Carl Grimes
started Healthy
Habitats® LLC
in 1987 specifically to address the needs of individuals who were not
being satisfactorily helped by conventional methods. He has developed
tools to generate the information necessary for individuals to
successfully address their indoor exposure complaints.
Mr. Grimes has an
intriguing and, at first glance, contradictory position within Indoor
Air Quality (IAQ) issues. As a consumer he has personally experienced
poor indoor air quality and the IAQ industry. As a professional in
the IAQ industry he has personally experienced poor indoor air
quality and the consumer. He understands that each side of the
equation has critical truths -- and mistakes.
Twenty years ago,
because of a combination of indoor exposures, medical issues and
general ignorance by most facets of society, Carl Grimes lost his
health, his family, his home and his means of earning a living. He
was unable to work for two years. Another eight years slowly passed
before he could reliably work more than part-time. He knows what it
means to lose it all. And he knows how unnecessary it was.
At the same time,
this personal tragedy transformed into a blessing. One of the doctors
he was working with asked him for a favor. He asked if Carl would
meet with some of his patients who were experiencing similar
struggles. That was the beginning of his private consulting business,
Healthy Habitats® LLC,
eighteen years ago.
The start of his
business was very slow due to his borderline health and the low level
of public awareness. It also took about ten years to recover
sufficiently to work full time. However, in the past six years Carl
Grimes has published the book Starting
Points for a Healthy Habitat (ISBN
0-9671525-0-X),
written columns for several publications including IE
Connections
(appointed to the Editorial Advisory Board in 2004) and presented his
procedures at local and national forums such as Starkey
International Institute for Household Managers and the Indoor Air
Quality Association (IAQA).
He served on the board of directors and the Advisory Board of the
Denver HEAL group, RMEHA,
for 14 years, committees on the national Indoor Environmental
Institute (IEI)
and has been featured on local TV news investigations into mold (KCNC April
13
and April
16).
(see also Barbara
Brader's story).
Carl Grimes was also a panel speaker on the Consumer IAQ Forum at
the fourth annual Healthy Indoor Environments 2003 conference, April,
in Anaheim. The forum keynote speaker was Erin
Brockovich and the panel included Richard Shaughnessy, Ph.D.
from the University of Tulsa Indoor
Air Program
and Robert Axelrad of the Indoor Environments Division of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
As the Healthy
Habitats® methods became better known and accepted, he was asked
to serve on the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration
Certification (IICRC)
Task Force for the the recently peer reviewed and published S520 Standard
and Reference Guide for Professional Mold Remediation. He also
served on the Editing Committee, Co-Chair of the Integration
subcommittee and Chair of the subcommittee for Indoor Environmental
Professionals (IEPs). Carl was appointed to the S520 revision
committee and is one of five national educators for the S520
Standard. Workshops in 2004 ncluded Boston,
Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlantic City
and San Diego with future ones in the planning stages. Other IICRC
activities include chairing the Specialized Experts subcommitte for
the revision of S500 Standard and Reference Guide for Professional
Water Damage Restoration.
In September of
2003, Mr. Grimes was elected to a three year term on the Board of
Directors of the Indoor Air Quality Association (IAQA-Board)
and co-presented, along with IAQA President Tom Yacobellis, the S520
Standard to their national convention in Chicago in October, 2003.
(Elected Vice-President in 2004). The next month he was co-presentor
of the keynote address along with IICRC Standards Chair Larry Cooper
and Eugene Cole, DrPH, at the November, 2003, National Quest for Unity
convention in Orlando. It was sponsored by Bioaerosols Committee of
the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH).
Carl also served on the National Air Duct Cleaners Association (NADCA)
committee for the revision of their ACR2005 Standard released in
late 2004.
Activities in 2004
included the Connections Conference,
July, in Clearwater, FL and the annual IAQA
Conference, in conjuction with the National Air Filtration
Association (NAFA) in September
in Las Vegas. August included Joe Lstiburek's acclaimed Building
Science Corp. Summer Camp. In November the
"re-emergence" of many of the former Bioaerosols committee
resulted in an innovative national symposium in Las Vegas. Titled Advanced
Perspectives in Mold Assessment and Control, the focus was
on the differing building/occupancy types for the purpose of crafting
professional judgement. Mr Grimes was a presenter at two workshops,
one on the IICRC S520 standard and the other addressing the topic of
"How Clean is Clean?" It was co-sponsored by the University
of Tulsa Indoor Air Quality program and Brigham Young University with
contributions by the International Society of Indoor Air Quality (ISIAQ)
and the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA).
December included a presentation on the historical issues of mold to
the Antimicrobial/Cleaning Products Divisions of the Consumer
Specialty Products Association (CSPA)
in Ft. Lauderdale.
2005 has been
equally busy with presentations scheduled for Connections 2005 and IAQA-AmIAQ-IESO
2005 national convention in Orlando, October 6-9. His article on The
Future of Mold Testing: Opinions from Industry was published in
the April issue of Indoor Environment Connections.
The most exciting
news for 2005 is the proposed unification of IAQA, AmIAQ and IESO.
Details are in their June press
release.
The cornerstone of
why the Healthy Habitats® approach works is the simple but less
obvious concept that "it takes two to tango": Exposure
and Susceptibility.
An IAQ complaint cannot occur unless there is both an exposure --
what most everyone looks for and strives to measure in the most
accurately scientific manner possible -- and a person who is
susceptible -- who most everyone, at best, "forgets" about
or strives to avoid.
Solutions to the
troublesome issues of indoor environment exposures are possible. But
they require new techniques, new understanding and new approaches
that acknowledge, accept and address both Exposure and
Susceptibility. Why? Because exposure-only methods only work part of
the time, for those who happen to "fit" the most common
response of the general public. It also addresses only one half of
the equation, completely ignoring the people who have the complaint.
And because most reactivity is specific to an individual, most people
don't "fit" that public health profile. Even the occupants
that do "fit" typically feel manipulated, become victimized
and then "act crazy" about their mistreatment, creating
further alienation between themselves and the "experts."
Carl Grimes is
firmly committed to providing his information, training and
methodology through private consultation, conferences, columns,
committee participation and his book. All are designed to teach
individuals how to identify and solve exposure complaints, especially
when experts either fail or they demand that occupants first
surrender their personal autonomy. It details why those experts fail,
how support systems often become hostile and why public health
procedures and statistically calculated data cannot apply to specific
individuals. His book, Starting Points for a Healthy Habitat,
offers a six-step action plan for less difficult situations and a
comprehensive 19-step plan for the highly susceptible individuals
experiencing the more complex combinations of exposures. (Read the Contents
and Chapter
1).
Finally, the
lessons Mr Grimes has learned from his highly susceptible clients can
be easily applied to the general population, providing and even
richer source of information and simple, successful action than is
available from exposure-only or susceptibility-only methodologies.
Carl Grimes and
Healthy Habitats® LLC is
available via e-mail at grimes@habitats.com,
fax 303-751-0416 or voice 303-671-9653.
