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1Source Safety and Health has a diverse in-house staff of professionals to provide the consulting and litigation support your clients need:

• Certified Industrial Hygienists (CIH)
• Certified Safety Professionals (CSP)
• Certified Professional Ergonomist (CPE)
• Certified Professional Environmental Auditors (CPEA)

As needed, our experts may recommend the involvement of a board certified environmental health physician, or a professional engineer to assist in supporting cases that require additional expertise.

Our professionals have expertise from the initial investigation of identifying the issues, causation, and sources through the development of expert reports, depositions, arbitration, and providing expert testimony in court.

Areas of litigation support and consulting include:

Microbiological including fungal (mold), bacteria, endotoxins, allergens Indoor air quality and odors Environmental diseases such as Hypersensitive Pneumonitis, Legionnaire disease, Aspergillosis, Psittacosis, Ornithosis Construction safety OSHA Ergonomics Safety management

Noise and hearing loss Machinery safeguarding Job hazard analysis Health and safety audits Industrial hygiene exposures Workers' compensation Product Safety Slips and falls

1Source professionals have significant experience in various facility types including: hospitals, commercial, education, pharmaceuticals, power generation, refineries, private residents and heavy to light manufacturing and more.

Need more information, or to discuss specific issues please contact Chris Schneider, CIH, President at 888.873.9983 ext. 14, or email.

Litigation Support for Mold Cases

The mitigating and controllable factor of mold growth in structures and HVAC systems is moisture. Moisture can be in the form of liquid flow (e.g., leaking pipe, inadequate flashing or window details, or floods), condensation/high-humidity conditions (e.g., due to subcooling of room surfaces or excessive outdoor air humidity introduction), capillary action (e.g., moisture through block walls in a basement) or vapor transmission (e.g., through wall assemblies due to negative pressure of the building envelope).

The resulting mold growth can be obvious, such as in the case of dewpoint temperatures being reached on room surfaces due to sub-cooling causing visible mold growth in open-area surfaces.

Mold growth can also be hidden, such as a slow leak of a pipe within a wall assembly or vapor transmission in a wall assembly being trapped and condensing behind vinyl wall covering due to building envelope negative pressure. In either case, mold growth will deteriorate building materials, cause wood decay, adversely affect HVAC systems, potentially expose building occupants, and ultimately increase your liability and risk.

The common causes of moisture incursion and ultimately mold growth include:

• Construction defects
• Design defects
• Building system operational parameters
• Lack of maintenance
• Lack of building protection during construction
• Accidental water releases
• Weather

Other causes of mold growth include improper or incomplete remediation, lack of quick response, and insufficient response to a water release.

Mold growth in structures can result in:

• Bodily injury claims
• Designer errors and omissions claims
• Property damage claims
• Negligence claims
• Business interruption and lost revenue
• Workers’ compensation claims

As you can see, mold issues are multifaceted. As such, the evaluation team needs to be as equally multifaceted. Team members and their roles include

Industrial Hygienists - Perform moisture tests and sampling, assess exposure potential, gather environmental information for medical analysis, define extent of mold impacts, provide opinions on causation, remediation plans, scope, and damages apportionment opinions

Mechanical and Structural Engineers - Perform forensic engineering analysis of structure, HVAC air and water-side systems for moisture sources/causes, pathways, and driving forces, and provide damages apportionment opinions

Occupational Health Physician - Provide medical opinion on health symptoms as they relate to environmental conditions

Remediation Contractor - Develop cost estimates for remediation and damages

Mycologist/Microbiologist - Provide analysis of samples and opinions on the ecology of mold-forming organisms for causation analysis

1Source Safety and Health has provided litigation support for both plaintiff and prosecutors in mold cases ranging from insurance-related residential basement hot-water tank releases to multistory hotel construction defects cases.

Depending on the case, one or all members of the evaluation team may be needed. Please contact Harry M. Neill, CIH, Vice President of Indoor Air Quality and Industrial Hygiene, if you would like to discuss your particular case at 888-873-9983, ext 15 or email.