Healthy Habitats®LLC

303-671-9653
grimes@habitats.com

You can transform your sick house into a healthy house. But even better, you can transform how you feel indoors by identifying and removing the sources of exposure that are coming from inside your own home -- Simply, Sensibly & Affordably.

You don't have to wait for the ultimate cure. Your starting point is the information you already have, a healthy dose of common sense and an appropriate foundation.

Because you will learn how to generate your new information and will personally experience the changes, you will make better choices than any "expert" can. The reason is that you will understand and trust the information rather than trying to trust an assumed authority who knows "similar" situations but not you, specifically. To do this you need to learn:

  • What to Do

  • What to Avoid
  • What to do Next

Don't ignore the experts. They often have critical information that you can use and skills you don't possess.

Don't ignore public health information. That is the one place you must begin.

And if it works... You are done.

But if it doesn't solve your problems, it just means that methods successful for large groups are not appropriate to individuals, especially you. You will need a different plan of action with a different starting point, one that is customized to your individual needs.

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.

 

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