DID YOU LOCK YOUR DOORS?

Don’t know about you, but anytime I leave the house, I have to make sure all is well inside before walking out the door.  The same is true for my car.  Before I had a garage, I made sure my car doors were locked prior to going inside the house.  I learned that lesson the hard way; once when a black cat was placed in my car on Halloween.  It is a little scary when you open your car door to a screaming cat jumping out at you, leaving evidence of the visit in your vehicle.  Another time, I discovered someone sleeping in the back seat of my car when I started to get in it the next morning.   Locking doors has been a good habit for me in the past several years, but not so much when I was younger and lived in the country.  We went to bed with unlocked house and car doors.  Not much happened back then.  No one tried to steal anything or harm anyone.  It does not seem so today.  I would not think of retiring (the old expression for going to bed) without making sure my house is locked, and I mean every door.  And of course we have security systems to help protect us in our homes.  What has changed so much in the past several years?   In my opinion, people have become more brazen or perhaps I am just more aware of what is going on around me because of the media blitz.  Perhaps there is more drug dependency now than in earlier days, or again maybe we are just more aware of drugs now than then.   Even today we have availability to lock and secure our homes remotely.  Wow, things sure are different nowadays.

Well, my house is locked and secure and no harm, hopefully, will invade my private domain.  Yet I must ask myself if all is safe since I locked my house?    Wow, what a question.  Why would my home harbor any potential danger or place me in harm’s way?  How could such a thing happen?   Perhaps we could say it is an “inside job.”  Maybe something microscopic and unnoticeable to the naked eye is putting me at risk.  Of course we can see any insects usually, except perhaps for termites and then we can see their damage, but what about Asbestos?  As most of us know Asbestos left alone may pose no health issues, but if you are like me, you like to re-arrange things from time to time.  Perhaps I go beyond just re-arranging and decide to remodel my kitchen; there should be no problem, right?  Perhaps there will be no problem, but do we want to make sure our house is safe when remodeling?  Could we say Asbestos may be a silent threat?  If you have an older home and want to remodel, you may not know where Asbestos is located and if it will be disturbed.  Should you be concerned?  Absolutely, but do not panic.  Fortunately, there is a company that will inspect your house for Asbestos to see if there is any hidden danger lurking.  Not only can they check for possible Asbestos contamination in the air but also for meth residue contamination and mold.  We will talk about meth and mold in future articles, so keep watching and be informed.  Give Crisis Cleaning a call toll free today at (877) 260-4828 or email them at info@crisiscleaning.com.  They serve Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, and North and South Carolina.  

And protect your health and your home!

By: Joan Mason, Blogger for Crisis Cleaning, Inc.

The Importance of a Checkup! 

Why do many of us call our physician to schedule our yearly check-up?  While we may not feel ill, we do want to catch or prevent any possible future health problems. 
We may take vitamins, all the way from A to Z, to build up our strength and keep us

healthy.  Many times I stop by a store, whether department or pharmacy, and view their aisles of vitamins and supplements.  And how many times has your doctor told you to exercise?  Why, to keep our muscles strong or perhaps lose a few pounds (or maybe to re-proportion the weight we already have) and to maintain a good balance.  We also may be told to drink more water and watch our caloric and sugar intakes, eat lots of vegetables and low-fat foods.  Oh, and some of us take our medications to keep ourselves in check and prevent physical problems such as a stroke or heart attack.  Certainly we work at keeping our bodies healthy so we may lead happy, productive and longer lives.

Now let’s ask ourselves how many of us who have older homes, say built before 1978, make an appointment for a house checkup to insure we have no issues with possible asbestos exposure?  Left alone, contained and intact, asbestos may pose no harm to one’s health or well-being.  Many times simply leaving it alone is all that is required.  However, if you are planning to remodel your older home, please be aware of your house’s asbestos locations.  Disturbed and airborne, asbestos may pose a health problem over time.  Certainly television has brought awareness to mesothelioma and the possibility that asbestos exposure may cause various lung issues.  Who doesn't want clean and healthy lungs?  If you suspect your home may need an asbestos inspection, especially if you are considering remodeling, what about a home health checkup?  As the saying goes “An ounce of prevention…” 

What can you do if you want a home health safety inspection?  One way is to call a company on whom you can rely to make sure all is well with your house.  Such a company is Crisis Cleaning, Inc. who is an environmental decontamination company servicing Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, North and South Carolina.

Give them a call today toll free at 1-877-260-4828 if you have any questions or issues with asbestos, mold, or meth residue contamination in your home.  Hopefully, your house will get a clean bill of health and at the very least a company created to help people just like you solve home health and safety issues.  

By:  Joan Mason

DANGERS OF LIVING WITH TOXIC MOLD

You already know that your brain on meth is not great; but did you know that mold can have devastating neurological consequences, as well?

Of course, scientists have long suspected that mold exposure - especially to super-toxic molds like Stachybotrys - can damaged the human brain. It’s kind of a given, considering the toxic effects of mold on the rest of our physical systems. But recent studies have started to link household and workplace mold exposure to serious neurological and psychological symptoms.

So what does your brain look like on toxic mold?

Anxious and depressed

The more we learn about the neurochemicals in our brains, the more we find out that so many things factor into anxiety and depression. Sure, these can be inherited conditions rooted in your natural brain chemistry. But certain issues - like nutritional defects - can make anxiety and depression worse.

And, it turns out, mold can do the same.

In one recent study, mice consistently exposed to Stachybotrys mold were more likely to become depressed and anxious than their non-mold-exposed counterparts.

Forgetful

Besides making us more anxious and depressed, mold may make us forgetful. The same study that found mold exposure makes mice anxious found that exposure also makes them more forgetful. Mice experienced serious deficits in contextual and spatial memory after even relatively low exposure to the toxic black mold.

Apparently the mice exposed to the mold experienced decreases in brain mass in the hippocampus - a major brain region that helps control memory.

Parkinsonian movements

While we still don’t know the real cause of Parkinson’s disease, this study showed the mold-derived toxins can cause parksinsonian symptoms by degenerating dopamine neurons. Exposure to these toxins may cause some of the movement disorders associated with Parkinson’s disease.

What you can do

Estimates say that between 40% and 70% of U.S. homes have some mold lurking in dank basements and behind sheetrock walls. While not all of this mold is incredibly harmful, some of it can have the effects mentioned above - especially on children and their rapidly-developing brains.

Luckily, there is an answer to mold in your home or commercial building! Professional mold remediators like those at Crisis Cleaning can test your home’s air for levels of mold exposure. Then, we can use proven techniques to efficiently rid your home of the mold that could be making you and your family sick.

If you suspect your home has a mold problem, call our 24-hour hotline at (877) 260-4828 to discuss mold testing and remediation today!

WHY YOU SHOULD TEST BEFORE YOU BUY OR RENT A HOME.

In the spring of 2013, Jenny and Chris Nugent were excited to buy their very first home. They spent their life savings on a beautiful ranch fixer-upper in Mooresville, and dumped in some extra money to fix holes in the wall replace the flooring, and upgrade the bathroom. They never expected to have to deal with meth in their dream home.

Until everyone started getting sick.

Around August, the Nugent kids - then 10, 8, and 1 - started getting sick. The signs were subtle, like a flu that just wouldn't go away. At first, Jenny thought it was just a virus they were passing around, as families do.

But their 10-year-old daughter was getting “the flu” every couple of weeks. She’d get sick, get well enough to go to school, and then be sick again within a few days. And the baby grew lethargic and irritable, woke up every two hours at night, and had diarrhea for six weeks straight. To top it off, the family’s beloved dog died not long after they moved into the new house.

Finding the Answers

Jenny searched for answers, but it wasn't until May that a neighbor mentioned the home’s previous owner had cooked meth. “I was in contact as soon as I started suspecting,” says Jenny, “I called the homeowners’ insurance company and filed a claim, and then contacted the inspector who did our property inspection. Both of them called me back and told me about Crisis Cleaning.”

Jenny ordered one generic meth test kit online. It came back positive. Just to be sure, she used Crisis Cleaning’s certified test next. It, too, was positive.

The next day, the family moved into a hotel, leaving most of their belongings behind. They had no idea what would or would not still be contaminated.

Jenny immediately contacted Crisis Cleaning, but there was no way the Nugents could afford to pay for their services. Their homeowner’s insurance policy didn't cover meth cleanup, and their savings was gone. Not to mention they’d have to pay rent and a mortgage payment while straightening out the mess.

Getting it Cleaned Up

Luckily for the Nugent’s, Crisis Cleaning takes on about one pro bono case per year. After hearing the family’s heartbreaking story, they offered the Nugent’s their services free of charge.

First, Crisis Cleaning tested the property. It was many times the legal limit for meth residue - especially in the downstairs in the kitchen and near the baby’s room. “No wonder he wouldn't sleep for more than two hours at night,” Jenny says in retrospect. The poor baby probably had headaches from all the meth exposure.

Crisis Cleaning’s crew soon came to remove all the contaminated belongings from the home. Jenny says this was the biggest relief. Without an expert there to take care of it, they would have been clueless as to which belongings to trash, and where to take them.

From there, things stalled a bit. The Nugent’s were - and still are - in the midst of a lawsuit against the Realtor who sold them the home. The Realtor happened to be the previous homeowner’s mother, and the Nugent’s think she may have known about the meth exposure.

Unfortunately, the previous owner’s attorney’s stalled. But, eventually, Crisis Cleaning was allowed in to decontaminate the property, which took about three days.

Where They Are Now

Today, the Nugent family owns a certified meth-free home in Mooresville, but they’re still living in an apartment. “It just feels like a huge death happened [in that home] for us,” says Jenny, “It’s just a dark place for us now. We’re just wanting to break even and move on somewhere else.”

The Nugent's last year hasn't gone as planned, but they’re much better off than they could have been.

Without Crisis Cleaning, says Jenny, “we would have ended up foreclosing just because we didn't have the funds. . . To me, it’s like they were angels for us because otherwise we would have lost everything. It’s that simple. I mean, they saved us.”

As the Nugent’s rebuild their lives, they’re putting the finishing touches on the Mooresville home. Soon, they’ll install new carpet so that it can go back on the market. Hopefully they’ll sell the home soon, so they can buy a new one; but this time before they buy, they’ll test for meth.

http://www.crisiscleaning.com/home-meth-test-kit-test-meth-residue

By Abby Hayes

Can Police Dogs Sniff Out Meth Residue???

How is a police dog trained to alert to drugs? The dogs couldn’t care less about the drugs themselves, they’re just searching for their favorite toy. Most dogs love to play tug-of-war with a towel. Trainers wash the towel so it has no scent to confuse the dogs and they play tug-of-war. Later the trainer rolls a bag of marijuana into the towel and the dog learns to associate that smell with their favorite toy. As the training progresses different drugs are rolled into the towel. The dogs’ keen sense of smell is invaluable in the war against drugs, but what about methamphetamine residue lurking unseen in the walls and carpeting?

Let me share with you the heart breaking story of one family in northern Indiana. They searched and searched and found the home they’d always wanted. They had all of the initial inspections performed, waded through the mounds of paperwork involved in purchasing a home and finally signed on the dotted line. Whew! They’d done it; they’d bought their new home. The family picked colors for different rooms and began to paint. Smiling faces covered with occasional streaks of paint, as they worked on their new home together; even redoing some of the wood flooring. Finally they moved in.

After being in their new home for only a week, they heard from the local police that they suspected the previous owner had been manufacturing meth at the home. Alarm bells chimed in the minds of the parents. What had they brought their children into; surely not a former meth lab? Police dogs were called in to sniff for drugs, but the dogs did not detect anything.

Feeling uncertain whether a police dog could detect meth residue contaminant in the walls and carpeting, especially since the police had discovered a suspicious burn pile in the back yard, they learned of Crisis Cleaning and decided to have their home tested. Lab results came back and even with the new painting on the walls and ceilings of their new home there were many rooms that tested positive for meth above Indiana’s threshold of 0.50 ug/100cm2. Now this family is living in a home that could potentially make them ill, unless they choose to have it decontaminated. But having a five bedroom home decontaminated is a huge expense.

So who is to blame? The realtor, did he or she know about the home’s history, the family for not ferreting out all of the facts, or the previous owner? Thankfully, for this family there is at least the hope of using their insurance and possibly even the previous owner’s insurance through ongoing liability, since they did not commit the illegal act themselves. All of this could have been avoided if meth testing were added to a home inspector’s list of things to be checked before a home is purchased. For only $59 plus the cost of shipping to a professional lab, the family could have known beforehand that the home they were thinking of purchasing had meth residue all throughout it. So much anguish could have been spared.

Oh, and back to the police drug sniffing dogs, they are great at what they do, finding packets of drugs, but we now know they cannot detect methamphetamine residue. It lurks, undetected, by humans and dogs. Demand a meth test as a condition of sale prior to purchasing a new home or prior to signing a rental lease.

Meth: Is it the Scourge of Indiana and Our Nation?

Everywhere you turn you hear another story about a meth lab bust. But we know for every illegal lab that gets busted there are many more that are operating that are never busted. Now, with the one-pot method addicts are making their own meth and many people are receiving serious burns or even being killed.

For instance in our home state of Indiana, Evansville is trying to get legislation to make it a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. If they gain that title it will enable more funds and resources to be allotted to the war on meth in their county. Two northwestern Indiana counties already have that distinction.

Then in the middle of the state we have numerous labs that are busted every day. So Indiana is quickly becoming covered with the scourge of meth, which should give renters and new homebuyers cause for concern. Many of these homes where meth labs were present, but they were never busted, are put on the market or placed on the foreclosure list for sale. Or a landlord will clean a property after a tenant moves out and he is none the wiser that a meth lab was ever on his premises. This opens the door for innocent people to move in and begin living with meth.

Methamphetamine residue is very harmful and it doesn’t go away over time. The occupants may first notice they have respiratory problems, or kidney ailments, or even unexplained rashes. The very thought of an infant crawling on a carpet where meth had been cooked or smoked in the home, makes me cringe. The home has to be decontaminated.

Crisis Cleaning is Indiana’s leading meth lab cleanup company. They use a product called Crystal Clean that actually renders inert or kills the meth residue. Check us out at www.crisiscleaning.com. Or you can find a recent article about Crisis Cleaning at http://homecleanermagazine.com/.

WHY I CLEAN METH

When I was a young girl, my father became an entrepreneur after he quit his secure job at Eli Lilly Corporation as a union electrician in 1972 and started his own electrical contracting business.  I have many memories sitting around our family dining room table during evening meals listening to dad and mom talking about the business.  In many ways my preparation for running a corporation began back in the seventies at that very dining room table.

In 1979, the same year I graduated from high school and started working for my father’s company, my grandfather retired, so my father purchased his father’s general contracting company. 

In 1984 my father appointed me President of the family business and gifted me with 10 percent ownership shares in the corporation.  Fortunately, I gained the fortitude to steer the helm of the family contracting business in the direction of performing insurance repair work rather than continue as a general construction company.

In the 1990’s I continued my education and training and received many certifications from IICRC [Institute of Inspection Cleaning Repairs Corporation].  IICRC establishes nationally recognized rules and regulations for restoration contractors who perform fire, wind, water and mold remediation work.  Our family business is a certified firm of IICRC.

In 2001, I attended an IICRC training class.  One section covered death and crime scene cleaning; this course peaked my interest.  Since our company was already certified for cleaning in odor, fire and smoke damage; it seemed logical to add death and crime scene cleaning to our list of services.  However, marketing a general contracting company as a cleaning company for a death scene seemed quite difficult.  Therefore, in 2001 I created a sister company called Crisis Cleaning. 

Under the new company name I attended trade shows of funeral directors, coroners and sheriffs whenever they held annual conferences.  In the summer of 2006, during the annual sheriff’s trade show, many sheriffs who came by our booth asked if our company did meth lab cleaning.  Multiple sheriffs told us how much of a problem it was becoming and that there was a great need for companies to assist in the cleaning of meth lab contaminated homes.  They weren’t talking about helping law enforcement with the removal of chemicals from the home.  They were talking about the cleanup of the properties from the residue left after the cooking or smoking of methamphetamine.  I remembered the important business fact about starting a successful business.  “Find a unique niche, or fill a need or demand that’s not being met and you’ll have lots of business.”  I felt deep in my heart that this was the niche or need that was not being effectively met and decided to pursue this further.

In 2006, I did research on meth lab cleaning and discovered that our own state of Indiana was in the process of creating laws governing the cleanup of illegal drug labs.  Therefore, I took all the required training classes and obtained certification from IDEM [Indiana Department of Environmental Management] in January, 2007 as a Qualified Inspector.

On March 23, 2007 Indiana’s new drug lab law governing the cleanup of illegal drug labs became effective.  My name and company were listed on their website as a company qualified in Indiana to perform inspections, testing and decontamination services on illegal drug labs. 

Unlike death and crime scene cleaning, most property owners found themselves dealing with the costs of cleaning up meth contaminated properties without the assistance of insurance coverage.  When property owners, including rental property owners, called their insurance companies to report a claim, they were told “No, the testing and cleaning of meth lab residue were not covered.”   At that time, I did not do my own research, I, like most property owners, accepted the verbal refusal from the insurance companies.

With the denial of insurance proceeds, many property owners were cleaning up their meth lab contaminated properties on their own even though Indiana’s drug lab law only allowed such cleaning by property owners under the written supervision of a Qualified Inspector.  After doing their own cleaning without consulting a Qualified Inspector; property owners called our company to schedule testing.  They hoped their cleaning efforts were successful in ridding their property of methamphetamine contamination.

Unfortunately, I found, without proper instructions, many property owners were using the wrong products or were covering over the methamphetamine contamination by painting.  They did not realize that painting alone, especially using the wrong type of paint, does not encapsulate the methamphetamine contamination.  The methamphetamine contamination was seeping through the paint.

Knowing that most property owners were faced with the financial burden of funding the cleanup themselves and without proper instructions; I again felt the same urging to fill an unmet need as I did in 2006 when the sheriffs asked if our company provided meth lab cleaning services.  Therefore, in 2009 I began writing this book to fill the need of providing a proper step-by-step guide to cleaning meth residue in the home based on my professional experiences.

It wasn’t until April 2010 on a particular decontamination job the property owners were successful in obtaining insurance proceeds to cover all the costs of the testing and decontamination services that our company performed for them.  Their insurance company even covered all the costs of replacement and repairs that were necessary for all porous items {structural or personal contents} that had to be disposed of.

However, there are many states without drug lab laws.  Property owners in those states may be forced to do the cleanup themselves, especially if insurance proceeds are not available in their situation.  The need for effective step-by-step instructions still exists, which fueled my desire to continue and finish this book.

I’m sure there will be critics of this book, particularly remediation contractors who will say cleaning of an illegal drug lab is too dangerous for property owners to do themselves.  My response is, “It’s even more dangerous for property owners to do the cleanup of an illegal drug lab without the proper instructions!”  Therefore, the purpose of this book is to provide property owners with the effective information needed to safely undertake such tasks on their own.

While there are several states with regulations that do not permit property owners to do their own cleanup, several states do permit the property owner to perform this task under the supervision of the remediation contractor who is qualified in that state to perform meth lab decontamination services.  There are also many states without any regulations at all.  This book will provide the knowledge and resources to many property owners who don’t have a clue what they should do if faced with meth contaminated property.

Once the dangerous chemicals are removed from the home by law enforcement, the contamination of meth residue, as a result of cooking or smoking meth in the property, is still there lurking unseen in the interior of the home.  It must be cleaned up before the property is safe for habitation, especially by small children.