Indoor Air Quality Solutions, IAQS

So Md News
Chip Jackson, associate vice president for planning and facilities, said the college is working on a plan with construction contractors now for the mold remediation and said it would be “at least a couple weeks” before students move back into the residence halls. He said he hopes the work will be done before the end of the semester, which is in mid-December. “Any institution will have a mold issue here, a mold issue there,” Jackson said, but this systemic mold problem is so severe that it is forcing the evacuations of both Prince George and Caroline residence halls.

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• John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
•  Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
•  Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
• www.Microshield-ES.com

Enforcement of Unlicensed Activity for Mold Assessors and Mold Remediators will begin July 1, 2011

In addition, this delay helped to identify any unintended consequences of the new legislation and present possible solutions during the 2011 Legislative Session.

Starting on July 1, 2011, the full enforcement of mold assessor and mold remediator licensure requirements per Chapter 468, Part XVI, Florida Statutes.

This means anyone holding themselves out to be a mold assessor or mold remediator needs to be licensed through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Please review Chapter 468, Part XVI, Florida Statutes for the laws detailing Mold Related Services.

The concept of a “Healthy Home” was pioneered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to promote safe, decent, and sanitary housing as a means for preventing diseases and injury. The following seven principles are essential to keeping any home healthy.

Florida House Bill 849 was intended to not prevent a home inspector from using the word “mold” in an inspection and to not interfere with a home inspectors ability to perform his duties when inspecting a home.

It wasn’t intended to allow them to perform a mold inspection without a license.

HB 849 specifically prevents home inspectors from referring to themselves as a “certified mold assessor,” “registered mold assessor,” “licensed mold assessor,” “mold assessor,” “professional mold assessor,” or any combination thereof stating or implying licensure.

To perform mold inspections and refer to themselves as mold assessors, or any other combination of the professional terms listed above, a home inspector must be Licensed by the State as a Mold Assessor.

The collection of air samples is considered to be part of a mold assessment and NOT within the scope of a home inspection.  The collection of air samples is an additional service offered by some home inspectors and sold as a mold assessment.

Some home inspectors and some laboratories want the ability to collect air and swab samples without the need of training and a license.  For them it’s a scramble for easy cash.  For others the need for training to provide their clients with a professional mold assessment the state license was a no brainer, an added feather in their cap.

A trained and licensed mold assessor (which includes hundreds of very qualified and mold licensed home inspectors) knows that samples alone provide nothing to the client but a third party lab report, no cause and origin, no repair or protocol, and no understanding of the actual findings.

The public will need to make the decision to utilize a home inspector without a mold assessor license to collect air samples or to hire a home inspector with a mold assessor license to provide them with a real mold report written by a state licensed mold assessor.

Until the issue is pushed by a disgruntled client who has paid for a “Mold Assessment” by a home inspector without a mold assessor license who the client feels represented himself as a home inspector who was a “professional mold assessor” we will never know the actual opinion of the court as to the true interpretation of HB 849.

Until then the people who gain from this gray area are untrained home inspectors wanting a quick $50 bucks or so a sample and the lab’s that simply want an ever increasing volume of samples to process via the largest possible means of collection, home inspectors.  And yes the labs could care less if the home inspector is licensed or not.

The real losers in this are the unaware clients who will continue to receive nothing for their hard earned money but a lab report.

As for my opinion, just Get your State License.
The public wants to receive a true mold report for their money, and yes they are prepared to demand it and report what they are calling FRAUD.  There have been several recent arrest of mold inspectors not providing what they promised.

The only home inspectors I refer are licensed by the state as both home inspectors and mold assessors.

HB 849 states the following:

The following persons are not required to comply with any provisions of this part relating to mold assessment:

(d) Persons or business organizations acting within the scope of the respective licenses required under part XV of chapter 468, chapter 471, part I of chapter 481, chapter 482, chapter 489, or part XV of this chapter, are acting on behalf of an insurer under part VI of chapter 626, or are persons in the manufactured housing industry who are licensed under chapter 329,

except when any such persons or business organizations hold themselves out for hire to the public as a “certified mold assessor,” “registered mold assessor,” “licensed mold assessor,” “mold assessor,” “professional mold assessor,” or any combination thereof stating or implying licensure under this part.

• John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
•  Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
•  Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
• www.Microshield-ES.com

June 22, 2011
Contact: Office of Communications
Phone: 202-693-1999

OSHA seeks comments on proposed updates, revisions to the
occupational injury and illness tracking and reporting requirements

WASHINGTON – The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has announced in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking an update and revision of two aspects of the agency’s recordkeeping and reporting requirements for work-related injuries and illnesses.

“These proposed recordkeeping updates will better enable OSHA, employers and workers to identify hazards in high-risk worksites,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. “The proposed reporting revisions will enable OSHA to more effectively and efficiently target occupational safety and health hazards, preventing additional injuries and fatalities.”

The new proposed reporting requirements revised OSHA’s current regulation that requires an employer to report to OSHA, within eight hours, all work-related fatalities and in-patient hospitalizations of three or more employees. Under the revised proposal, employers would be required to report to OSHA any work-related fatalities and all in-patient hospitalizations within eight hours, and work-related amputations within 24 hours. Reporting amputations is not required under the current regulation.

OSHA is also proposing to update Appendix A of the recordkeeping rule (Part 1904 Subpart B) that lists industries partially exempt from the requirements to maintain work-related injury or illness logs. These industries received partial exemption because of their relatively low injury and illness rates. The current list of industries is based on the Standard Industrial Classification system. The North American Industry Classification System was introduced in 1997 to replace the SIC system for classifying establishments by industry. When OSHA issued the recordkeeping rule in 2001, the agency used the old SIC code system because injury and illness data were not yet available based on the NAICS. OSHA is also updating Appendix A in response to a 2009 Government Accountability Office report recommending that the agency update the coverage of the relevant recordkeeping requirements from the old SIC system to the newer NAICS.

OSHA is requesting public comments on the proposed revisions, and has included in the proposed rule’s preamble specific questions about issues and potential alternatives. Comments must be submitted by Sept. 20, 2011. See the Federal Register notice for details on how to submit comments. General and technical inquiries should be directed to Jens Svenson, OSHA Office of Statistical Analysis, at 202-693-2400.

To educate employers and employees on the proposed changes, OSHA updated its Recordkeeping Web page to include answers to frequently asked questions regarding the proposed rule. A link to the proposed rule itself also is available on the page.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to assure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.

• John P. Lapotaire, CIEC
•  Certified Indoor Environmental Consultant
•  Microshield Environmental Services, LLC
• www.Microshield-ES.com