2009 mold act in cross hairs

LITTLE ROCK — An Arkansas legislator wants to repeal a state mold inspection program that’s less than 2 years old.

Rep. Mike Patterson, DPiggott, said Tuesday that Act 1467 of 2009 makes it harder to sell houses, is too cumbersome, hard to police, and puts undue burdens on the pestcontrol industry.

Patterson on Monday filed House Bill 1171 to delete the Arkansas Mold Investigator Licensing Act.

Patterson said he sells houses and that the act adds another hoop for him and other home sellers to go through. He said mold inspectors can charge expensive fees. And, he said, the state doesn’t have the resources to enforce the certification requirements.

He said pest-control workers aren’t allowed to tell homeowners they believe mold is in their homes. He said the only thing they can say is that there is a “substance” that may be of concern. He said Sen. Bill Sample, R-Hot Springs, who owns a pest-control business, is co-sponsoring HB1171 because of that.

The act, sponsored by Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, requires that people who do mold inspections have at least one of the following qualifications:

Be a certified industrial hygienist.

Be a certified microbial consultant.

Complete at least 20 hours of college-level microbiology.

Inspections must conform to the best practices put forth by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists and the American Industrial Hygiene Association.

Property owners have a right to receive a written copy of a laboratory analysis.

The act puts the regulatory authority in the State Plant Board, which oversees the pest-control industry and requires a license fee of $150 per year.

Madison said she sponsored the act in 2009 after being approached by real estate agents in her district who were bothered that pestcontrol inspectors who didn’t know what they were talking about were needlessly causing fear in homeowners over potential mold.

Madison said their concerns brought back memories for her because a pest-control inspector once told her that one of her rental houses had mold and it turned out only to be water.

She said she wanted qualified people to be making determinations about mold.

If a problem has arisen since the act took effect Jan. 1, 2010, she doesn’t know about it but would be open to hearing about any concerns, she said.

Scott Bray, a program manager at the Plant Board, said he has no position on HB1171. He said he’s fine with whatever the Legislature wants to do.

He said his agency hasn’t had any problems administering the act, but that it might be better handled through the Health Department.

“We don’t really have many people who know much about mold,” Bray said. “We do bugs, termites.”

Bray said there are about 25 people in the state certified to inspect mold and that’snot too many for his agency to keep up with. He said the qualifications are hard to get and that’s kept the number from being higher. He said he hasn’t heard complaints about whether 25 people is enough for the entire state.

There have only been a couple of complaints about people doing mold inspections who aren’t qualified, he said.

Bray said the Plant Board’s main concern initially was keeping mold inspectors from also being the ones who remove the mold. He said that’s a conflict of interest because mold inspectors have a financial interest in finding mold if they’re also the ones who would remove it. He said removing mold can be an expensive job.

But Bray said the Plant Board can’t keep people in the mold business from inspecting and removing mold because Act 1479 doesn’t speak to that.

HB1171 is pending before the House Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee. Patterson said he would probably present the bill after he hears whether the Arkansas Realtors Association is behind it.

A spokesman for the association said late Tuesday that the law may need to be amended to “allow greater consumer protection” but she didn’t have details.