Mold remediation Freebie offered in Las Vegas

[Guest guest]

This offer was made in the July 2007 issue of Las Vegas Weekly, so I don't

know if it is still available. The " sweetheart " who wrote the article tried to

make mold sound comical, so an angry anonymous writer sent in a reply to her

attitude, in the next edition of the magazine. I will try to put that reply into

my next posting.

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Breaking the Mold

Local remediator reaches out to the spore-stricken community

By Kate Silver

Ian Simon is using a thermal imaging device on fellow diners as they eat their

eggs and sausages at a local breakfast spot. It's a yellow, handheld device, the

same that the cops use to look for drugs. It feels delightfully invasive to read

the diners' body temperatures and transform their trunks into swirls of neon

colors or blue, green, yellow and pink on a small screen, which rests on an

object smaller than an oversized flashlight. In the proper light, Simon says,

you can see right through to their skeleton. He then turns it on the wall, and

you can see stripes of wood, depth, texture. Thankfully, there's nothing moving.

But he says it can locate a dead cat within seconds. And, though it's his

business to find it, there's not a speck of mold to be seen.

But he's not looking for mold right now. He's just playing, demonstrating the

device that he uses as a mold inspector, remediator and partner for the company

Odor Masters. Simon has come to this restaurant with his amusing device to

explain the state of mold in Las Vegas, and to outline how his company wants to

help out the community. It's time, he says, to give something back.

" I know there are families out there that have this problem but don't have the

capital, " says Simon. So once a month, he explains, Odor Masters will inspect

and remediate the home of someone who can't otherwise afford it. " I call it

community tithing. "

He's inviting residents to write in and share their story with Odor Masters.

Once a month, a home will be selected for free inspection and remediation, and

cost will not be an issue. It's Simon's way of directly having an impact on the

community in which he's been battling mold for 15 years—long before the media

began blasting warnings about the deadly Stachybotrys.

Simon is something of a moderate among the mold-men in the world. He's not

prone to wearing the Hazmat suit or frightening homeowners with tales of death

and destruction. In all his years in the business, he says he's only been to two

homes that actually constituted a health hazard. In fact, he once admitted

freely that he'd lick mold if challenged to do so, and it wouldn't affect him in

the least.

His voice was a welcome calm two years ago, in what felt like the era of the

black spores. Back then you could barely flip through a news channel without

hearing about killer mold. Homes were being bulldozed. Children were coughing up

blood. Lawsuits were making headlines everywhere. The end of the world was

surely upon us. And then, as quickly as it started, it stopped. Was it a matter

of divine intervention? A giant sham? Desert heat killing off the specks?

Nah. " It's still happening, " says Simon. The media simply distracted

themselves with things like terrorism, and potentially deadly

raccoon waste. But the problem remains. As long as pipes leak and roofs drip and

faucets spill, there will be issues with mold. Which means the proliferation of

companies to combat mold will continue. And as long as it's unregulated, as it

now stands, there will be shysters and fly-by-nighters who depend upon fear.

There's no longer any homeowner's insurance that will cover mold, says Simon,

and getting rid of even small amounts can cost homeowners into the thousands. So

Odor Masters decided that after 15 years of business in the community, it's time

to show some appreciation to the city where they've thrived. " Vegas has been

very good to us, so why not give a little back? " asks Simon.

If you think you have mold, Simon says, and can't afford to get rid of it,

send him your story: info@... or mail to Odor Masters, 4616 W.

Sahara Ave., PMB 178, Las Vegas, NV. 89102.

http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/content/fileadmin/oldsite/2005/07/21/awsi2.html