by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
Richard Lipsey has been up to his respirator in mold spores recently.
With mold replacing asbestos and radon as the biggest toxic tort facing homeowners and office workers in the U.S. today, Lipsey, a Jacksonville-based toxicologist, has been receiving calls from people all over the country wanting him to look at their mold.
Sounds like an odd, kind of gross request, but as one of the only toxicologists in the world holding a doctorate in forensic mitigation in the field of pesticides and mold, Lipsey is considered by many to be the top expert regarding toxic mold and its removal.
“There may be others, and I am sure there are others working for major chemical companies or universities, but they don’t do forensic toxicology type of work like I do,” said Lipsey.
He has the frequent flyer miles to prove it. At the top of his field, Lipsey is frequently retained by lawyers across America for trials, depositions and inspections.
Lipsey said he travels for work almost every week and testifies in about 80 to 90 different cases each year. He has worked cases in more than 40 states, several countries and his resume reads like a who’s who list of lawsuit suits involving the biggest companies and corporations in the world.
Due to his extensive travels, Lipsey has more than four million Delta miles, most of which he said he is donating to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Though much of Lipsey’s work involves chemical and pesticidal poisoning cases, he said the number of toxic mold cases is growing across the nation. He said these cases only recently started grabbing the public’s undivided attention because people are realizing that some molds can kill.
Lipsey said while 80 percent of the mold in the average home is harmless, or non-pathogenic, some are pathogenic and, if exposed to them over a prolonged period of time, can severely harm you.
He likened the public’s new found fear and respect for toxic mold to the similar public outcry that came after the 1962 release of “Silent Spring,” Rachel Carson’s book about the effects of overuse of the pesticide DDT.
“Remember when Silent Spring came out and people started realizing that pesticide misuse was not only killing birds but was killing people? Then they got serious about it,” said Lipsey. “Well about five, six or seven years ago, we started realizing that sometimes the mold and fungi bacteria that we see was not just mildew. It can be something harmful.”
Some molds, like the black-colored Stachybotrys, can become deadly if not found and removed properly.
“The science has changed,” he said. “We now realize that Stachybotrys can kill. We now realize that toxic mold and bacteria can cause brain damage and liver cancer and lung damage.”
Though he couldn’t mention the late night talk show celebrity’s name, Lipsey was involved in one case in a Hollywood, Calif. mansion where toxic mold was found and improperly removed. The mold came back, killed the household dog and put the owner’s wife in the hospital.
“They got $7 million for that fiasco,” said Lipsey.
Though he now mainly works as an investigator and consultant for legal battles involving toxic molds and chemicals, Lipsey was once a professor at the University of Florida. Lipsey, who gets visibly energetic when talking about his moldy findings, said he left his role in academia to become a full-time private consultant because he figured he might be able to make more of an impact in the private sector. He also said his consulting job is fun.
“It’s interesting, fun and instead of helping 30 students it is a wonderful way to help a lot more people in a lot more places by applying science to everyday problems,” he said. “I found out what was really exciting about my specialty was solving problems.”
One of the everyday problems Lipsey sees on a weekly basis regarding mold is faulty construction. Besides multi-million dollar settlements and heightened media attention, Lipsey said shoddy construction practices and cheap building materials are a major reason toxic mold cases have become so numerous.
“There (are more cases) now because construction is a little too fast and not as good as I think it was in the 50s, 60s and 70s,” said Lipsey. “They are putting them up really fast now and the subcontractors come and go and the materials are a lot cheaper than they were in the old days when wood was wood. It might have been No. 2 pine but, by golly, it was wood as opposed to particle board or OSB (oriented strand board, commonly known as plywood) or some of the other things that get wet and grow mold.”
Lipsey emphasized that there is no such thing as a mold free house, but added that one or two construction mistakes can lead to big problems down the road.
“(Mold) is ubiquitous,” he said, “but once you have a long standing leak, and you build up high levels of toxic mold like Stachybotrys or Aspergillius so that you have got levels in the millions in the air, then you have children with bloody noses.”
According to Lipsey’s estimates, at least 1 out of 10 of Jacksonville’s buildings probably have some type of construction flaw that could lead to the build up of harmful toxins.
“I would say that probably 10 percent of the buildings in Jacksonville could qualify as buildings that need proper inspections by an expert and not just an industrial hygienist that knows heat and air. You need a toxicologist,” said Lipsey.
Lipsey, who checks his own house for excessive mold three or four times each year, said it is important to use the proper professionals to check for mold in a home or office. He also said the do-it-yourself mold check kits are simply a waste of time and money.
“You know those kits you can buy at Home Depot? They are just a petri dish and they normally have the wrong augur for the most toxic molds so you are just wasting your time,” he said. “Also, if you go on line and they say ‘For $19.95 we will send you a mold sampling kit.’ You know what it turns out to be? A piece of scotch tape. You are supposed to stick it on what you think is mold and put it in a zip lock bag and send it off.
“Very few labs can do the toxicology that I need for pathogenic bacteria or Stachybotrys because if you don’t use the right method of analysis you are just wasting your time.”