S520 Mold Remediation Std open for Public Review

[Guest guest]

Group,

Per my previous e-mail to Mei on contents cleaning, the current draft

of IICRC's S520 " Standard and Reference Guide for Professional Mold

Remediation " is available for PUBLIC review until October 20.

How to Obtain S520:

Send your request via e-mail with your full name (not your e-mail

name as you must identify yourself) to Larry at

textilecon@... Feel free to openly cc: me on your request.

Educational value to you:

This is your chance to see the document that hopefully will receive

ANSI accreditation and eventually become the Standard of Care for

mold remediation. Aside from that, you can see the current thinking

of the (claimed) elite experts in the country on how mold remediation

should be done according to the best science and experience

available.

Educational value to the experts and IICRC:

There is currently no one on the committee from the general public.

Do you agree with the document? If not, tell them why, and how you

think it should be done. Most of you know what doesn't work, because

you have the brutal experience. They need to hear your opinions about

what.they claim will work for your benefit. This diversity of opinion

is fundamental to the ANSI process for industry consensus and public

review. Help insure the standard is effective for the public and not

written just for industry!

Because IICRC (www.iicrc.org) is seeking independant accreditation by

ANSI (www.ansi.org) they have released the draft for official ANSI

Public Review. Therefore, ANYONE with an interest can obtain the

draft for review and officially send them their comments

(instructions below). All comments SHALL be answered by the S520

Consensus Body. If you aren't satisfied with their response you can

object to their answer. Then they SHALL respond, including

notification of your options for further contesting or appealing.

S520 is not written in legalistic language. Most of you, at least on

your better days, will understand it. There are some technical areas

about Building Science, for example, but that isn't all super-

technical either. You will be able to understand what is being said.

I encourage you to take advantage of this rare opportunity to see and

influence what may eventually become a requirement for mold

remediation by the insurance industry and state legislatures (IICRC

apparantly hopes so).

Disclaimer 1:

S520 is for remediation only. It is not intended to address questions

of testing for mold or intepreting lab results. Neither is it

intended to be a standard for assessing mold for determining whether

or not is should be removed or can be left alone. (IESO is working on

that and may have something for public review within the next year).

That said, it does have a qualitative method of describing mold

contamination (Condition 1, 2 and 3) and it has an inspection

chapter. Please read about inspections, if nothing else.

Disclaimer 2:

The review draft is not official and is not yet a standard to be used

by anyone. You should not use it or refer remediation contractors to

it because the final language has not yet been determined. Remember,

you have the opprotunity to perhaps change the language. This is a

DRAFT only.

Disclaimer 3:

The document is somewhat difficult to obtain, technically. It is

available for viewing and printing only from an IICRC Web site. The

file size is 80 MB so you may have problems downloading unless you

have a high-speed or cable connection. You cannot print selections,

only the whole document. Read the download instructions carefully.

Primary Focus:

The document is nearly 300 pages long but your main interests will be

much less than that. You will most likely be interested in the

sections on remediating contents, structure and HVAC.

Also of particular interest will be the one on Fungal Biology for a

better understanding of what mold is and isn't. Also, the chapter on

Health Effects. This is the most comprehensive review of other

studies to date, coming 3 years after the Inst of Medicine report

" Damp Indoor Spaces and Health. " It is written with the premise of

protecting the general public and is NOT anything like the ACOEM

disaster of a position statement.

Important Disclosure:

I was on the S520 committee for the 2003 edition. I was on the S520

committee for this revision. But I resigned in protest last November

and filed an official ANSI appeal a week later in December. The basis

for my appeal had nothing to do with the content. It was only

concerned with the process of writing the document.

Although my specific claims were (mostly) addressed my appeal was

officially denied (?) My claim was, and continues to be, that IICRC

does not deserve ANSI accreditation until it is follows ANSI

procedures. IICRC insists it has. Because we cannot come to an

agreement or settlement the decision will most likely be eventually

decided by ANSI (after all other due process procedures have been

exhausted).

Just to be clear, I want S520 because I think it is a good document.

I want it to have the authority of being ANSI accredited. My

objection is that a legitimate accreditation is possible only through

the process of challanging IICRC actions. ANSI is the judge, not the

policeman. The industry and the public are the policemen.

How to Obtain S520:

As above, send your request via e-mail with your full name (not your

e-mail name as you must identify yourself) to Larry at

textilecon@... and feel free to cc: me on your request.

If you have any questions, send me an e-mail.

Carl Grimes

Healthy Habitats LLC