Request To Allow Public Comment On Proposed ACOEM Mold Guidelines

Pamela Hymel, MD
President, ACOEM
Marianne Dreger
Communications Director
25 Northwest Point Blvd. Suite 700
Elk Grove Village, Illinois, 60007-1030
Fax: 847/818-9266

Dear Dr. Hymel and Ms. Dreger,

It has recently come to our attention that ACOEM is drafting revisions to their 2002 position statement on mold induced illnesses; and that these revisions will be shared with the occupational physicians who are members of ACOEM at the upcoming 2011 AOHC conference in Washington, DC.

The guidelines that ACOEM writes establish treatment protocols that ACOEM and other physicians use when examining workers who have been exposed to microbial contaminants (mold, etc) that are found in water damaged work environments. They are used to establish US public health policy and US teaching hospital protocols and practices.

Additionally, they are used to establish or deny workers compensation insurance benefits for those workers claiming injury from a water damaged workplace; and to direct employers of the potential need to remediate the damaged buildings. The directives given for remediation also potentially impact the health and safety of employees before, during and after the remediation process.

As such, the revisions ACOEM is drafting today will impact the physical well being of employees and other occupants of water damaged buildings tomorrow. They will impact the financial well being of employers, property managers, builders, building owners and their insurers. The revisions will impact how ACOEM members and other physicians address symptoms in workers and occupants who are exposed to the damaged building contaminants before, during and after a water loss and remediation.

Because of the large number of US citizens, US workers and US businesses that have been impacted by ACOEM's mold guidelines in the past and will be impacted by the revisions in the future; we are requesting that ACOEM display their proposed 2010 revisions to their 2002 mold position statement on the ACOEM web site for a two week, ACOEM general member and public comment period, prior to finalizing the revisions.

Thank you in advance for allowing those affected by the guidelines that ACOEM drafts today to have a voice in the health policies ACOEM establishes for tomorrow.