Future Environment Designs Training Center's Blog

Monday, March 21, 2016

Another Great Conference! PACNY Does It Again! - Part One

This year, 2016 in the Chinese New Year is the year of the Monkey. Monkeys are witty, intelligent and have a magnetic personality. Well that description pretty much describes the 20th Annual Environmental Conference held by the Professional Abatement Contractors of New York (PACNY) this year. The three day conference started with the Third Annual Proficiency Day on Wednesday, February 24 and finished on Friday, February 26 with the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) panel led by Dr. Eileen Franko. Each day was a wealth of information and networking. With such a strong line-up there were quite a few people from all over New York State, New York City and Long Island at the conference (several people we haven't seen for quite a few years). This year's conference was the most attended conference ever.

Mr. Kevin Malone Presenting Asbestos Training Stats for 2015

The Third Annual Proficiency day, which had 105 attendees versus last year's 72 attendees, started with Mr. Kevin Malone, Director of the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) Asbestos Training Program, giving us an update on the asbestos training program and the goals of the program to "bring consistency to training, elevate training standards, and ensure a competent workforce". Dr. Eileen Franko of NYSDOL, followed with an update on the NYS mold training program. Dr. Franko's update included clarifications of mold law and emphasizing that the law is a "consumer protection law." Ms. Theresa Bourbon of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) explained the changes to the Renovation, Repair, & Painting (RRP) Training Program regarding hands-on component training and violations cited in Fiscal Year 2015. Those violations included: "93% of cases involved "paperwork" violations, 69% of cases involved firm certification, and 40% of cases involved "work" violations. Finishing the day was Mr. Doug Miller of the Rochester Institute of Technology an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Education Center discussing the Outreach program and new OSHA outreach cards that will be issued (for construction, general industry, & maritime). The President's reception (the current President is Mr. Sean Hart of Energy and Environment President's reception) was entertaining and featured "Dan the Magic Man!".

Ms. Deb Sanscrainte of Aramsco, Chairwomen of the PACNY Conference

The Technical Sessions began on the second day of the conference, with the hall holding 227 attendees versus last year's 197 attendees. Ms. Deb Sanscrainte of Aramsco, chairwomen of the conference, welcomed everyone. Opening Remarks from Mr. Brent Kynoch of the Environmental Information Association (EIA) and Mr. Thomas Meade, the Executive Director of PACNY followed. The first session was Mr. Ed Cottingham of the Zonolite Attic Insulation Trust discussing the history of the trust and how it is paying for the removal of zonolite attic insulation. The next presentation was on Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) in building materials presented by Dr. Dan Leftkowitz followed by Mr. Steve Fess of Xerox Corporation discussing an update on the American Industrial Hygiene Association's (AIHA) "Guidance Document on PCBs in the Built Environment." After a break in the Vendor Hall, the next presentations were on silica by Dr. Michael Lax, MD of Upstate Medical University, discussing diagnosis treatment & prevention of silica related disease; Mr. Jeff Prebish, CIH of OSHA, discussing OSHA's proposed respirable crystalline silica rule; and Mr. Jim Sorel, CIH of Industrial Hygiene Consulting Services, discussing silica sampling methods and protocols. The set-up of the sessions for the silica presentation was outstanding and assisted with information gathering. At this point, the conference broke for a buffet lunch. While PACNY held a meet & greet session just after lunch, to encourage membership in PACNY. The conference continued after lunch and in our next post will discuss the rest of the conference.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Just Over A Week Away - 20th Annual PACNY Environmental Conference

Just about 9 days away is the premier environmental conference for New York State. The Professional Abatement Contractors of New York's (PACNY's) 20th Annual Environmental Conference is being held at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York from Wednesday, February 24 to Friday, February 26, 2016. The conference seems to get bigger and bigger each year. Attendees come from all over New York State and even from adjacent States. Register here for the conference. For more information about the conference visit PACNY's website. See the promo video here.

PACNY convention at Turning Stone Casino from Tisa Zito- Old Soul Productions on Vimeo.

This year's conference should be another good one since it is the first conference since Article 32 New York State's (NYS's) Mold Law is in effect. We are looking forward to Dr. Eileen Franko's presentation on New York State Department of Labor's (NYSDOL) update on the Mold Training on Wednesday and her leading the NYSDOL's panelists on Friday. For those of you who don't know NYSDOL is charged with enforcing the new NYS Mold Law and has been enforcing NYS's asbestos regulations (Industrial Code Rule 56). Joining Dr. Franko on Wednesday, will be other training regulators like Mr. Kevin Malone of NYS Department of Health (NYSDOH) updating us on asbestos training, Ms. Theresa Bourbon of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updating us on the Lead Renovator, Remodeling, & Painting (RRP) training, and Mr. Doug Miller from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Outreach Education Center updating us on OSHA education updates.

Thursday's technical session will include presentations on Vermiculite & Zonolite by Mr. Ed Cottingham of the Zonolite Trust Fund and Mr. Bryan Bandhi of RJ Lee Group; Silica presentations from Mr. Jeffrey Prebish of OSHA, Dr. Michael Lax MD, and Mr. Jim Sorel CIH; Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) from Dr. Daniel Leftkowitz; and Asbestos presentations from Ed Cahill of EMSL and Tom Laubenthal. After the presentations, there will be the usual cocktail & networking party in the vendor hall. Visit Future Environment Design's (FED's) booth and meet Ms. Kimberly Granmoe and Ms. Sheryl Esposito, who will be giving out glove-guard gifts to all those who sign up for our Safety Suzy Monthly Newsletter along with a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card.

Friday's session begins with Mr. Bob Krell of IAQ Tech and Mr. Angelo Garcia, III of FED discussing the NYS Mold Training. Then finishes with the NYSDOL panel discussion hosted by Dr. Eileen Franko, including Mr. James Meacham PE, and Kirk Fisher. It should be quite an informative conference. Hope to see you there!

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Happy New Year! 2016 Brings New Regulations Merging With Annual Deadlines!

Happy New Year everyone! 2015 went out with a bang, especially with many people preparing for the new laws taking effect in 2016. The biggest impact law is New York State's Article 32 (known as the Mold Law) requiring all companies advertising themselves as doing mold remediation or mold assessment will need to be licensed. Also any worker performing mold abatement needs to be licensed, also. Needless to say our schedule has been overwhelmed holding these classes preparing companies for this new licensing requirement. This law also requires an independent mold remediation plan written by a mold assessor. Requires a mold assessment and mold remediation contractors to be independent of each other on the same property.

Recent Mold Remediation Course

Don't forget that the annual posting of the OSHA log form 300A for injuries and illnesses must be posted by February 1, 2016. See our previous posts regarding this issue.

Don't Forget to Post Your Company's OSHA 300A Form

The new OSHA confined spaces in construction standard went into effect August 3, 2015. However, OSHA has two temporary enforcement policies that delay the enforcement of the standard for employers making "good faith efforts" to comply with the standard. The first one expired on October 2, 2015 which was for all employers. While the second one applies to employers working on residential construction that will expire on March 8, 2016.

The OSHA hazard communication standard 1910.1200 on December 1, 2015 required distributors to comply with the new labeling requirements. The standard becomes fully implemented on June 1, 2016. Meaning your hazard communication program, your chemical inventory, safety data sheets, and labeling should be in compliance with the Globally Harmonized System (GHS).

Changes are happening to the OSHA outreach program. This is the program that authorizes the OSHA 10-hour & 30-hour construction safety training programs. Starting March 1, 2016, OSHA will be issuing new cards that will be made of plastic (credit card style) and have a QR code for authentication. The new cards will allow for electronic verification of the card to make sure it is valid.

A long string of new things on the horizon. If we can assist you in any way in complying with any of this let us know. Be Safe!

Monday, October 12, 2015

Future Environment Designs Approved For All NYS DOL Mold Courses

We are happy to announce that New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) has approved Future Environment Designs, Inc to train the Mold Assessor Course (4 days of training), the Mold Contractor Remediation Course (3 days of training), and the Mold Abatement Worker Course (2 days of training). Visit our website for the current training schedule that now has proposed training dates for all three courses. In addition, remember we can do these courses with our at your convenience service.

Water Intrusion left longer than 48 hours, mold growth.

Now that we are approved for these courses, here are some interesting points:

NYSDOL will start accepting applications for these licenses on November 16, 2015.
Under Article 32, all mold assessors, mold remediation contractors, mold supervisors, and mold workers must be licensed by January 1, 2016.
The mold assessor is the person who will be making most of the decisions on how the remediation will proceed on a project. The assessor in a sense (using asbestos terms) is the inspector, designer and project monitor/air sample technician (daily monitoring not required under the standard only clearance) for the remediation.
The mold contractor remediation course is not only for the owner (s) of the remediation company, it is also for the estimators, and supervisors of the workers.
Obviously, the mold abatement worker course is for all workers working on the remediation.
For the training providers the fee for course approval was $500 which was at the low end of the scale mentioned in the law. Based on this we suspect the licensing fee for mold workers and supervisors will be $50 per worker. The mold assessor will be at $150 per worker. The remediation contractor will be $500 per contractor.
When mold assessors submit for their license they will have to show proof of workmen's compensation and liability insurance (at least $50,000 coverage). Meaning you will have to use your employer's insurance or submit your own insurance.
NYSDOL's mold website continues to grow and provide more and more information. The most recent additions are:

a flow chart graphic that indicates the required training course to obtain mold-related licensing.
Second addition to the NYSDOL website is a link to the webpage titled Home Inspectors & Mold Assessment Licensing. The webpage explains when a home inspector needs to be licensed as a mold assessor. Based on this page it says home inspectors need to be licensed if their inspections/reports include an assessment of mold conditions in the home or property in question. Based Labor Law Article 32, a mold assessment is "an inspection or assessment.....that is designed to discover mold, conditions that facilitate mold, indication of conditions that are likely to facilitate mold, or any combination thereof."

Most of the work practices will probably come from the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) and the New York City Department of Health's (NYCDOH) guidance documents with some references to S520 from Institute of Inspection Cleaning Restoration and Certification (IICRC).

We are still waiting for the written regulations, though we suspect these will take time and the training that will be provided will be the basis of the eventual regulations. Only time will tell where these regulations will end up.

Tuesday, September 01, 2015

NYC's Legionnaire Outbreak Over, Leading to New Requirements for Building Owners.

The recent legionnaire's disease outbreak in the Bronx, is over according to the New York City Health Department. The impact of this disease outbreak seems to have not had an impact on the Opera House Hotel (according to the New York Times) which was at the center of the outbreak. A far cry from the first legionnaire outbreak back in 1976. That outbreak caused the closing of the Bellevue Stratford Hotel, four months after the outbreak and it did not reopen until 1979.

English: Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, Philadelphia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Legionnaire's disease is caused by a common gram negative rod-shaped bacterium called Legionella. It is widely distributed natural inhabitant of waters. There are approximately 50 species and 70 serogroups have been described. The 1976 occurrence in Philadelphia had 221 people that were treated and 34 deaths. Legionella bacterium was found in the cooling tower of the hotel's air conditioning system.

Legionnaire's disease symptoms include fever, chills, cough, muscle aches, headache, tiredness, loss of appetite, loss of coordination and occasionally diarrhea and vomiting. Typically takes 2-10 days to incubate. Many cases go undiagnosed and transmission is not person to person. It is treatable with antibiotics if diagnosed early enough.

The infection occurs from inhaling water droplets that originated from a water source contaminated with Legionella. Typical manmade sources include cooling towers, evaporative coolers, hot water systems, showers, whirlpool spas, architectural fountains, room-air humidifiers, ice-making machines and misting equipment. Environmental sources are freshwater ponds, rivers and creeks.

A forced draft cooling tower (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Commonly used method of analysis is the methodology from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) which involves collecting a sample of the water source. Culture Analysis is considered the "gold standard" and analysis can take 10-14 days. The OSHA Technical Manual offers the following guidelines for interpreting Legionella analysis results (numbers are in colony forming units per milliliter (cfu/ml)):

ACTION    COOLING TOWER   DOMESTIC WATER    HUMIDIFIER

  1                     100                           10                     1

  2                    1000                         100                    10


Action 1: Prompt cleaning and/or biocide treatment of the system.

Action 2: Immediate cleaning and/or biocide treatment.

As part of the outbreak, the New York City Commissioner of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) issued a mandatory order to have cooling systems inspected and remediated within 14 days of receipt of the order.  New York City has recently passed new requirements (Local Law 77 of 2015) for the registration of cooling towers and evaporating condensers.  Existing cooling towers and evaporative condensers must be registered with the New York City Building Department (NYC DOB) by September 17, 2015.  Visit the NYC DOB website for more info.  The DOHMH order requires building owners to hire environmental consultants experienced in disinfection using current industry standard protocols including the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard 188P and Cooling Technology Institute Guidelines WTB-148.

Disinfection will require the use of biocides, biocides are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC). EPA regulates the labeling and use of biocides. NYS DEC requires a commercial pesticide applicator certification in Category 7G - Cooling Towers, Pulp & Paper Process.

Will these new requirements prevent another outbreak? Only if the regulations are enforced. There are many laws on the books, however, how many of them are enforced. You can almost say instead of "the devil is in the details", you should say "the devil is in enforcement". Be Safe!

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