Consultant Will Host Multidisciplinary Seminar on Toxic Molds in Fall

Chatham, New Jersey, July 26, 2001 — Environmental consultant BEM Systems, Inc. is adding a dedicated IAQ/Molds Practice Group to its Industrial Hygiene Services (IH) Division. The new unit will focus primarily on meetings clients’ safety, health, and worker productivity needs in a relatively new, technically demanding, and potentially litigious specialty, the identification, analysis, and remediation of toxic mold hazards. Brian Ruffe, Certified Industrial Hygienist in the company’s Chatham, NJ, headquarters, will head the new practice group, whose services will be offered through all BEM offices nationwide.

“Our IH Division has been active in a number of interesting assignments involving industrial hygiene related to workplace and construction chemical exposure issues,” says BEM President and CEO Mark Nardolillo, PE, “The IAQ/Molds group brings a wide range of skills and resources to bear specifically on indoor air quality, which has become the most important emerging EH&S challenges for our clients. Just within the past 18 months, we have seen indoor air quality, particularly toxic torts and mold-related complaints, grow into the single fastest-growing area of litigation and workers’ compensation claims. This development is consistent with the U.S. EPA’s increased research and development funding in the area of IAQ in general and microbiological pollutants specifically.”

“We know exposure to certain bacterial and mold-related toxins or spores at home or in the workplace can cause a variety of physical ailments–even death,” says Mr. Ruffe, “but this is a new, enormously complex subject that demands rigorous fieldwork and analysis.” With relatively little hard data available, and no official standards, the “mold menace,” may soon become the kind of emotionally charged, media-driven public health issue that asbestos was in the 1980s, he adds.

“Building owners and managers, employers, attorneys, and insurers will require independent sources of objective, scientifically based expertise and guidance, and providing expert services in this area will be an important part of our mission,” Mr. Ruffe notes. “Our group has the expertise to often take the unwarranted fear out of an issue, as current science allows, while educating and informing those who treat the issue too lightly.”

BEM’s IAQ team is organizing a multidisciplinary seminar, one of the first of its kind, to be held in Morristown, New Jersey this coming November, Mr. Ruffe says. Speakers will address the legal, preventive, risk, and crisis management aspects of the toxic mold issue as well as such “nuts-and-bolts” topics as indoor air quality sampling techniques, laboratory procedures, mycological and medical issues, interim and long-term corrective measures, and ventilation system operation and maintenance.

BEM Systems, Inc., is a full-service, employee-owned, multidisciplinary environmental consulting firm. Headquarter in Chatham, New Jersey, with offices in Florida, Arizona, New Mexico, Missouri, and Fairfax and Newport News, Virginia. BEM’s environmental engineers and scientists provide a full range of compliance, cleanup, prevention, and risk management services for public and private sector clients nationwide. BEM’s Industrial Hygiene Services Division includes a dedicated team of Certified Industrial Hygienists, focused solely on indoor air quality (IAQ) problems, with a proven track record of effectively addressing even the most challenging and complex indoor air quality issues and scenarios. For further information on BEM or any of its technical services, visit us online at www.bemsys.com or call BEM directly at (908) 598-2600