IAQ Radio

EPISODE456 - Ken Larsen, Ed Cross JD, Peter Crosa, Pete Consigli - TPA

This week on IAQradio we welcome an All Star cast for a frank discussion on the future of the restoration industry. Our guests were all speakers at last week's 71st International Restoration Convention and Industry Expo in Palm Springs, CA. They all gave important presentations or Keynotes at the Restoration Industry Association's (RIA) annual event.
The Town Hall theme for this year's event was "The Future of the Water Damage Restoration Industry" and was facilitated by none other than IAQradio's Restoration Global Watchdog Pete Consigli! The Town Hall was the culmination of one of RIA's convention story line's that included a breakout session moderated by Ken Larsen on the Do's and Don'ts of Rebates, Referral Fees, Comps and Gratuities with Peter Crosa and well known IAQ attorney Michael Bowdoin. Ed Cross was the convention's Day 2 keynote speaker and addressed the RIA members on "The 6 New Legal Points Restorers must Understand to Survive in 2017".
Crosa who is the sitting President for the National Association of Independent Insurance Adjusters (NAIIA) presented the Independent Adjusters viewpoint on the Town Hall Panel. Well known industry advocate Ed Cross aka "The Restoration Lawyer" made his case for industry unification through one voice and closed out his Town Hall panel presentation with a message to band together, "Band or Burn" was the reoccurring message!
The RTPE program (Registered Third Party Evaluator) recently explained to RIA members at their annual convention in Palm Springs during their Town Hall meeting by Ken Larsen, CR, WLS, CMP may be a solution for contractors who are constantly challenged by TPA's on their scope of work and invoices. Longtime industry activist and RIA supporter Ken Larsen presented his vision for the RTPE program on the RIA Town Hall panel along with Peter Crosa, AIC, RPA and Ed Cross, Esq. Larsen has a 5 part series on the TPE concept that was previewed in the 2017 February issue of Cleaning and Restoration (C&R) magazine.
A high point of the RIA annual banquet and awards ceremony was the presentation of C&R's Golden Quill award won this year by IAQradio's own, Cliff "The Z-man" Zlotnik for his article on "Concerns over the Water Restoration Industry". The culmination of the ceremony was the awarding of the association's most prestigious honor, the presentation of the Martin L. King award. The 32nd annual recipient of the Marty King award was Ken Larsen for his years of service and activism to RIA and the industry! Way to go Ken!!

EPISODE455 - Christine Oliver, M.D. - Massachusetts General Hospital Boston

This week we welcome Christine Oliver, MD to the show. Dr. Oliver is President of Occupational Health Initiatives, Inc. in Brookline, MA. She is an Associate Physician in the Department of Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care Division) at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Board certified in occupational medicine and in internal medicine, Dr. Oliver's primary specialty is Occupational and Environmental Medicine, with an emphasis on occupational and environmental lung disease. At the MGH she evaluates and cares for patients with occupational and environmental illness and disease, including occupational asthma, interstitial lung disease, building-related health problems, and chemical sensitivities. Dr. Oliver has done research and published in the area of occupational lung disease and she has testified before the United States Congress with regard to work-related health issues and risks.
For the past three decades an important focus of Dr. Oliver's consulting work has been indoor air quality and related health effects. She has lectured and published on this subject and she has been actively involved in indoor air quality assessments in a variety of settings. These include health care facilities, courthouses and other government buildings, schools, and commercial office buildings. Together with industrial hygienists, engineers, and human systems specialists she has worked to identify, characterize, and resolve air quality problems and their related health effects. In 2009 she was a participant and presenter in the ASTM Johnson Conference on the standardization of mold response procedures. An important component of Dr. Oliver's clinical work has been in the area of fragrances and their related health effects, including causation and/or exacerbation of chemical sensitivities. She has lectured on these topics, counseled patients and their families with regard to steps that can be taken to identify and remove fragranced products from their environment, and advocated for a fragrance-free policy in the clinic in which she works

EPISODE454 - John & Lydia Lapotaire -IAQ Solutions & IAQA Presidential Coup

This week on IAQ Radio we welcome John and Lydia Lapotaire. John, together with his wife Lydia, has owned and operated Orlando Florida based Indoor Air Quality Solutions since 2001. John is a Building Envelope & Indoor Environment Consultant specializing in building product failure investigations, forensic water intrusion investigations, and building envelope failure investigations for commercial and residential structures. John and Lydia also provide indoor environmental assessments and mold & odor investigations. John is also the current President of the Indoor Air Quality Association. John and Lydia are Florida Licensed Mold Assessors, Certified Indoor Environmental Consultants CIEC's. They have performed investigations, and forensic diagnostic inspections throughout the mid-West and Eastern United States for both commercial and residential properties. John has served as an expert witness in court cases involving indoor air quality, mold, building envelope failure, building product failure and spray polyurethane foam insulation. He has provided consultation and or testimony in several hundred litigation cases.

EPISODE453 - Tiina Reponan, PhD -Microbiology of the Built Environment

This week we are very happy to welcome Tiina Reponen, PhD to IAQ Radio. Dr. Reponen is a Professor in the Department of Environmental Health, College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati. As an expert in indoor allergens and mold, she served as the principal investigator in several major laboratory and field experiments on airborne allergens, bacteria and fungi and has directed exposure assessment teams in population-based studies. Dr. Reponen is the Director of the NIOSH-funded University of Cincinnati Education and Research Center (ERC), which includes graduate programs related to occupational health from three colleges: Medicine, Nursing and Applied Science and Engineering. She is currently directing two cohort studies. One is focused on the association between indoor bioaerosol exposures and the development of children's allergy and asthma and the other is focused on the effects of green renovation on indoor air quality and occupants' health.

EPISODE452 - Bill Turner, MS, PE - Building Science, Energy and IAQ

This week we are thrilled to welcome William "Bill" Turner, CEO of Turner Building Science and Design, LLC. He has published and lectured extensively. Bill has 35 years of experience in the implementation of moisture, indoor air quality/HVAC evaluation, energy, and engineering HVAC/building science diagnostic program evaluations in school, commercial, health care, laboratory, residential, and industrial settings. Experience includes energy analysis, HVAC performance, occupant complaints, building science/moisture intrusion evaluations, air monitoring data collection, quality assurance, technical report preparation, forensics/expert witness, and specific recommendations for corrective action. He also contributed to the USEPA/NIOSH Indoor Air Quality Guide and has served as an adviser for several other documents. Mr. Turner works with a group of experienced mechanical engineers and building scientists whose main responsibilities involve conducting indoor air quality, HVAC, energy, and building science evaluations in complaint and non-complaint buildings. He and his staff conduct evaluations nationally and recommend appropriate mitigation/renovation as warranted. Design of corrective measures or evaluation, and design of new sustainable "green" designs are also provided. Join us and LEARN MORE today at noon eastern on IAQ Radio! Special thanks for Christy Crocker at the Maine IAQ Council for helping getting Bill on this show. You can also see him live at the MIAQC sponsored 2016 Northeast Indoor Air Quality & Energy Conference

EPISODE451 - May Dooley From the Field - The ABC's of IEQ, EMF's, Mold

This week on IAQ Radio we welcome May Dooley, Principal of EnviroHealth Consulting, Inc. of Hummelstown, PA. May started her career as a secondary science teacher prior to going into home inspection and indoor environmental health consulting in the mid 80's. She has now completed over 3,000 residential and commercial IEQ inspections in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast US. May is one of those people that never stops learning and the list of seminars, conferences and meetings she has attended is impressive. She has dealt with both routine and unusual IEQ issues and we look forward to discussing her interest in what she refers to as electrical pressure and much more. May has an MS in Secondary Science Education from Hofstra University and an MA in English from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

EPISODE450 - Ritchie Shoemaker, M.D. - CIRS - Research Update

This week on IAQ Radio we welcome Ritchie C. Shoemaker, M.D. Dr. Shoemaker has been involved in the field of medical evaluation and treatment of patients sickened by exposure to the interior environment of water-damaged buildings for over 18 years. He has diagnosed and treated over 7000 patients; written and published multiple academic papers in peer reviewed literature; as well as three books, with the last published in 2014, State of the Art Answers to 500 Mold Questions, Volume 2. He lectures widely in the US and internationally. Since his medical retirement in January 2013 he has continued research into the basic genomics and brain inflammation effects of exposure. Through his website, www.survivingmold.com, he has trained physicians to certify in his treatment protocols.
Dr. Shoemaker last joined us on 1-9-15 Episode 351. We discussed how things were going with his growing the network of doctors trained in his protocol, reviewed some of the foundational information underpinning what he and some colleagues have labeled Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) from Water Damaged Buildings (WDB). We also discussed his latest research and use of the NeuroQuant® technology. Dr. Shoemaker and his colleagues have been using brain imaging combined with an FDA cleared software that correlates with symptoms and physiology. Try to listen to Episode 351 before today's show it will help you follow the discussion which can get pretty technical.

EPISODE449 - IESF from Tampa, Florida - Consigli,Alexis,Lapotaire,Crosa

The Indoor Environmental Science Forum was held this week in Tampa, Florida. The event included two days of top notch speakers on timely topics including: Assessment and Developing Protocols; Applied Research on Duration and Causation; Risk Management, Legal Issues, Contracts and AOB's; Malodor Complaints; Working with Insurance Companies, TPA's and Remediation Verification/Project Clearance and more.
Four of the organizers and speakers will be joining us live today to recap what they learned and discuss where it goes from here. Richard Alexis is a consultant and educator in South Florida, Pete Consigli is the Restoration Industry Global Watchdog and John Lapotaire is an Orlando Consultant and the IAQA President. Peter Crosa is a independent assurance adjuster and current president of the National Independent Insurance Adjusters Association NAIAA.

EPISODE448 - Paul Francisco -University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

This week on IAQ Radio we welcome Paul Francisco. Paul Francisco runs the Indoor Climate Research & Training group at the Applied Research Institute of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He does both research & training on issues related to home performance. His research focuses on indoor air quality and energy efficiency, emphasizing field measurements. His training focuses on teaching practitioners building diagnostics and health & safety. Paul has also been a trainer in Building Diagnostics for the Illinois Home Weatherization Assistance Program. He has done extensive work on curriculum development for weatherization workers and does research on energy efficiency and indoor air quality issues in existing homes. He aims to be a bridge between research and practice. He is also the current chair of ASHRAE's Standard 62.2, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Residential Buildings. Mr. Francisco has a BSME from the University of Delaware and an MSME University of Washington.

EPISODE447 - Research to Practice -Remediation Engineering Controls

This week on IAQ Radio we will continue our discussion of a topic that we have been focused on for several years now. Why aren't more researchers and practitioners working together to give better guidance to those working in the field? Every year at the Healthy Building Summit the IAQ Radio team and IAQ Training Institute, LLC sponsor research that is designed to answer important questions about assessment and remediation of indoor environments. There are a few researchers trying to help but there is not enough cooperation. Individuals and some companies are also doing important research but its often times designed to show their product works and not to benefit the industry.
Today we will discuss, what type of engineering controls work best for particle reduction during indoor environmental remediation? How do these engineering controls affect other IAQ parameters? How quickly do engineering controls reduce particulate? Do particle counts, spore traps and other optical particle recognition methods match up? What is the best way to determine when a project is complete? Join us for the discussion today at noon eastern.