Healthy Indoors Magazine
Issue link: https://hi.iaq.net/i/680154
Healthy Indoors 10 respect to occupant health, or show we be looking at chemical secretions like mycotoxins and microbial vola- tile organic chemical (MVOC) off-gassing, or something else? And, so on... It's the Moisture, Stupid! Molds (as well as many other micro-organisms) need water to grow, but, ironically, may present their greatest occupant exposure risks once they dry out, since their dry materials more easily become airborne. Simply bringing in portable dehumidifiers and fans to deal with a wet, moldy indoor environment (like was often done in the insurance property restoration industry for many years) is a really bad idea! Affected areas, especially those adjacent to occupied spaces, should be isolated with the necessary indoor environmental engineering controls prior to drying/air movement activities in order to limit the likelihood of cross-contamination exposures. Microbial growth is a symptom of unwanted/unin- tentional moisture in an indoor environment. No water, no growth. Focusing solely on treating that symptom may be overly short-sighted. One logical conclusion that can be drawn is that unless corrective actions include ad- dressing the indoor moisture, they will likely be doomed to failure from regrowth. Accordingly, those involved in investigative work or remediation activities should possess a working knowl- edge of building science, including moisture assessment and control, if they are tasked with providing effective solutions. This is especially true on the assessment/de- sign side of microbial remediation, due to the often com- plex nature of these type of indoor environmental issues. Multi-disciplinary expertise is essential to understanding a typical problem's causal agents and to orchestrate the desired outcome, yet such core competency may be lacking in individuals claiming to be mold consultants. Asbestos Doesn't Grow Like Mold, Son Unlike potential indoor hazards like asbestos contain- ing materials (ACM) or lead-based paint products, for example, microbes can colonize environmental surfaces without being placed there in a product's composition, and, given the right conditions, they can multiply exponentially in short order. The pump-jocky, pass/fail air sampling mindset of some from the asbestos consulting industry can get you killed in microbial work. Air testing can be far from conclusive, and there are no agreed-up- on pass/fail standards in the microbial industry. This is Blind Men of Indostan & the Elephant— An Ancient Perspective on Performing an Assessment In a distant village, a long time ago, there lived six blind men. One day the villagers announced, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village today." They had never seen or felt an elephant before and so decided, "Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway." And thus they went down to the village to touch and feel the elephant to learn what animal this was and they described it as follows: "Hey, the elephant is a pillar," said the first man who touched his leg. "Oh, no! It is like a rope," argued the second after touching the tail. "Oh, no! It is like a thick branch of a tree," the third man spouted after touching the trunk. "It is like a big hand fan," said the fourth man feeling the ear. "It is like a huge wall," sounded the fifth man who groped the belly. "It is like a solid pipe," said the sixth man with the tusk in his hand. They all fell into heated argument as to who was right in describing the big beast, all sticking to their own perception. A wise sage happened to hear the argument, stopped and asked them "What is the matter?" They said, "We cannot agree to what the elephant is like." The wise man then calmly said, "Each one of you is correct; and each one of you is wrong. Because each one of you had only touched a part of the elephant's body. Thus you only have a partial view of the animal. If you put your partial views together, you will get an idea of what an elephant looks like." (From Wild Equus, https://wildequus.org/2014/05/07/ sufi-story-blind-men-elephant/) Just like that parable that originated in India in the 1200s, where each (consultant) formulated their hypothesis via a narrow vantage point, you can be right in your limited assessment of an indoor environmental parameter, yet totally miss the big picture of what is actually going on!