Mold Risks, Damages Hard To Quantify
Evaluating mold damage is a task made difficult by a lack of standards and a dearth of reliable research, an expert in the field advised a group of claims professionals.
The briefing on "Mold Investigations from A to Z" was given by Shannon E. McGlinn at a session during last months ACE Annual Claims Exposition & Conference in Tampa, Fla., sponsored by Claims magazine and The National Underwriter Company, publisher of this newsmagazine.
Ms. McGlinn, who is director of industrial hygiene for Environomics, a Phoenix-based environmental consulting firm, took note of the factors that have increased mold damage claims to a point where "some believe it will be the next asbestos."
Ms. McGlinn cited last years $32 million verdict in Texas against Farmers Insurance and continuing reports in the media concerning potential health effects of mold along the lines of "black death," which she said elicit a fearful response from the public.
She mentioned that each time NBCs "48 Hours" program runs a special on mold, at Environomics "we get 20 calls."
There is also more attention being paid to mold because litigators see such claims as "a pot of gold," Ms. McGlinn said.
Mold has been a bother to humans, she noted, "since man has been living in caves."
It has increased as a problem, Ms. McGlinn added, because people are spending more time indoors, and mold spores, which thrive on water-soaked cellulose building materials, do not dissipate in modern buildings that are more tightly constructed.
The point at which individuals will react to mold is difficult to determine, she noted. For insurers, she said the most critical type of mold reaction is that which comes from inhalation.
At this point, however, she said there is a lack of medical data on the specifics of inhaling low levels of mold spores.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, she noted, has no standard setting safe limits for mold exposure.
Ms. McGlinn also mentioned that there are no standard operating procedures for spore collection at a contaminated site. To capture samples, some methods, she said, are better for larger spores, while others work better for small spores.
She said that blood tests on a subject to determine the effects of mold exposure are worthless without a pre-exposure sample for comparison purposes.
Although media attention has focused on the stachybotris variety of black mold, she said there are "many other molds that produce nasty toxins."
Ms. McGlinn told her audience that in looking at mold claims a visual inspection is important. If there is extensive mold growth at a site only seven days after the report of a water break, "something else is going on."
For testing and investigation, she said that properly certified laboratories and certified industrial hygienists should be used.
Companies that take samples should take them both from a buildings interior and outside–"if you have inside samples you must have outside samples," Ms. McGlinn said.
Buildings where cleanup is done after mold has been allowed to dry have a higher chance of aerolization, she warned.
When it comes to cleaning, Ms. McGlinn said that beams may be sanded clean, but on other surfaces where there has been visible mold growth, bleach washing and chemical treatment are ineffective, so they must be removed.
Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, November 19, 2001. Copyright 2001 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
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