Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This morning, NBC’s TODAY SHOW featured an important hidden camera investigation to determine if mold contractors (an industry mostly unregulated) were attempting to rip off unsuspecting homeowners.  In March, NBC contacted RTK to help them with their hidden camera investigation.

As an independent testing company with a pristine record, RTK was hired by NBC News (after a thorough vetting) to verify that the test homes used in the segment were mold-free.  Although the segment only aired for a few minutes, several hours of thorough testing were performed by RTK to assure (and to document for) producers that the homes in use were free of mold.  Filming actually occurred over a period of several days with multiple trips to each location.

The moral of the story is: If your contractor tells you that you have mold without an insisting on performing an independent test, you may be getting ripped off.  (Here’s our contact information if you need an independent mold test.)

Buyer beware: It is a conflict of interest for your mold contractor to test your home for mold. You’ll likely save in the long run by hiring an independent testing company to verify a mold condition and to provide your contractor a “blueprint” for the mold remediation process.

Be sure to look for RTK Environmental Group’s Robert Weitz in the video (he’s the tall blonde-haired guy identified as one of the “reputable” testing companies hired by NBC). We’re thrilled to have worked with NBC News on this important piece.

The gardener’s gloves are on. The seeds are ready. But are the soil and water are safe and toxin-free? Before you plant those vegetable gardens, you need to find out. Otherwise, you could be eating a harmful harvest in the summer and fall.

Lead in soil is a very common problem, especially if you live in a pre-1978 built home or in a neighborhood of older homes. So how does lead get in your soil? When your older home’s exterior is painted, the first step is sanding, which spews lead dust through the air, landing on your property. Flaking paint chips can also be ground into the soil, or in some cases, paint can peel right off the home. Also, if the home’s interior is painted and sanded, often windows are left open to disburse the dust. And guess where that lead dust falls? In your yard.

The water you use to soak the garden also may contain contaminants from a variety of sources including an aging water distribution system, age and the type of pipes in your home, soil pollution from fertilizer and nitrates, and groundwater elements. Certain chemicals can have devastating effects on our health, even in miniscule concentrations. Contaminated water can cause severe kidney damage; intestinal lesions; sensory, neurological, and respiratory damage; blue-baby syndrome; and shortness of breath.

There are steps you can take to lessen these dangers. Most importantly, hire a certified environmental inspector to test your soil
and water for contaminants. You may be free of toxins. But then again, you may find that you have true health hazards.

Some other steps you can take:

• Position the garden as far away as possible from any pre-1978 built homes.
• Use a garden hose filter to lessen impurities.
• Consider bed gardening, which raises the garden above soil level. And then fill with clean garden soil.
• Erect a fence or a hedge to act as a buffer against any blowing lead dust.
• Keep children away from any lead-tainted soil. Never let children eat the soil.
• Wear protective clothing when gardening. Remove your clothes before entering your home, and place them in a plastic bag. The next stop is your washing machine. Tracking lead dust into a home is a common way for lead to enter a home.
• Soils high in organic matter and compost with pH levels between 6.5 and 7.0 do a better job of binding lead in the soil, preventing it from being absorbed by plants.

If the test reveals the levels of lead in your soil are just too high, you may want to consider remediation of the contaminated soil. There are several options, including soil removal, raising pH levels and adding organic matter, or mixing in new soil. A certified lead inspector can tell you which may be the best option for your situation.

Click here to schedule a test of your soil and water.

Recently, the New York Islanders found out they may be moving to a new home next season because of lingering asbestos problems at the aging Nassau Coliseum – their home for the past 40 years. Does the age of a structure make asbestos more likely? Sure – but it’s the condition that the asbestos is in that can be dangerous.

Asbestos exposure has been linked to the development of serious respiratory diseases and cancers, including mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis. Unfortunately, for nearly 100 years, asbestos was one of the most commonly used materials in construction, shipbuilding and manufacturing, both commercially and residentially.

So, old sports arenas are not the only places to struggle with asbestos issues. Many schools, buildings, and homes also contain asbestos. It is commonly found in insulation, cement, pipes, composites, floor tile, fireproofing material, gaskets, and coatings. If asbestos is left undisturbed, the EPA says that it is generally safe. When it is disturbed during renovation or if it is crumbling from age, dangerous particles are released into the air and can settle into your respiratory system.

What should you do if you think you have asbestos in your home or workplace?

First and foremost, do not disturb it. Immediately contact a professional testing company to come in to test for asbestos. It may be that the asbestos in your home is in good shape and does not need removal. In that event, consider having the asbestos encapsulated to insure that the fibers will not become airborne. However, if the asbestos is deteriorating, a testing company can provide you with an asbestos remediation plan to keep you and your family from harm.

Here’s the good news: Asbestos can be very dangerous, but it is easily managed. Take the necessary steps and do a test. You’ll breathe a whole lot easier!

The Northeast is about to switch from fire warnings to a flood watch. Our parched yards are going to meet some wet weather, and that can actually cause flooding, then mold to grow in your home if you are not prepared. Here’s why…

When a large amount of rain falls in a short amount of time on very dry soil, water cannot be absorbed at the same rate that the rain is falling.  So it travels, as it needs to go somewhere. That ‘somewhere’ might be your basement. And if your basement floods, mold is not far behind.

Here are some tips to prepare your home for spring storms:

Tip 1: Be sure your gutters and downspouts are free from leaves and debris.

You probably haven’t thought about your gutters since last fall. But throughout the winter, leaves and organic debris collect there. When that happens, water (from rain) cannot be channeled away from your house. A flooded basement can result. So, make sure your gutters, downspouts, and outside drains are clear of debris.

Tip 2: Prepare your basement.

If you think you’re vulnerable to flooding, check your basement floor drains to be sure they are not blocked. Remove anything from the floor or next to windows that you do not want to get wet. If there are boxes or any other cellulose materials on the floor, place them on tables or crates to alleviate direct contact with water. Once wet, they can rot or turn moldy.

Tip 3: Anticipate leaks in advance, if you can.

Some of us already know where there are trouble spots in our homes. Place towels and buckets on the floor in the affected areas. If you know a window leaks, secure towels in that area before the rain begins. In heavy rains, you may need to change the towels and empty the buckets several times. Most importantly, once the rain and leaks have stopped, remove the wet towels and buckets from the area immediately, or you risk mold growth, which can start in as little as 24 hours.

If you have concerns about mold growth in your home, have a certified mold inspector in to test and assess the damage and give you options as to how to fix it. Mold can cause serious health problems, including asthma, coughing, and wheezing in otherwise healthy people. When there’s a dry spell, we desperately need rain – just keep it outside of your home!

How safe are your children when they are playing outside in your yard? Maybe not safe enough.

Consider this: You probably take great safety precautions like making your kids wear bike helmets and sunscreen. But have you checked your soil and pool water for lead dust?

Most people have no idea that lead dust – that is dust that usually comes from old paint that is disturbed by renovation work (sanding and scraping; opening and closing windows); the dust flies through the air and lands in the yard. Since spending time outdoors should be a healthy activity, it pays to find out if the soil is “clean” – free from lead. Soil with high lead levels can be a danger, though – especially to kids. Children can actually be poisoned from lead dust, which could lead to autism, ADD, violent behavior, reduced IQ and a host of other issues. Lead dust can also be tracked inside on people’s shoes.

It can also travel from your neighbors’ renovations to your property if they are not following proper Lead Safe work practices. Lead dust has also been found in high concentrations in pool water.

If you are not sure about the soil your child is playing in, have your soil and water tested for lead and other toxins by a professional. Here are some other tips to minimize risk:

- Children and adults should wash their hands before and after playing or working outside;

- Change clothing after playing or working in the yard or garden;

- Create a safe play area for your child – a sandbox with clean sand and a cover is ideal if you think you may have lead dust around your home or neighborhood;

- Wash any toys that were used in dirt that may contain lead dust with soap and water;

- Any bare soil outside your home should be covered with sod, mulch, or gravel to reduce the hazard;

- Cover your pool when it is not in use;

- If lead levels are found to be high in your yard, tainted soil may actually need to be removed and clean soil may need to be brought in;

- A floor mat inside the door can help reduce lead dust from being tracked in;

- Take your shoes off when you enter your house and leave them at the door.

Spring is a wonderful time to enjoy the outdoors. Be sure to do it safely!

Recently, an article on the affect of mold on health in the New York Times Topics section advised homeowners to use home-test kits to detect the presence of mold. But home-test kit results are unreliable.  Here’s why:

• Mold is naturally occurring and present in almost every environment. Home mold test kits that use ‘settle plate applications’ (set the dish out for 24 – 48 hours and spores are supposed to fall into the dish) generally do not measure airborne particles accurately. Spores vary in size, shape, and most importantly weight.  Heavier mold spores will fall out of the air more quickly, and therefore are represented in greater numbers in a home-test kit dish.  Since most environments contains some amount of mold, it’s difficult to determine whether the mold spores you collect are from a dangerous indoor colony or just part of the outside environment.
• Do-it-yourself mold test kits often cause people to make uninformed decisions.  The levels of spores that are analyzed by the lab are not accurate and they cannot detect hidden mold, so the homeowner cannot properly assess the situation.  People often do either too little or too much based on these results.  Just because you have mold does not mean you will need costly remediation.  When a professional takes a sample of spores, they forcefully draw air into a spore trap.  Home-test kits rely on air currents in a room over a 24 – 48 hour period.  Property owners need to be sure of the situation, and these home-test kits do not provide certainty.

The bottom line is if you think you may have mold, contact a professional testing service – preferably one with a Certified Microbial Investigator (as certified by the American Council for Accredited Certification).  With a professional environmental testing service, you will get interpretation and analysis of the mold, allowing you to make informed choices.  Your decision can make all the difference between potential health problems for you, your family, or your tenants, and a very messy and expensive cleanup – let alone a potential lawsuit.  The wisest course is to have the job handled professionally, properly, and quickly.

Here’s a scary fact: infants who live in homes that contain mold are three times more likely to develop asthma by age seven, the age at which asthma can be diagnosed, according to a study published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

Led by researchers from the University of Cincinnati, the study determined that early life exposure to mold played a critical role in childhood asthma development. Eighteen percent of children enrolled in the Cincinnati Childhood Allergy and Air Pollution Study were found to be asthmatic at age 7. Mold exposure levels were measured using a DNA-based analysis tool developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — the environmental relative moldiness index (ERMI). The tool combines results of the analysis of 36 different types of mold into one index, which describes the mold burden in the homes.

Another study from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and Yale University showed a strong connection between children who were exposed to mold in their first year of life and the development of a wheeze and cough by twelve months of age. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vital Signs (May 2011), one in ten children in the US had asthma – that’s almost 7 million children.  Asthma was also responsible for nearly 3,500 deaths in the US in 2007, and cost nearly $56 billion in direct medical expenses.

Common symptoms of asthma are:

- Coughing, especially at night;

- Wheezing or whistling sound, especially when breathing out;

- Trouble breathing or fast breathing that causes tightness in the skin around the ribs and neck;

- Frequent colds that settle in the chest.

How can you protect your newborns from asthma? The first step is to know if you have mold in your home. The best way to do that is to have your home tested by a professional. If they determine that levels are too high, they can devise a remediation plan for you so that the problem can be corrected. Then, both you and your little one will breathe a whole lot easier!

Experts and allergists across the country are predicting that spring of 2012 may be one of the worst allergy seasons in a decade.

Researchers blame climate change. The mild winter and early spring has allergy sufferers running to the medicine cabinet for relief. But high pollen counts are not the only issue – mold spores are unusually abundant this time of year. Both indoor and outdoor mold can significantly affect allergy sufferers, and can even cause asthma in otherwise healthy individuals.

What can you do to lessen the amount of mold in your home? Here are a few tips:

• Clean out your gutters, even if you cleaned them in the fall. Leaves and debris collect all winter, then rot, creating a fertile place for mold to grow – right on the exterior of your home;
• While you’re at it, remove organic debris from your yard – especially if it is decomposing. Dead branches and leaves are prime growth spots for mold;
• Clean bathrooms, and especially bathtub and shower areas, window sills and shower curtains with a bleach or disinfectant mixture at least once a month to prevent mold growth;
• Use an exhaust fan in bathrooms, kitchens, and laundry rooms to vent excess moisture;
• Use a dehumidifier – especially in damp areas of your home. Keep the dehumidifier set at 50% humidity. Any more than that will encourage mold growth;
• Try to keep your home dry and ventilated;
• Keep your basement carpet-free to avoid moisture build up and mold growth;
• Regularly check under sinks and plumbing for leaks. Mold can grow quickly in these areas;
• Don’t put wet shoes or damp clothing in your closets.  Let them dry fully first to avoid mold growth.

If you are having problems with mold allergies, the best course of action is to have your home tested by a professional to identify the source of the mold and then devise a remediation plan. Then you can truly — breath easy.

Don’t risk your family’s health. Have your home tested for lead by an environmental testing company. You need to know if you’ll be disturbing old layers of lead paint so you can take appropriate steps to keep your family safe.

If remnants of lead paint are found, follow these precautions:

Evacute vulnerable family members. While you are working, be sure children younger than seven, pregnant women and pets leave for the day. Even a speck of lead dust can cause irreversible damage to them. They can return to the house after the work has stopped and the area is thoroughly cleaned.

Contain the area. Close the doors leading to the work area. Then use 4-6 mil plastic sheeting and painter’s tape to seal off the area, even over the doors. Seal all duct work in the area with the plastic sheeting and painter’s tape. Your goal is to prevent lead dust from contaminating the rest of your house.

Dress for success. Look for a mask or respirator with a N95 rating or higher, which filters out very fine particles. And be sure you wear it for the entire time you are working and cleaning. Also, buy a Tyvek suit to protect your clothes. If the work takes more than a day, leave the Tyvek suit in the contained area. And be sure to cover your feet with booties, which also should never leave  the contained area. Once you remove the Tyvek suit and the booties, head to your washing machine, strip, and wash your clothes.

Avoid sanding. Lead dust accounts for most of the 250,000 pediatric lead poisoning cases a year. Sanding releases fine lead dust particles, which fly through your air, infiltrating your house. Unfortunately, they stay in the air for a long time. Therefore, sand as little as possible.

Time to clean. First, sweep up as much of the dust and debris as you can and put it into a plastic bag, which you then seal with painter’s tape. Use a HEPA vacuum to remove any remaining lead dust particles. Then use warm water and clean rags to wash all surfaces. Every exposed surface must be cleaned well.

When the work is done, have another lead test performed by a professional testing company. Click here for more information or to schedule a lead test.

What’s the significance of the 1978 date? That was the year lead paint was removed from interior paints in the United States. And why should you care? Because annually, 34 years after lead paint was banned, 250,000 children are still being poisoned by the paint that remains. And this is not just an inner-city problem. Lead poisoning knows no economic bounds.

Unless you know where lead is lurking, your contractor can unknowingly release toxic lead dust into the air. And if a professional lead inspection firm finds lead remnants in your home, be sure your contractor is certified in lead-safe work practices.

Under a recent Renovation, Repair, and Paint rule (RRP) enacted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) almost two years ago, all work performed on painted surfaces in a pre-1978 built home must follow a strict protocol.

1. The company that does your work – from a simple painting job to a full-house renovation – must be a certified in lead-safe work practices by the Environmental Protection Agency. Do not let a tradesperson tell you certification is not needed. It is. Uncertified tradespeople should not be working in an environment that contains lead paint, and if caught, face a stiff fine and will be forced to stop work in your home.
2. The work area in a leaded environment needs to be sealed off from the remainder of the living space. At the end of the day, the contractor is required to thoroughly clean the area in accordance with EPA guidelines.
3. Certified tradespeople have to document the work they perform and file a report at the end of the project.

Once the work is performed, the next and very important step is to have the environmental testing firm conduct a second lead test to be sure your home is 100 percent lead free.

Click here to schedule a lead test.

Tomorrow: Tips for do-it-yourself homeowners ready to tackle their own home renovations.