Hawai'i sprouting with mold anxiety

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http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2002/Aug/06/ln/ln03a.html

Tuesday, August 6, 2002

Hawai'i sprouting with mold anxiety

. Q & A: Is my home or health at risk?

. Hotels review mold prevention plans

By Dan Nakaso and Christie

Advertiser Staff Writers

Health officials and mold inspection companies are being flooded by worried

calls from homeowners and businesses, leading to concern that underqualified

companies will cash in on fears since mold was discovered at the Hilton

Hawaiian Village's Kalia Tower.

Concerns about mold have exploded since last month, when Hilton closed the

453-room tower in the heart of Waikiki, estimating it would cost at least

$10 million in repairs and to test employees for possible mold-related

allergic illnesses.

State Department of Health officials said the agency had received more than

100 calls about mold in the last two weeks. Several private inspection firms

said yesterday they had seen a 25 to 30 percent increase in calls as

nationwide concern over the possible health effects of mold hits Hawai'i.

Officials with AirCare Environmental Services said they had gotten about

eight more calls a day from existing and potential clients wondering what

they should do.

Some in the industry say the sudden surge likely will lead to changes in

everything from insurance coverage and homeowner disclosure to the reshaping

of the mold-remediation market, a relatively new industry scrambling to

develop standards and certifications around the country amid calls for

regulation.

" In any embryonic industry, you have opportunists, " said Randy Herold,

president of MoldPro International, a Kailua-based indoor air-quality

inspection and consultant. " There were guys that were mowing lawns three

weeks ago who are now calling themselves mold remediators. "

Honolulu had only one or two companies specializing in mold removal a few

years ago, said Mike McKenzie of McCleans Restorations Services, which

removes mold from homes and businesses.

" Now there are 15, " he said. " The market is just flooded with

fly-by-nighters. "

While there's nothing illegal in forming a company to remove or identify

mold, inexperienced companies might overstate the problem, said

Princenthal, president and chief indoor air-quality consultant for AirCare

Environmental Services Inc.

" I've seen that over the course of the last year or two, " said Princenthal,

whose company has been dealing with mold in Hawai'i since the 1980s, when

the Westin Kauai found itself with a mold crisis as it opened its doors.

" Mold has every right to exist, and quite frankly a lot of buildings and

homes have had mold in them for a long time. But clients have been scared

into thinking that they have a severe problem, when all they need is a

little cleanup and a little tweaking to the air conditioning system. "

Guy Tamashiro, chairman of the Honolulu Board of Realtors, said he had not

heard of any cases of buyers requesting a mold inspection of new homes, " but

that's probably going to change because of the Hilton Hawaiian Village

problems. "

California has a mold disclosure law for real estate transactions, and

Tamashiro predicted it would only be a matter of time before mold is

included in routine disclosure statements here.

And while the Hawaii Insurers Council says local insurance companies have

had only a smattering of mold-related claims - usually from inadequate work

to clean up water damage - experts say that with multimillion-dollar claims

increasing on the Mainland, Hawai'i insurers who do not exclude mold

coverage from policies likely will in the future.

" We added an exclusion within the last year, " said Mike Onofrietti, vice

president for AIG Hawaii Insurance Co. " What I think is you find that this

will be more of the norm rather than the exception very soon. "

Ernest Fukeda, president and chief operating officer for The Hawaiian

Insurance & Guaranty Co., said his company was looking at dropping mold

coverage for homeowner policies.

" This is something that has come up for the past year and a half, " Fukeda

said, " but no decision has been made yet. "

Fukeda said many Hawai'i insurers are taking a " wait and see " attitude.

Experts say mold is unlikely to affect people's health unless they are prone

to allergies or illness or have a major colony of toxic mold inhabiting

their homes.

" The fact of the matter is that molds are all around us, " said Wong,

an associate professor in the University of Hawai'i's Botany Department who

specializes in mycology, the study of fungi. " When you go outside or in the

home, their spores are all over. You're probably inhaling some right now. If

you're healthy and your immune system is working properly, it'll take care

of it. "

While there is no practical way to eliminate all molds and spores indoors,

moisture control is the key to keeping it in check, experts say.

Most of the calls to Wong have been from homeowners in damp areas such as

Manoa who are worried about growths on their bathroom walls, or in caulking

or grout. In those instances, he advises use of common cleansers.

A variety of home test kits are available on the Internet, ranging from

$9.95 for a kit that will only detect the presence of mold, to more than

$100 for a kit that covers the cost of lab analysis.

But the National Center for Environmental Health, under the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, said it is generally not necessary to

identify the species of mold in a residence, and the agency does not

recommend routine sampling for molds.

Reliable sampling can be expensive, the agency said, and standards for

judging what is an acceptable or normal quantity of mold have not been

established.

Advertiser Staff Writer Cho contributed to this report.