LITTLE ROCK — Legislation to repeal the state’s mold-inspection program cleared an Arkansas House committee Wednesday.
A divided Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee recommended House Bill 1171 by Rep. Mike Patterson, D-Piggott. Patterson has said the law that created the program, Act 1467 of 2009, makes it harder to sell houses, is too cumbersome, hard to police, and puts undue burdens on the pest-control industry.
Patterson said Wednesday that he told the committee last week that he wanted a week “to think this over and try to come up with a solution that would help everybody in the state.
He said he received information from both sides regarding the bill, but “the way this is set up now I think the only thing we can do is to try to vote this law out. We need to repeal the whole thing.”
Patterson said he doesn’t see anything wrong with Arkansas not having a mold-inspection program for the next two years.
“We are not going backwards for the state of Arkansas. We are going forward,” he said.
He said he wants to get “the right nine or 10 people together to draw this bill up like it is supposed to be [during the next two years], so we could have a good mold bill for the state of Arkansas.”
Joe D. Henry, co-owner of Atoka Inc. in Little Rock, said he opposes legislation to repeal the mold-investigator licensing law implemented under Act 1467.
He said he and two other representatives of two dozen mold-investigator license holders want to improve and amend the law “to expand and include in its scope provisions that will maintain the level of professionalism for the industry and provide the necessary means for others desiring to become integrated into its ranks.”
“We believe that the industry ranks should grow to include other professionals, who are able to provide the public the most benefit possible for maintaining healthy home and workplace environments,” Henry said, reading from a statement also signed by Manuel Barnes of Egis Inc. in Bentonville and microbiologist Miriam Lonon of Fayetteville.
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“We would be remiss if we did not recognize the importance of the pest-control and house-inspection industry contributions regarding early detection of the potential for mold presence,” he said.
Act 1467, sponsored by Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, requires that people who domold inspections to be either a certified industrial hygienist, a certified microbial consultant or complete at least 20 hours of college-level microbiology.
Inspections must conform to the best practices put forth by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists and the American Industrial Hygiene Association, and property owners have a right to receive a copy of a laboratory analysis. The act puts the regulatory authority under the state Plant Board, which oversees the pest-control industry, and requires a $150 licensing fee per year.
Henry said only about 10 states have such a law.
He said his firm conducts mold inspections for real estate dealers who are trying to sell homes. A mold inspection can be processed in a few days, he said. He said his firm charges $350 to $500 for an inspection.
Henry acknowledged that some people may have to wait a few weeks to get a mold inspector to conduct an inspection, but not clients of his firm.
Barnes said the demand for his company’s services hasn’t changed since the law was enacted.
Representatives of the Arkansas Pest Management Association and Arkansas Association of Real Estate Inspectors told the committee that they favor the legislation because under current law they are not allowed to tell home owners of potential mold problems that should be tested.
Randy Martinsen, representing the Arkansas Home Inspection Registration Board, said proponents and opponents of the legislation have testified that the current law “ties the hands of termite people and home inspectors with respect to even mentioning to their client that there might be a problem involving mold,” and “that is absolutely not true.”
“Home inspectors and termite people can both say, ‘I suspect that you have mold ... and I suggest that you get a specialist to look at it,’ just like they should when they discover something else that they are not qualified to speak about,” he said.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 02/24/2011