New Mold Control Treatment Available

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 26, 2007

Sandia decon formulation, best known as an anthrax killer, takes on household

mold Product available in hardware stores as ’s Liquid Gold Mold Control

500 ’s Liquid Gold Mold Control, based on Sandia’s decon formulation, is

now on hardware store shelves around the country. Here a box of the product sits

on the shelf at a Home Depot store in Albuquerque, N.M. (Photo by Randy Montoya)

Download 300dpi JPEG image, “moldcontrol.jpg,” 1MB (Media are welcome to

download/publish this image with related news stories.)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A product based on a technology originally developed at

Sandia National Laboratories is now available on the shelves of hardware stores

across the country.

The product is Mold Control 500, distributed by ’s Liquid Gold of Denver

and now available in Home Depot, Wal-Mart, True Value, Ace Hardware, and other

home improvement stores. For around $30 a box, ’s Liquid Gold Mold Control

500 treats mildew- and mold-contaminated surface areas in the home, according to

the package.

MC 500 is based on Sandia’s decontamination formulation (a.k.a. decon foam),

developed for emergency cleanup of biological and chemical warfare agents

following a terrorist attack. It is best known for its role in helping remediate

anthrax-contaminated buildings in Washington, D.C., and New York in 2001.

Sandia is a National Nuclear Security Administration laboratory.

“This is pretty exciting,” says Sandia researcher Mark Tucker, who leads the

Sandia team that has developed, improved, and tested the Sandia formulation over

the last 10 years. “Mold remediation wasn’t what we set out to do, but the

formulation is effective at killing most microorganisms, so it is good to find

uses beyond our original intent — especially uses that may improve public

health.”

In this 1999 photo, Sandia researcher Mark Tucker examines two petri dishes:

one with a simulant of anthrax growing in it (left), the other treated with the

decontaminating formulation developed at Sandia (right). (Photo by Randy

Montoya)

Download 300dpi JPEG image, “anthrax.jpg,” 1.2MB (Media are welcome to

download/publish this image with related news stories.)

The formulation kills fungi such as molds in much the same way it kills

anthrax, says Tucker. Mold growths form films over their surfaces that, like the

shells of anthrax spores, are difficult to penetrate. The formulation’s

surfactants poke holes in the film, and its mild oxidizing components kill the

fungal organisms. The formulation, when used as a foam, expands to fill space

and thus gets into corners and other hard-to-reach places, and it sticks to

walls and ceilings, giving the chemistry time to do its work.

’s Liquid Gold has an arrangement with Modec, Inc., of Denver to sell

Mold Control 500 in retail markets. Modec is one of two companies holding Sandia

licenses to market and distribute products based on the Sandia formulation.

“Mold control is an up and coming issue,” says Modec President

Kalamanka. “We felt there was an excellent niche for this.”

Jeff Hinkle, ’s Liquid Gold senior vice president for marketing, says its

recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approval allowed shipping to retail

outlets to begin in the fall. Stores began stocking MC 500 in November, and the

product is expected to reach thousands more stores this month, he says.

Development of the Sandia formulation began in 1997, funded initially by the

U.S. Department of Energy’s Chemical and Biological National Security Program.

It has earned two patents, and several more are pending.

In addition to helping clean up contaminated buildings following a series of

mailings of anthrax powder to recipients in Washington, D.C., New York, and

Florida in 2001, the Sandia foam also was staged in the Middle East in 2003 as

part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and has played a role there in helping clean up

hazardous chemical sites. Sandia’s two licensees, Modec Inc. and Intelagard

Inc., have sold thousands of gallons of the formulation to municipal and state

governments, the first responder community, and the U.S. military, among other

users.

Tests at Sandia and Kansas State University in 2004 demonstrated the

formulation’s effectiveness for killing the virus that causes severe acute

respiratory syndrome (SARS), suggesting its use also might blunt the spread of

other viruses such as the Norwalk (cruise ship) virus, avian influenza (bird

flu), and the common flu.

The formulation now is being discussed as a potential solution to at least a

dozen problems, among them hospital sanitization, meth lab cleanup, mold

remediation in commercial buildings, and cleaning out agricultural pesticide

sprayers in an environmentally benign way.

More information at www.scottsliquidgold.com.