Word on the Street – From Indoor Environment Connections Online
BLOWING, BLOWING, BLOWN!
Unlike most other sports venues, baseball stadiums vary in size. But there may be more than the distance of the outfield at play at the home of the Minnesota Twins. A June 7 report appearing in Michigan-based Booth Newspapers suggests the reason why the Detroit Tigers were not able to reconcile a one-point deficit in the last inning of the previous day’s game at the Twins’ Metrodome was because air circulation in the stadium kept a long drive to left field just inside the park. According to the article, Tigers officials said that during the ninth inning, when all they needed was one more score to force extra innings, the air inside the dome was “cranked.” Detroit’s argument was also touted at MLB.com, which quoted the team’s manager as saying: “It seemed like the air conditioners were blowing straight in our face… There was definitely a difference in the air conditioning in the ninth.”
BILLIONS IN GROWTH EXPECTED
Significant growth is expected in the indoor air quality marketplace, according to a May 19 press release from Business Communications Company Inc., which will, next month, release a report with a five-year outlook based on results over the past two years for American IAQ companies. It said the market made $5.6 billion in 2003, and with an average annual growth rate of 11.1 percent, it will be raking in $9.4 billion a year by 2008. IAQ equipment is the largest generator of this income within the IAQ market, the company says, having pulled in $3 billion in 2002 and $3.3 billion last year, although it forecasts that consulting and testing services will have a higher average annual growth rate. Predicted to enjoy the largest growth, however, will be environmental services, which will grow at an average rate of 21.2 percent by 2008 to be making $3.4 billion that year. The company plans to publish copies of its full report, titled “U.S. Indoor Air Quality Market and Trends,” for a cost of $3,750. It is expected to be available in July online at www.bccresearch.com.
OK: DOUBLE DIPPING NOT OK
The state of Oklahoma has enacted a bill making it illegal for the same company to handle both mold inspection and remediation. After the legislation was approved by both houses, the governor signed the bill into law June 4, and it takes effect beginning this month. A lobbyist behind the bill said it is a small beginning step for the state and that a licensing bill for inspection and remediation will be introduced next year. IE Connections recently called the practice of performing both consulting and remediation “double dipping,” and legal expert Michael Bowdoin weighed in on the topic in March with his article, “Wisdom: Pigs Get Fat, But Hogs Get Slaughtered.”
JUMPIN’ JACK FUNGI
Bianca Jagger was quoted in the New York Post as saying: “The law should not allow this to happen to people. Someone who’s been a good tenant should not be put through what I’ve been put through.” What was she talking about? It was her response to the eviction note she had just received from the landlord of her Manhattan apartment – where she has lived for almost three years, according to her $20 million lawsuit against the landlord, because she says mold inside has taken over. She even told the press that she was “homeless” and that the mold has “seriously affected my health,” as widely reported by Reuters News Services. If asked to comment on what his ex-wife should do about the mold, Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger might have suggested, “Paint it black?”
Source: This article appears in Volume 5 Issue 10 (July 2004) on Indoor Environment Connections newspaper and is reprinted with permission of the publisher. For subscription information, visit www.ieconnections.com