Indoor Air Quality Association, about the association's Certified Mold Remediator Program, the importance of being certified and how the industry has dealt with fly-by-night mold remediation companies.
HZ: Could you provide some background on the Indoor Air Quality Association?
Fellman: The Indoor Air Quality Association was established in 1998 as a nonprofit professional organization. We currently have about 2,300 members.
The association is probably best known for its training and certification programs. There are two in particular that are very popular. We started a program at the same time the association was started called the Certified Indoor Environmentalist (CIE). That's a course that runs four days and there's an optional exam at the end for people who meet experience prerequisites. A person who takes the CIE exam and has passed earns the CIE credential, which is an indicator to the public that the individual has a high level of expertise in analyzing indoor environmental problems and helping to develop solutions to those problems.
Our second program we created - which is actually the most popular program we have - is the Certified Mold Remediator (CMR) course and examination. We have trained roughly 5,000 people, and about 3,000 are currently CMRs. A number of people take the class but don't take the exam. They just want to learn about remediation or they may not be qualified to take the exam because there is a five-year experience prerequisite.
The association has several other types of educational programs. We put on a variety of small seminars throughout the year. We have an annual conference each year in September that draws about 800 people and has a large exposition. And then we do various publishing works as well.
The last thing I would add is that we're fairly active in legislative work, especially on the state level, working with states that are thinking about or are in the process of setting regulations to license mold inspectors or mold remediators.
HZ: You said there were about 2,300 IAQA members. Who comprises the membership?
Fellman: The association was created to be a hub for the industry. If you think about who's involved with indoor air quality, you have a wide range of professions and trades - architects, engineers, industrial hygienists, air conditioning contractors, air duct cleaners, carpet cleaners, janitors, facility managers, lawyers - all different kinds of people who do work that is related to the indoor environment. For each of those professions or trades, they typically have an association that caters to their needs. We found there was a lack of communication amongst these different people who were working in the indoor environments. So the association was established as an information clearinghouse and as a hub where people from these different, specific disciplines could get together and share information.
HZ: What do you promote as the benefits of being certified?
Fellman: The biggest benefit is truly the education that comes with it. Mold remediation has blossomed as an industry over the last five years. Before the year 2000 or 1999 there were no courses - or very, very few of them - about how to do mold remediation the right way. Up until last year, there were no standards for how to do it, and the guidelines were conflicting and fairly weak. So, someone who goes through the CMR program walks out of it with a very clear understanding of how remediation should be performed and what the standards to do it are.
Now, as far as the CMR credential and the weight that it carries, it's fairly substantial. There are a number of insurance companies and insurance adjusters who will only refer work to a certified mold remediator. There are states that will recognize the CMR certification and allow it to qualify for all or a portion of their state licensing and exam requirements. The trend toward state licensing has really just begun.
There are two states right now that have licensing programs. The state of Louisiana has a full-fledged program to license people who do mold remediation. In the Louisiana program, you have to have a training class that has to be 24 hours in length and it also has to include some training that's specific to Louisiana laws and regulations. If a person has the IAQA CMR designation, they can go into the state of Louisiana and they can be exempted from a lot of the training that is required for state licensing. They may still have to take the state-specific stuff, because we don't cover state laws in our classes.
Likewise, in Texas, they just passed regulations and are working on putting the program in place. But we do have confirmation from the Texas Department of Health that they're requiring a mold remediator supervisor to have 40 hours of education. They're going to allow the people who have the CMR designation to be exempted from 24 of the 40 hours because they've already received credible training.
HZ: You had talked about how there really weren't standards for mold remediation up until last year. What standards do you abide by in your program? And are you helping to set these standards as well?
Fellman: The standard that was passed a couple of months ago is called S520. The standard was really a tremendous effort of multiple organizations. There were about eight different nonprofit trade groups that collaborated and brought people into this program, and there were about 200 volunteers who worked on it as well. The IAQA was one of three co-designers of the document. The others were the Indoor Environmental Institute and the Institute for Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC). The three groups spearheaded the effort and basically got the document published and produced.
Since it has come out, we've found that it's very quickly been adopted, because it's a very well-thought-out standard and it was established using very credible methods of standard creation, following industry consensus procedures and so forth. It's already been specified on the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) Web site and I believe it's coming up soon on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Web site. We're finding that people who write specifications for mold projects - especially in commercial buildings and schools - are requiring compliance with this standard.
Before the standard came out, there were some guidelines. There were the EPA guidelines on mold, which you can get at the EPA Web site. OSHA had a little piece on worker protection for mold remediation workers. And then there were a few other organizations that had a couple of guidelines. But there was no standard. Now that we have them, we're seeing a real trend in the industry toward working to these standards. Even within our own certification programs, we've had to make a lot of modifications so that our exam reflects questions about this new standard and how it's applied in the workplace. We've had to modify our curriculum to include a good section on this new standard and how it works.
HZ: Is there a different standard for residential mold remediation versus commercial?
Fellman: There is not. This covers the entire gamut. The only thing it doesn't cover is really special environments like pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, health care facilities, things like that, where you need to have a cleaner environment than you would in a typical office building or home.
HZ: What coursework is required to take the exam, and what topics are covered in the courses?
Fellman: The CMR course is fairly comprehensive. The agenda starts off with the basics, an introduction to some of the biological issues. For instance, it starts off with an understanding of basic microbiology. Then it moves into a discussion of building diagnostics, with a real emphasis on moisture. Obviously, if you've got mold growing in your home or your office, you've got a water problem, guaranteed. So, a lot of the course talks about moisture intrusion, sources of moisture and how moisture affects the growth of mold.
Then there's a section on guidelines and standards. We cover the IICRC, of course. There's also a standard for air duct cleaning and for cleaning mold out of ventilation systems. Then we talk about the guidelines from the EPA, OSHA, the New York City Department of Health and a group called ACGIH, which is the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. They have a book called "Bioaerosols: Assessment and Control." It's a textbook that a lot of people follow.
The class goes on and we talk about defining the scope of work for a project -- what's going to be done and how it's going to be done. We get into OSHA requirements, worker safety issues and safety issues for occupants of buildings. There's a large section on tools and equipment, what types of machines - negative air machines, HEPA vacuums - all different types of plastic sheathing and brushes. There is a section on job preparation, preparing the worksite and location.
And then we get into the real nuts and bolts of remediation itself -- designing a containment strategy to prevent debris from moving from one place to another and operating that containment structure through quality control. That's a big part of the job -- making sure that the mold and the debris that's in the contaminated area of the home or building doesn't migrate to areas that may not be affected.
We get into removal and disposal techniques. How do you get that mold off of a surface and then how do you get that mold out of the room or the section of the home or building where it is located? It has to be bagged. It has to be sealed. It has to be taken out. There are demolition discussions because, for instance, if you have drywall that becomes moldy, you can't clean it. There's no way to clean drywall with mold on it. The only thing you can do is cut it out and take it out of the building. But you can just imagine a piece of drywall that's saturated with water and covered with mold. If you take a circular saw and you start cutting that drywall out or a claw hammer or some type of an aggressive approach and you start ripping it off the studs, you're going to send a lot of mold spores into the air. So a lot of the course talks about methods of demolition for moldy materials and how to minimize the ability of the mold to spread into the air. On the assumption that some of that is obviously going to happen, how do you keep the mold that goes into the air from spreading into the rest of the building, affecting occupants? That's done through negative air machines that clean the air and containment devices that seal off parts of the building.
There's a section of the course on air conditioning sanitation and air conditioning systems cleaning. It really is almost a separate field from mold remediation. There are a lot of mold remediators who don't do air conditioning systems, but instead they would subcontract that out to a firm that specializes in just cleaning the mold out of air conditioning systems because it is a different animal.
We talk about clearance criteria. We do not train the certified mold remediator how to do testing or how to take samples. We do teach them about the types of samples that an environmental professional might take and the types of reports they might see from a lab. Oftentimes, mold will be diagnosed by some type of an investigator and they'll have lab reports. The remediator will be brought in and told: "OK, here's the moldy area. Clean it up." And if they have those lab reports, it really helps them because then they can tell the type of fungi that's there, the amount of it, roughly, that's there and it really may dictate the strategy they put in place for how they're going to remove this mold from the building.
HZ: The separation there between the inspectors and the remediators is to keep it honest?
Fellman: Exactly. It's not recommended that you have the same company do the inspection, the removal and the post-removal clearance sampling. It's a conflict of interests. That's not to say that it doesn't happen. And it doesn't mean that someone who does all of those activities is necessarily unethical. Unfortunately, we do see it a lot in the residential market. A homeowner just doesn't have the money to spend for a lot of testing and the remediation and post-remediation testing. Sometimes, the only thing they'll be able to afford is to have some work done by one company that can do it all. It's not really recommended. It's just necessitated by economics in some cases.
The last things we talk about [in the CMR class] after methods of testing and lab reports are standards and case studies. That's where we'll actually look at some real-life case studies, oftentimes using videos or photographs and slideshows and walk through some jobs with people in a classroom setting.
The last part, which is not in the classroom, is the hands-on portion. There's a good section of the class - typically between four and eight hours - spent doing hands-on work. That would be actually erecting a containment structure, using different types of tools and equipment that are specific to the trade and making sure people understand how those devices are used.
HZ: All in all, how long does the course last?
Fellman: Three full days, so it's 24 hours of education.
HZ: One thing you had talked about was the ethics involved in this. Several years ago, when mold really became a hot item, there were a number of fly-by-night mold remediation companies that sprang up out of nowhere. How big of a problem was that for the industry?
Fellman: It was very big. It was worse in certain locations than others. It was really bad in Texas. In other states, especially states where mold remediation isn't done as often - states with cooler, dryer climates - we didn't see nearly the level of consumer fraud that we saw in Texas, Florida or in some of the Gulf states.
In my opinion, it was fueled in part by the insurance industry. People started to put in claims for mold damage in their homes, and the insurance industry covered those claims and wrote enormous checks. We're talking about easily tens of thousands - sometimes hundreds of thousands -- of dollars and they were covering remediation work. I know from talking with a lot of adjusters and also remediators that for a couple of years, in Texas, it was like an open checkbook to the insurance industry. In that kind of environment, especially in an unregulated industry with no standards, you're just asking for trouble.
Lots of scammers came out - fly-by-night companies. They saw this opportunity, set up their shingles overnight and started going out and doing this mold work. They were getting the big payments from the insurance companies, and they had no idea what they were doing. A lot of times, they were causing more problems than they were solving. We also saw a lot of people who were coming out of the construction industry who would say: "Oh, yes, you have this mold problem. What we need to do is demolish your kitchen and demolish your basement and demolish your bathrooms, and then our company will rebuild them for you." And it was just really a scam. The demolition might not have been necessary or not nearly to the scope they went to.
In reaction to this, three things happened. One was that the insurance industry got smart. It only took them a year or two to figure out what was happening. And they put limits on mold coverage or they excluded mold coverage entirely.
The second thing that happened was consumers got smart. They started seeing things on 48 Hours and 20/20 and local news exposés about mold remediation scams and mold assessment scams. So consumers got a little smarter and they stopped writing checks too.
And then the third thing that happened was that states realized that they had to protect their people and started looking at setting mold licensing regulations. In Texas, for instance, you'll see they have these new regulations and they were written specifically to address this consumer fraud problem and to try to license companies that the state could verify are trained and experienced and insured. The ironic part is that, by the time this regulation will actually go into place later this year, most of the fly-by-night companies will have gone away. Because when the insurance payouts stopped, these companies basically didn't have a source of income. It wasn't as easy to convince a homeowner to write a check for $20,000 or $30,000 as it was to get a homeowner to just say, "Yeah, my insurance company will pay for that."
The majority of the companies we see in the industry today are legitimate firms that have training, qualifications and are out there to do a good service for their customers. Nonetheless, the regulations are going into place and I think it's still a positive thing for consumers, because it does allow them to at least see that the states have checked them out and they meet the minimum qualifications.
HZ: Are you finding more companies are specializing only in mold remediation, or is this an extra service being added onto existing lines of business?
Fellman: The majority of firms we see in mold remediation have their roots in something else. I would say especially the majority of successful ones. There were some companies that started that had the best intentions. They said: "We're a mold remediation company. That's all we do." When the insurance payouts ended, they found it difficult to survive because they weren't getting enough mold work on a consistent basis to keep their crews active. Whereas the firms that might come out of water restoration or duct cleaning or lead/asbestos abatement, they already had an established customer base and a service they were providing in a related field. So their mold crews can do other things and also they have a diversified company base and they've typically been in business for a much longer period of time. They're better at making it through times where maybe money was a little bit tighter. So, what we see today is that almost all of our members who are doing mold remediation are doing something else as well. A lot of times, it's another type of cleaning or restoration work.
HZ: What are the factors - added expenses, insurance, liability - that anyone considering going into mold remediation needs to take into account?
Fellman: Insurance is a huge part of it, especially if they're coming out of a field that doesn't have a relationship to mold. The premiums for errors and omissions insurance are outrageous. The premiums for professional liability are extremely high. Some of our members actually have not been able to get insurance renewed in the last few years. It's not because they have massive claims against them. It's just because the insurance industry is running scared from mold.
HZ: In addition to the CMR course, you also have courses on Mold Remediation Workers and Mold Loss Prevention. Could you talk about those?
Fellman: The Mold Remediation Worker class is for somebody who would be working under the supervision of a CMR. Typically, a CMR is a person who is managing a project - maybe a company owner or a company principal who is out in the field supervising work. The work may be conducted by a crew of a few people or several dozen people. Those field workers - the ones who are suited up in the Tyvek suits with the respirators - those people have a very high turnover rate in the industry. Like in any cleaning industry, there's a very high turnover rate of employees. So, most companies don't have the resources - and it really doesn't make sense - to invest in the type of training that's offered through the CMR program. The workers don't really even need that high of a level of training.
But they do need to have basic training in mold remediation and in worker safety. The Mold Remediation Worker class was developed for those front-line guys. It's a two-day class. One day is in the classroom, and the second day is completely hands-on.
The Mold Loss Prevention (MLP) class is completely different. It was developed in conjunction with an association called the Foundation of the Wall and Ceiling Industry. The FWCI represents contractors who do drywall installation and ceiling installation. They were finding that their members were being held accountable when mold was growing after they had done the installations. So, the MLP program was created specifically for that group of people to teach them how to better do their work and avoid the likelihood of having mold become a problem afterwards.
One of the things that they're taught about is proper storage of materials. How many times have you driven by a construction site and seen a great big stack of lumber or a great big stack of drywall sitting out in the rain? If you build a house with wet materials, you're just asking for trouble. It may sound simple, but that's part of the program is talking about storage of material and also the staging of construction. The sequence in which different types of materials are installed into a home or building has a large ability to affect whether moisture is going to get trapped and whether there could be a mold issue later. The MLP program also teaches people about the dangers coming from water intrusion, how to detect potential problems before they really arrive.
Since we created the program for the wall and ceiling industry, we've diversified it and we can make changes so that it fits to a specific industry. I'll give you an example. We did an MLP class for a group of air conditioning contractors. They wanted to make sure that, when they were installing air conditioning systems for homes, they weren't putting too much moisture into the home, so that it was going to result in some sort of a mold problem.
We've also been working on an MLP class that we're hoping to introduce this summer to the real estate industry. This is where real estate managers and property managers would learn how to do routine maintenance and inspections of their properties themselves to prevent potential mold problems. So much of what we see with mold is a result of negligence. When I say negligence, I mean a failure to properly maintain a home or building. People may have a little leak in their basement - maybe a little water comes in under the door - and they don't really think much about it. Maybe they put a fan out and let it dry. What they don't realize is that the moisture that's soaked into their carpet padding is going to be there for weeks. Carpet padding is very absorbent and it doesn't dry fast. If they learn about what these sources of water can do, they can prevent a lot of problems.
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