Air Sampling for Mold

[Guest guest]

Philip:

IMHO....All very well stated. Only those that don’t know are going to turn up the heat on the points you made.

I may be jumping out of the pan and into the fire here but fungal air samples are not at all about assessing human health consequences! They are about documenting conditions within a very specific moment in time (a snapshot in time if you will).

Anyone using (snapshot type) fungal air sample to make definitive determinations about human health consequences is just barking up the wrong tree (in my opinion). The questions here are just too complex to be answered by even a " thousand word " photo much less a small fungal air sampling by someone who is (hopefully) qualified to:

Create an " appropriate " sampling methodology (science). Accurately read the results gathered under that defined methodology. While at the same time understanding the inherent limitations of the above (more science). Accurately interpret the collected results as presented in raw numeric form while at the same time understanding the inherent limitations of all of the above (even more science)! NOT misrepresent one’s ability to do any of the above to the public. Oops…we are now moving away from " science " here an into the realm of " marketing " . This is where I have to stop due and " jump ship " do to " self imposed " ethical limits.

I confess that am not a big fan of the PT Barnum/Dale Carnegie/Nick Gromeko/Troy /or Fry’s teachings as much as I am of that of Hippocratis/Darwin/Edison/Einstein (not to mention DeVinci, Jung, and the brothers... " et all " [in regard to human flight]).

This is not to say that fungal air samples are not without utility because such sampling does do have utility in my experience. Just don’t tell me that you can accurately predict individual occupant/worker health outcomes based on the results you have gained while taking that " snapshot " in time.

Stojanik

RE: Health Canada Annex on Mould

Sharon,

This is why I push for pre and post air sampling. If anything, it will determine if ever required the competence of the remediation contractor. Did the remediation practices increase the counts in the surrounding (uncontained locations) or did the process cross contaminate the uncontaminated areas? Hey it may not happen but if it does and the contractor does not have supportive documentation as to the pre-remediation benchmark, he/she will be hard pressed to defend their practices.

EnviroBob