HUD Grants Say Yes To Lead Paint And No To Asthma

The U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is giving roughly $114 million in grants to help eliminate dangerous lead-based paint hazards from low-income homes. The purpose of this grant is to protect young children from lead poisoning, improve the health and safety of housing, and conduct research to improve control methods.

This is all good news but the 2012 budgetary limitations do not allow funds to be distribute to the Healthy Homes Production or the Asthma Intervention in Public and Assisted Multi-family Housing Programs.

Activists want the Federal Government to find ways to not slash funding to combat indoor environmental hazards.

The government has merged the National Asthma Control Program and the Healthy homes/ Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, which are both operated under the Centers for Disease Control. The new merged agency is called the Healthy Home and Community Environments Program. It has received $30 Million for the 2012 fiscal year. This is half of what the previously separated organizations were given in 2011.

HUD is now offering grants to states, local governments, and the private sector through its Lead-Based Paint Hazard Control Program, which is given $61 Million in funding.

The Federal government is making HUD the center of attention for indoor health programs and funding.

To be considered for grant funding, prospective grantees are required to submit their applications at http://www.grants.gov/ .

To prevent you and your family from suffering from cardiovascular and respiratory complications, get your home inspected today by Advance Mold Remediation.

For professional help and questions on remediation, contact Advance Mold Remediation by calling 1-877-411-MOLD or click here today!

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Source: HUD: Grants For Lead Paint, Not For Asthma

February 28, 2012  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,  Posted in: Health Risks, HVAC system, Indoor Environments   No Comments

EPA is Set To Increase The Enforcement of The Lead Rule

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is stepping up its inspections and enforcement of the Lead Rule for renovation, repair and painting (RRP). This article will provide you the details on the increased enforcements of the Lead Rule.

 

The EPA’s Waste and Chemical Enforcement Division is weighting violations more heavily for RRP that is more inclined to directly harm human health. The EPA is serious about the enforcement. For example, in Alabama the Department of Public Health has put a large amount of contractors on notice that worked on building homes before 1978. Those contractors must have training in dealing with lead-based paint. All those who do not take training will have their EPA licenses taken away from them.

 

Why is the punishment so severe? The answer comes from lead paint being banned in 1978. The RRP rule is being implemented to regulate renovations of older homes that still have the presence of lead paint. Congress has tried to rebuke this regulation many times.

 

The EPA has taken three enforcement actions in 38 states of the United States to oversee the RRP enforcement. Out of the 38 states, 12 states enforce their own Lead Rule (Alabama, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin).

 

The purpose of the enforcement is to ensure companies are using proper lead-safe work practices, accomplishing proper training of employees and professionally record keeping guidelines.

 

Lead paint exposure in the home is a serious public health concern. Lead poisoning could be prevented when lead paint disclosure requirements are followed. Read more details about the Lead Rule here.

 

If you need to resolve lead paint, mold or water damage today in your basement, contact Advance Mold Remediation.

 

For professional help and questions on remediation, contact Advance Mold Remediation by calling 1-877-411-MOLD or click here today!

 

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Source: EPA Official Promises More Enforcement of Lead Rule

February 21, 2012  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  Posted in: disaster restoration, Health Risks, The Lead Rule   No Comments

How To Protect Your Basement From Mold And Water Damage

Do you know how to avoid mold and water damage in your basement? If you do not, this article will tell you how to prevent mold and water damage in your basement. Read to maintain your home’s value and keep your living conditions healthy.

Your basement is a valuable and useful room in your home. It can be used for extra storage and keep you cool during hot days. The basement can also be the birthplace of mold and water damage because of potential moisture problems.

Moisture discovered in a basement usually enters your home through exterior sources because the moisture of the soil surrounding the basement can seep into your home. Water from the soil can be higher than the basement floor.

If your basement has a crack or flaw in its water protection layer, this can become a disaster for you. It can come through both your floors and walls. The results are standing water, flooded basements, mold growth, wet insulation, bad odors, chalky stains and decaying wood.

If you experience any of these problems, you need a professional mold remediation expert to inspect your basement and your basement’s surrounding area.

The exterior will need to be checked for where water is draining into your basement rather than away from it. There needs to be an inspection for any cracks in the exterior or interior structure of you home. Be sure window wells are inspected for any signs of leaking as well.

 Preventing Moisture Damage

 One way to prevent moisture from damaging your basement is to not have dirt flooring in your basement. Dirt flooring has a huge amount of moisture and gives off gases. Make sure your basement has a floor drain and a trap installed at the lowest point of your basement floor. If a floor drain is not available, water that is spilled in your basement has no way of escaping. Waterproof the outside of your walls and install a perimeter drainage system.

Keep your basement well ventilated to keep moisture from accumulating in its interior.

If you need to resolve mold and water damage today in your basement, contact Advance Mold Remediation.

For professional help and questions on remediation, contact Advance Mold Remediation by calling 1-877-411-MOLD or click here today!

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Source: How To Avoid Mold and Water Damage In Your Basement

 

February 14, 2012  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  Posted in: Basement Mold Prevention, Black Mold Problems, disaster restoration, mold growth prevention, Water Damage   No Comments

How To Resolve Black Mold Problems

Do you have a black mold problem in your home? If yes, it is time to start immediately mold removal. Your home and the health of your family are in danger when Black mold lurks. We are here to help you with Black mold removal by providing you information on the dangers of Black mold and how to resolve the problem.

The Dangers To Your Family’s Health

 Mold can harm the health of both humans and pets. Mild cases of black mold can make those in the environment suffer from allergies and severe headaches. If black mold is abundant and severe, those in the environment can suffer respiratory difficulties such as the bleeding from respiratory passageways or experiencing coughing fits.

Black Mold Can Devalue Your Home

 Stachybotrys, a household mold, can greatly damage your home. It breeds in areas normal not visible to us such as structural supports, load-bearing beams, or basement corners. Black mold, once it gets into a surface such as wood or concrete, will eat away at the material until there is nothing left.

 The Solution

 You can resolve your Black mold problem with a mold remediation professional. A mold remediation professional will identify where the mold is located and tell you how the conditions started to thrive. After identification, the professional will marginalize the affected area. This is done with a plastic sheet and tape. The professional does this to prevent spores and dust from rooting elsewhere in the home. Finally, the black mold is removed with a high-pressure hose to clear the affected area and a vacuum picks up any particles that escaped to keep air quality safe.

Mold removal is not a do-it-yourself job. Hire Advance Mold Remediation today.

For professional help and questions on remediation, contact Advance Mold Remediation by calling 1-877-411-MOLD or click here today!

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Source: Why is Mold Removal Important?

February 7, 2012  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  Posted in: Black Mold Problems, Health Risks, mold contractor, mold growth prevention, Ventilation Improvement   No Comments

The Importance of Mold Removal

Do you know why mold removal is so important? If you do not know why, we are here to tell you why mold removal is important. Read below to get started.

You need to remove mold because mold can turn into dangerous black mold, which ruins your home’s structure and your family’s physical health. Here are just a few problems that can happen when you do not remove mold from your home:

 You Put Your Family’s Health in Danger

 Mold can be a health risks to both humans and pets. People can have bad reactions from mold such as allergies, headaches, respiratory problems (bleeding can occur in your respiratory passageways), and sickness.

 Home Value Can Go Down

 Mold can cause a great deal of damage to your home structure. The most damaging type of mold for your home is Stachybotrys. This type of mold can hide itself well in structural supports, beams, and basement corners. If mold starts to grow on wood or concrete, it can breed itself in the material until it completely destroys the wood or concrete.

 How To Solve the Problem

 To resolve your mold problems, hire a professional mold inspector. A mold inspector will do the following:

Ø A mold inspector will identify the location of the mold and the conditions that allowed the mold to survive and spread.

Ø A mold inspector will marginalize the problem by isolating the affected area. This is done with plastic sheeting and tape to prevent spores and dust from spreading mold throughout the home during clean up.

Ø Removal. After the clean up, the mold inspector will hose the area that was infected with mold and vacuum up all mold debris.

For professional help and questions on remediation, contact Advance Mold Remediation by calling 1-877-411-MOLD or click here today!

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Source: Why is Mold Removal Important?

January 30, 2012  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  Posted in: disaster restoration, Health Risks, Indoor Environments, mold contractor, mold growth prevention, Ventilation Improvement   No Comments

How To Control Mold Problems Caused By A Leaky Basement

Do you know what mold problems can be caused by a leaky basement? If you do not know, we are here to inform you. Read below to learn about potential mold problems caused by leaky basements and how to resolve the mold problems.

 

What is Mold?

 Mold is a stachybotrys chartarum and can form into a toxic black mold. It can be a great danger to your health. Also, it can be a serious liability to you as a homeowner. Mold can reduce your property value and cause structural damage.

 

You should regularly get your home inspected to remove, contain and complete remediation of the mold in your home.

 

Mold Assessment

When you understand the main cause of mold problems in your home, you find excellent long-term solutions to mold problems. Moisture issues in your home usually cause mold problems. Mold can grow in walls, under flooring and behind your drywall. Professional Remediation services use specialized tools to diagnose where moisture is located. They also look to see if there is mold not visible to the eye lurking.

 

Mold Remediation

Mold Remediation services stop moisture at its source and remove toxic mold from the infected area. Next professionals repair the damaged area and remove mold completely. When mold remediation is completed, you need an Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Professional to test your home for quality control and safety.

 

For professional help and questions on remediation, contact Advance Mold Remediation by calling 1-877-411-MOLD or click here today!

 

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Source: Mold Problems That Can Be Caused by A Leaky Basement

January 24, 2012  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  Posted in: Health Risks, Indoor Environments, mold contractor, mold growth prevention   No Comments

What Exactly is Mold Remediation?

 

Do you know what is mold remediation? If you do not, we are here to inform you. Read below to learn all about mold remediation.

 

Mold remediation is a term for mold removal. A team of skilled professionals assesses the severity of a mold problem in a building. The professionals then remove the mold and replace any structural material that may have been damaged by mold so that mold will not come back.

 

The following are the four steps taken during the process of Mold remediation:

 

 Identify the Problem and Its Cause

 The first step to successful Mold Remediation is to find the location of the mold. The professional needs to find any areas that are damp in condition where mold can thrive. Some damp condition locations are leaking basement walls or a broken pipe. When conditions are damp, you have potential for black mold to thrive and risk your health and the health of others.

 

Isolate the Problem

 It is important to know that black mold spreads when it releases spores. For mold remediation to be successful, these spores must be contained and cleaned up. Normally, a professional mold remediation team has to seal off any affected areas with plastic and tape. This is wise to do because it will prevent any further respiratory discomfort that happens when black mold is inhaled.

 

Remove The Mold.

 High-pressure hoses are used to blast away mold from surfaces they are most likely to cling to in a building.

Repair All Damages.

It is necessary to repair all damages, including to wood or concrete that have been affected by mold. You also need to repair any areas that help mold thrive such as broken plumbing. If you do not properly repair this, mold will come back.

 

For professional help and questions on remediation, contact Advance Mold Remediation by calling 1-877-411-MOLD or click here today!

 

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Source: Just What Is Mold Remediation, Anyway?

January 18, 2012  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  Posted in: Health Risks, mold contractor, mold growth prevention, Ventilation Improvement   No Comments

Standards of Care for Indoor Environments

 

Do you know what will affect the quality of your indoor air environments?  If you do not know, we are here to inform you and tell you about standards of care for your indoor environment quality. Read below to get started.

 What is Standard of Care?

 Standard of Care is a terminology used to identify techniques and technologies by professionals to identify what responsibilities should be done to perform a task. It is a guideline of expectations of what should be accomplished during contracted work.

Standards of care measure both ethical behavior and technical behavior. Ethical behavior includes refraining from falsifying data and conflicts of interest during a project. Technical behavior uses scientific method to define and investigate issues during a project. Technical behavior will test any hypothesis through experimentation, observation and collection of analytical data.

 Who Codes Standards Of Care?

 Standards of care for indoor environment air quality are codified by industrial organizations. The code is passed out through statements. Some industrial organizations are ABIH, ACAC, and Clean Trust. The sources come from published standards, standards made by the government agencies, state agencies that regulate professions and business.

 Issues with Standards of Care

 The issue with standards of care is that training courses that are made to meet licensure requirements do not have enough depth of information to truly give trainees the appropriate education.

To learn about the concerns of standards of care, read this article from Ieconnections.com on the Standards of Care for Indoor Environmental Investigations on page 16.

For professional help and questions on remediation, contact Advance Mold Remediation by calling 1-877-411-MOLD or click here today!

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January 9, 2012  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  Posted in: Health Risks, Indoor Environments, mold growth prevention, Standards of Care   No Comments

The Dangers of Using Gypsum Drywall

Do you know whether your drywall is actually dry wall? Recently Gypsum, a Chinese drywall, has been spreading throughout the construction industry. This would not be a problem if Gypsum had the same moisture control as authentic drywall.

The moisture content of Gypsum is a concern. Ideally moisture content should be completely different from how much it takes to support mold. Gypsum is a chemical of calcium sulfate hemi-hydrate. This means it is a compound that is 50% water. It is bound water, which is not available for mold growth. It counts for dry weight in gypsum drywall. Gypsum, no matter how dry you make it will always be half water. If an environment is greater than or equal to the water contained in gypsum it will support mold.

To learn about the dangers of using Gypsum dry wall in your home and prevent contractors from installing this type of wood in your home, read this article, How Dry Is Your Drywall? from IeConnections.com.

The article will give you statistical data and how to prevent mold growth with or without Gypsum drywall.

For professional help and questions on remediation, contact Advance Mold Remediation by calling 1-877-411-MOLD or click here today!

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January 6, 2012  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  Posted in: Uncategorized   No Comments

How To Resolve Water Damage And Avoid Mold Amplification

Do you know how to avoid mold amplification when it comes to water intrusion or dampness? If you do not, we are here to tell you how to locate and remove it. Read below to get started.

Water leaks often originate from roofing and window system failures. You do not notice it until a heavy rain comes through or a pipe becomes busted. Large buildings such as schools often experience repeated issues with leaks that go undetected for long periods of time. Some common leaks in large buildings are as followed:

Ø      HVAC water pipe leakage.

Ø      Sweating Valves.

Ø      Pipes of potable water distribution piping through overflows and leaks.

If the air in a building is dry, the water intrusion or dampness will dry quickly and it becomes difficult to detect signs of mold growth.

 The Forms of Dampness

Dampness can come in multiple forms. It can be in the form of condensation in non-insulated crawlspaces or basements. Dampness can be discovered in a poorly functioning HVAC system or site drainage.

 What is the Difference Between Water Intrusion and Dampness

The difference between water intrusion and dampness is the source of leakage and how that leakage absorbs and condenses itself. Water intrusion leaks water through openings and falls to the lowest point. Dampness includes liquid water and vapor that gets transported through solid concrete. This allows it to harbor itself in flooring. When air holds high quantities of moisture vapor loses heat. When that happens, it turns to liquid form.

 

To learn ways to resolve water damage and prevent mold growth, read Moisture Control In Schools: Water Intrusion or Dampness? Avoiding Mold Amplification. This article can be found on page 19-20 of Indoor Environment Connections.

 

For professional help and questions on remediation, contact Advance Mold Remediation by calling 1-877-411-MOLD or click here today!

 

Check us out on Facebook and Twitter as well!

 

 

December 29, 2011  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  Posted in: Uncategorized   No Comments