air quality, Apartment mold, CETC, ciec, condo mold, Florida Mold Law, healthy home, HOA, iaqa, IESO, indoor air quality, john lapotaire, John P. Lapotaire, microshield, mold, mold inspection, mold pretreatment, mold prevention, mold remediation, mold removal, mold testing, new home mold, School mold | Permalink
Posted by John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
July 14, 2010
Do I currently need a Florida State License to perform Mold related services (assessment or remediation)?
Yes, A license will be required after July 1, 2010; however, Florida Statutes provide that unlicensed activity will not be enforced until July 2011.
If my company does both Mold Assessments and Mold Remediations, will I be required to get two (2) licenses (one for Mold Assessor and one for Mold Remediator?
This would be considered a conflict of interest by the state, Section 468.8419(1)(d), F.S., provides that an assessor may not “perform or offer to perform any remediation to a structure on which the mold assessor or the assessor’s company provided a mold assessment within the last 12 months.” Section 468.8419(2)(d), F.S., provides that a remediator may not “perform or offer to perform any assessment to a structure on which the mold remediator or the remediator’s company provided a mold remediation within the last 12 months
John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
www.Microshield-ES.com
www.CFL-IAQ.com
Share this with the #IAQS:
1 Comment | Commercial IAQ, Flood Information, Hurricane Information, Residential IAQ, Storm Damage Information | Tagged: ACAC, air quality, Apartment mold, CETC, ciec, condo mold, Florida Mold Law, healthy home, HOA, iaqa, IESO, indoor air quality, john lapotaire, John P. Lapotaire, microshield, mold, mold inspection, mold pretreatment, mold prevention, mold remediation, mold removal, mold testing, new home mold, School mold | Permalink
Posted by John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
July 14, 2010
Chapter 468, Part XVI, Florida Statutes, provides for licensure and regulation of mold assessors and remediators. The law becomes effective July 1, 2010, and provides that the mold related services licensing program will be administered by Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR).
DBPR has chosen ACAC to provide the license examinations required by Chapter 468, and has approved six ACAC certification exams for this purpose:
Mold Assessor Exams
Applicants may choose any of the following:
Council-certified Indoor Environmentalist
Council-certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
Council-certified Microbial Consultant
Mold Remediator Exams
Applicants may choose any of the following:
Council-certified Microbial Remediator
Council-certified Microbial Remediation Supervisor
Council-certified Indoor Environmental Supervisor
John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
www.Microshield-ES.com
www.CFL-IAQ.com
Share this with the #IAQS:
Leave a Comment » | Commercial IAQ, Residential IAQ | Tagged: ACAC, air quality, Apartment mold, CETC, ciec, condo mold, Florida Mold Law, healthy home, HOA, iaqa, IESO, indoor air quality, john lapotaire, John P. Lapotaire, microshield, mold, mold inspection, mold pretreatment, mold prevention, mold remediation, mold removal, mold testing, new home mold, School mold | Permalink
Posted by John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
Indoor Air Quality Solutions, IAQS 