Freaquently Asked Questions
9. Are there any definitive concentration levels of mycotoxins and/or aflatoxins that can be called lethal?
This is complex topic. Some toxins have been widely studied, such as aflatoxin. (Aflatoxin is known best as a carcinogen, certainly lethal in the long term.) Dangerous levels have been calculated and are available, presumably, from government sources. Mushroom toxins are called lethal since a single bite of the "death cap" (Amanita phalloides) in about 7 days unless a liver transplant takes place. Many toxins have been insufficiently studied; many probably have yet to be discovered, studied, and described. Also, the vast majority of the existing published research assess the effects of mycotoxin ingestion and not inhalation.
10. Is proper remediation protocol based on fungal types present at the site?
Generally speaking, no. An assortment of fungal genera are usually present and regardless of the genera present, mold remediation includes containment to prevent airborne dissemination unless the areas damaged are very small.
11. What qualifications do your mycologists have?
All of our analysts have at least a Bachelor's degree in microbiology, mycology, or a related field. Roughly half have a Master's or Doctorate. Those degrees are required to even be offered a position. Once they start, they must go through extensive one-on-one training with our in house trainer, do extensive book and follow up training, go through a large set of example slides showing high levels of background debris and other situations that we know they will encounter, and they must be formally signed off by the laboratory manager as having passed a set of strict training criteria. They then must read a large number of test slides and have their results statistically analyzed to see if they are counting the spore types correctly. If they are off on any spore type, they must do further training until they do get it correct. They must do all of these things before they are allowed to analyze a single sample for a client. Once they are analyzing samples for clients, we have ongoing blind test samples going through the lab on a continuous basis to provide real time feedback, quality control, and quality assurance information that our analysts are all analyzing the samples correctly.
12. Lastly, Dave, how does EMLAB provide extra help and information to IAQ investigators such as myself to ensure that the client gets the proper sampling methodology for best results?
Yes. We view it as a very important part of our job to provide service with a good attitude for our clients. So, we have an extensive web site with online information. We make sure that a person answers the phone when it rings so that you, and all clients, will talk with a live person when they call. Internally, this is viewed as a very important role. Only qualified individuals are allowed to answer the phone. Our goal is to get our client's questions answered, ideally, by the person who answers the phone, or at most with one transfer if it is a question requiring specialized expertise, such as testing in a hospital. We have an enormous set of articles, publications, and books that we will gladly go through and try to get photocopies to you, if we think of something that is relevant to your particular situation. We had a client recently looking for articles on survivability of spores and we had a particular book that was no longer in print; but, had the results of just that type of study. Additionally, we have an online store for supplies. It is possible for clients to log-on to our website and, via secure access, search for projects, create their own customized reports, check on the status of projects, etc. Many clients have found this very helpful.