Re: What questions do I ask a potential inspector?

[Guest guest]

Others will give you better answers than I can, but here are a couple to ask for

-

First, ask which lab will process the samples (people on the list will be able

to verify that it's a good lab).

Ask if the lab will grow out samples that are sent in and how many days it will

be grown out (should be a week to 10 days to get any basic results, as I

understand).

Ask if they will speciate the kinds of mold - for instance, in the (lousy)

inspection we had, they lumped Aspergillus and Penicillium together.

WARNING - I'm totally talking out of my ass here, I'm sorry to say - kinda like

when I went to Mexico City when I was twelve and I was taught how to ask ?Cuanto

cuesta? (how much does it cost) and I had NO IDEA what the answer meant when I

got one.

But I'm suggesting these because these were limitations we had with our first

testing - BEFORE my neighbor died of his exposure, and we've learned since that

we had a lousy dude do our (the guy who died chose this guy, to HUMOR us I

guess...).

Talk to them and keep 'em talking - let your gut tell you if they're any good.

If you're smart enough to come to this group with a fantastic question like this

one, you're smart enough to know if what you're hearing is a song and dance.

I don't think any particular organization is esteemed at licensing or training

people to do this 'correctly' yet - that will come when all of us begin winning

our cases and we get taken more seriously. But there ARE a lot of organizations

that certify or train or whatever - so ask about how long that training was and

how long they've been in the business and what they've seen and if they have

testified in any cases. MAKE SURE THEY DON'T PRIMARILY CONTRACT FOR INSURANCE

COMPANIES - hopefully, you won't run into that, but it occurred to me that you

could.

You want to make sure that they understand the whole chain of custody thing -

that's going to be critical when you get to court, and any tester who's worth

his salt will be well aware of the documentation for collecting the samples and

sending it to the lab and getting it back - you'll insult them if you ask one

what it is, but it's probably fair to ask if they take care of all the chain of

custody documentation - that should sound 'sophisticated' and like you know what

the heck you're talking about (I'm of the 'fake it until you can make it'

school).

Ask what's going to be in the report you get - they will probably take pictures

and have a narrative section and the results from the lab. Ours also had this

LARGE filler section that was just info on mold - I don't remember where he got

it, but it made the report look much more thorough than it was when we read

through it.

They will probably attempt to determine where the mold came from, and that will

be useful if they can do that.

In our case, we have heap gobs of the mycotoxin Trichothecene in a dead guy's

lung tissue (we're still working on it, Tom, we love you), but since they didn't

grow out the samples at the time, we don't know which mold produced the

Trichothecene - and heck if we need that info. (We've since had another

environmental study done and have found a specific other mycotoxin we're going

to test him again for, so we have other avenues to show the toxin in the

environment AND in a victim).

Obviously, if you know what you've been poisoned with, ask the people who do the

study if they will test for the molds that produce those toxins.

And feel free to write me off list if you have any other questions - I hadn't

found the group yet when we tested - we were such innocents back then, babes in

mold-infested, indoor woods as it were. If I'd only known then what we know

now...

Best,

Haley

bhp355 <zippy890@...> wrote: Hello,

Does anyone have suggestions on how I should

grill a potential inspector for my home?

What good things should I look for?

What things should make me want to scream and run?

TIA,

Todd

~Haley