Environmental Health Engineering investigates air-quality issues in buildings. Often an investigation is triggered by employee complaints and symptoms.

This is particularly important given that many in today’s workforce consider environmental quality as part of their employment ‘Bill of Rights’.

The way buildings have been built since the energy crisis of the 1970s has contributed to the mold problem.”

The California Job Journal in Sacramento, for instance, is suing its former landlord, Pacific Gulf Properties of Newport Beach, for $10 million in lost wages and profits. The Job Journal claims that mold contamination in the offices it leased from the company caused illness in two dozen employees around Christmas time 1999 and that the landlord didn’t do enough to remedy the situation.

In late July, one of the largest hotel chains closed all of its rooms in a new tower due to mold infiltration. The company took the necessary steps spending millions at remediation not including lost business.

In Ohio, a hotel spent 2 milliion trying to clean up mold only to be sued by former employees who became ill after exposure during the cleanup process. The hotel later filed for bankrupcy.

Hotels deal with fire inspectors, flood inspectors, elevator inspectors but NO ONE checks air quality. As a result air quality measures are within the the same standards as they were 2 decades ago.

New Hotels are built so tightly for energy reasons. They trap moisture and foster mold. Problem is compounded by the use of windows that don’t open. It traps bad air in a room.

Chemicals today are being introduced into our environments at a rate of 6,000 “new” formulas per year. These chemicals become a part of your home air by a reaction called “off-gassing.” When furnishitypes_of_mold.html products are produced, certain chemicals as found in epoxies used for laminates to make furniture, or even plastics molded for children toys, will emit vapors into the air space and eventually blend into the air that you and your family breathe.

Based on studies by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), billions of dollars are spent annually for medication to help Americans breathe or cure their respiratory illabout.html#services million Americans have asthma. Twenty-eight million have hay fever and other allergies. Physicians are now discovering that the solution to the problems of many of these people is not in medicine but in reducing the pollutants in the air they breathe.

Hotels spent 3.2 billion last year on renovations – Hardly ANY about.html#missionuality.   

It is becoming such a big issue for travelers that some companies are going as far as hiring environmental consultants to check out hotels BEFORE their employees check in.

Thousands lawsuits have been filed across the country because of mold. The biggest states with mold issues are Texas, California, Tennessee and other southern states where heat and humidity — two necessary elements in the formation of mold — are common.

Some HVAC systems have been found to contain up to 27 species of fungi.