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Complete guide to building mold contamination:
What to Do About Black Mold and other Indoor Air Quality IAQ Contaminants. How to test, remove, or prevent mold contamination. How to deal with mold related illness.
Tthis website answers just about any thing you want to know about what to do about mold contamination in buildings: how to find, test, remove, clean-up or prevent indoor mold contamination. These mold-action & indoor environment investigation & cleanup articles provide expert, un-biased information for owners, occupants, inspectors.
How to recognize mold, how to test for unsafe mold, how to clean up or remove mold, how to prevent mold contamination in buildings, and what mold related illnesses and symptoms have been reported are all discussed in depth.
Green links show where you are. © Copyright 2017 InspectApedia.com, All Rights Reserved.
Here we give detailed and authoritative information and procedures for finding, testing, cleaning and preventing indoor mold, toxic black mold, green mold, testing building indoor air quality, and other sick house / sick building investigations.
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We also provide research articles on mold hazards and on the accuracy and reliability of various mold testing methods. We suggest the most effective building inspection and testing procedures for mold and similar indoor contaminants, and we provide a directory for expert services.
We give in-depth information about mold and other indoor air quality problems: causes of respiratory illness, asthma, or other symptoms such as neurological or psychological problems, air quality investigation methods, and remediation procedures such as mold cleanup, handling toxic mold contamination, and building or mechanical system repairs.
We offer advice on mold prevention and mold-resistant construction resistant to indoor problem molds such as the Aspergillus sp., Penicillium sp. and Stachybotrys chartarum groups.
To find what you need quickly, if you don't want to scroll through this index you are welcome to use the page top or bottom SEARCH BOX to search InspectApedia for specific articles and information.
The US EPA lists six basic strategies for reducing the level of indoor air pollutants.[5] These six approaches, source removal, source substitution, source encapsulation, local exhaust, ventilation, exposure control, and education, can apply to an indoor airborne mold particle or mold-volatile-organic-compound MVOC odor as well.
We list and describe these approaches just below, followed by descriptions of key indoor mold contamination articles.
The US EPA describes three indoor air pollutant source management approaches:
Local exhaust during mold cleanup is also a critical step in controlling the movement of moldy dust during a mold cleanup project in a building.
By using air handlers that in essence blow indoor air from the mold remediation work-space outdoors, we assure that air pressure inside the mold-contaminated area is lower than air pressure in nearby building areas.
This pressure difference can prevent cross-contamination of moldy dust and debris from the mold area into other building areas.
Emergency local exhaust in a mold contaminated building can be installed promptly on the discovery of a large problem mold reservoir using fans to blow indoor air from the moldy area and moldy odors (MVOCs) outdoors. This step is not, however, a substitute for cleaning and removing the problem mold.
Watch out: local exhaust is not an effective remedy for indoor mold contamination - the mold must be removed. And local exhaust can interfere with the safe operation of heating appliances by creating backdrafting
See BACKDRAFTING HEATING EQUIPMENT
that in turn can cause dangerous, even fatal carbon monoxide hazards
See CARBON MONOXIDE - CO.
Local exhaust can also cause unanticipated movement of other remote indoor air pollutants (mold, gases, or other problems) through various building areas.
Local exhaust is effective in removing "point sources" of indoor air pollutants such as temporary VOC contamination from indoor painting (PAINTS & COATINGS ODORS) or odors from kitchens and bathrooms (PLUMBING SYSTEM ODORS).
In other cases it is important to identify and fix the source of building odors (ODORS GASES SMELLS, DIAGNOSIS & CURE),
especially if potentially toxic or explosive gases (see HYDROGEN SULFIDE GAS and METHANE GAS SOURCES and SEWER GAS ODORS) are present.
Also see TOXIC GAS TEST PROCEDURES.
Ventilation uses fresh outdoor air to dilute polluted indoor air in buildings. While national and local building codes provide specifications for the amount of fresh air needed or recommended in buildings, ASHRAE and EPA standards typically give 15 cmf of fresh air per person as a benchmark.
Increased building fresh air ventilation is needed for special situations such as during painting or floor re-finishing.
At VENTILATION in BUILDINGS we provide in depth information about building intake, balanced, and exhaust fresh air ventilation systems.
Exposure control as a means of controlling the impact on people of contaminated indoor air refers to limiting the amount of time that people spend in suspect or known-contaminated areas. Actually all of the indoor air pollutant and mold contamination control strategies impact the level of exposure of building occupants.
Watch out: individual sensitivity to mold, MVOCs or other indoor pollutants varies widely, so even if some building occupants appear not to be bothered by indoor mold contamination, that same indoor mold level could be very serious for others.
At an audiology clinic we investigated the staff had no indoor mold complaint, even though they knew that extensive mold growth was visible over a suspended ceiling in the offices. But when an asthmatic client entered for a hearing test he experienced a very serious reaction to the indoor mold levels.
Air cleaning or indoor air filtration(AIR FILTERS for HVAC SYSTEMS and CONTINUOUS BLOWER FAN OPERATION) is a useful strategy in general in buildings where it is desirable to reduce the level of indoor dust and in some cases with specialized filters, odors as well.
Watch out: air cleaners or purifiers (AIR CLEANER PURIFIER TYPES) are not a substitute for removing a problematic indoor mold reservoir, and portable air cleaners in general are not capable of effectively cleaning and making safe the air supply in a building.
Where a building has or might have a significant indoor mold contamination problem, building owners and managers as well as occupants benefit from knowing
The "MOLD ACTION GUIDE" contains sufficient information to address these questions. This website offers more in-depth articles on these and related environmental and indoor air quality topics.
We had a flood in our basement a month ago and before having any reconstruction done I wanted to make sure there was no mold present. I have a respiratory condition. The company that did the testing found mold present in one area and an elevated spore count in one area of the basement.
The mold identified was aspergillis penicillium and the advice was to get a company to get rid of it. The count for outside was 210 spores per m3 and in the basement 2600m3.
The basement was dry, but one area had a visible grey fuzz that was identified as mold. The main floor count was 110 spores per m3. I simply want to know how BAD the problem is and is it something that can be removed by a non specialist.
Do these numbers warrant professional intervention? How much would this cost, any idea? Your input would be appreciated. I think this website is very informative, and I would highly recommend it. Thanks,- N.M. 8/23/2013
With respect I have to say I'm troubled that you paid someone to "test" your home for mold or perhaps better, "inspect" for mold contamination and then are left having to ask others to interpret and advise you on how to proceed. What the heck did your testing company take your money for if they're not going to actually try to be of use? More about actualy usable mold test and investigation reports can be read
at MOLD INVESTIGATION REPORTS.
Incidentally, "aspergillus penicillium" as your report stated, or Pen/Asp as many labs report, is a name used to describe the presence of either or both of two completely differnt mold genera/species - Aspergillus sp. or Penicillium sp. - a result that is offered when the lab has only undifferentiated spores that cannot be named more specifically.
Either of these mold families are common in outdoor air and are found indoors too, but when found indoors at high levels usually this indicates that further investigation is needed to find and remove the mold; The comparison of incompletely identified Pen/Asp spores found indoors with incompletely identified Pen/Asp spores found outdoors is somewhat nonsensical: we may be comparing counts completely different mold genera/species.
With that caveat and gripe stated and out of the way, your "count" shows that there is probably an indoor mold reservoir that needs to be found and removed - cleaning hard surfaces, disposing of stuff like drywall or insulation that can't be cleaned; then you want to know for sure that the cause of mold growth was properly identified and corrected as well. Details about common mold test report "mold levels" and test accuracy and precision are found at
And the work to clean up mold contamination needs to be done properly so as not to blow moldy dust elsewher, contaminating the home and leading to a new costly round of cleaning.
A "mold test" that just has someone stop by to grap an air, dust, or worse, culture sample to come up with some sort of "mold count" is, alone, not very helpful, and certainly not worth more than about $50. in my opinion. Such a mold test, especially if results are negative, are extremely unreliable. And even when a "mold test" such as yours is suggestive of a problem, you are left wondering
Watch out: by no means do I suggest that every building needs a costly mold investigation by a true expert. The article: MOLD / ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERT, HIRE ? can help you decide if conditions warrant bringing in someone who actually knows something and who will actually help you. I would not go back to yor first company again.
Small areas of mold, if that's all you've got, say less than 30 sqft of contiguous moldy material, are usually handled as a normal cleanup job without heroic efforts, For a small or DIY mold cleanup project see
Larger areas of mold contamination, or if a larger area is discovered in cleaning the small one, do indeed merit professional cleaning. When a professional mold cleanup job seems to be needed, these articles will be helpful
But nobody can possibly make a confident, safe statement about just what mold remediation you need from an email alone nor can a simple mold test in air or on surfaces define the extent of mold contamination nor cleanup that may be needed at a building.
For advice concerning all other indoor and building-related environmental and health hazards
see ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS - INSPECT, TEST, REMEDY.
Readers should see WHEN TO HIRE A MOLD EXPERT for details about how to decide when hiring a mold expert is justified and appropriate.
See MOLD INSPECTORS & MOLD TESTERS for a list of mold investigators whose work is familiar to us. Other mold investigators and test consultants may also be competent and qualified.
The following articles provide detailed information about mold-related illnesses.
The following articles provide detailed information about how to prevent mold growth in buildings and in their mechanical systems.
These articles explain how to find and recognize mold in a building. The articles include mold recognition photos, methods of visual inspection for mold, and explanation of how to cut your mold investigation cost and trouble by learning to recognize stuff that is not mold at all. We also explain that not all black mold is harmful. Some is cosmetic only. Visual inspection can answer some of these questions without mold testing.
Please see MOLD SAMPLING METHODS in the Indoor Environment and in addition, the mold test critique articles listed just below.
For a quick to understand overview of the validity and usefulness or perhaps not-usefulness of culture tests for mold, see Validity of Cultures (settlement plates or swabs) to find toxic mold in Buildings which is an overview and critique of using mold cultures, settlement plates, petri dishes, and cultured swab samples, and air sample testing limitations for determining what's in a Building, and which tests are useful in different situations.
For more thorough detail see Shortcomings of cultured mold samples which lists a number of detailed concerns about viable spore traps and culture media for Building problem detection
Please see MOLD CLASSES, LEVELS for the full text article on this topic.
Robigus, the Roman God and Lord of Crop Fungi, is by legend the power who arranged that wheat rust, a crop destroying fungus, would plague humanity. This punishment was in retribution for the cruelty of a boy who set fire to straw he had tied to a foxes tail. Indeed, wheat rust leaves crops looking burned, and leaves as much as 40% of the crop destroyed. Robigus, a fertility god, protected crops against diseases.
At the Robigalia festival each April 25th, red-colored offerings (wine) were made to appease this god of the rust-red colored wheat rust fungus or wheat leaf rust a parasitic fungus, Puccinia recondita.
Rusts, or Uredinales, include Puccinia rusts that invade corn, cotton, mint, sugar cane, and wheat, also Melampsora - flax, Hemileia - coffee, Cronartium - pine, Uromyces - chickpea, bean, and many others. There are about 5000 species in this group.
Our lab photo (left) shows typical Urediniospores from an air sample where rust spores were frequent. (These are not wheat rust spores).
Wheat leaf rust causes small (1/32") reddish-brown pustules or blisters to appear on the surface of plant leaves.
The wheat leaf rust Puccinia recondita spores may also produce a reddish brown dust (mold spore powder).
Mature wheat leaf rust fungus pustules and their fungal spores may be dark brown or even black. Wheat leaf rust spores live only on live leaves but survive the winter on leaf fragments, periodically reaching epidemic proportions in the wheat crop.
Interestingly, the location of wheat rust on the plant can indicate its source: rust on upper plant leaves suggests that spores blew into the wheat field from a more distant location, while wheat rust pustules found on lower plant leaves indicate that the rust fungus over-wintered on leaves in the local field.
In addition to application of systemic wheat foliar fungicides such as Tilt, Quadris, and Mancozeb, some varieties of wheat are bred to resist this fungus, and experts note that resistant species are the best way to control wheat rust epidemics. More information about wheat leaf rust is at the Kansas State University Website.Rust spores can be quite beautiful, belying the crop damage they may cause, as our lab photo of Pileolaria brevipes (a rust spore found in an air sample we collected in San Diego, CA) shows at left.
While InspectAPedia.com focuses attention on building and indoor environmental concerns, the history and forensic work on Puccinia recondita is so important to the world's wheat crop and serves so well as an example of good investigative work that we have included this expanding topical section.
Good Laboratory and Microscope Procedures are critical in making sense of field samples. Competent, trained, experienced aerobiologists, mycologists, and microbiologists can identify sample contents with good accuracy.
Depending on the experience of the laboratory, it is also possible to interpret the meaning of the sample for the Building and its occupants.
Laboratory professionals who have also performed the field inspection can make useful extrapolations from lab results. Hasty work by disinterested parties may be less useful for Building occupants and owners.
Please see TECHNICAL & LAB PROCEDURES for the full text article on this topic.
See Environmental Hazard Main Web Page: Environmental Hazard Detection, Testing, Repair, Illness, Symptoms, & Prevention in Buildings - research and "how to" articles
The complete and most current version of this paper is found at MOLD TESTING METHOD VALIDITY. Excerpts are below.
This paper presents a summary and critique of some popular methods used to examine indoor air quality to test for presence or absence of problematic levels of toxic or allergenic mold or other bioaerosols. we will describe and critique specific "testing" or "sampling" methods used to "test" Buildings for mold in the course of a Building investigation.
The appropriateness of testing at all is discussed on this and other pages at our website. our website InspectAPedia.com/sickhouse.htm includes more broad discussions of the overall approach to Building investigation, as do many expert references cited at that web. For a more comprehensive collection information about mold test methods see https://InspectAPedia.com/indoor_air_quality/IAQ_Methods_Compared.php.
The full-text version of this presentation is at InspectAPedia.com/mold/Mold_Test_Method_Validity.php - © 2012 - 2005 Daniel Friedman. An illustrated power-point version of this document is at InspectAPedia.com/mold/Mold_Test_Validity_Class.php - © 2010-2005 Daniel Friedman, but involves larger files of images and data - if you are viewing this document from a low-speed line you should stick with the text version.
An IAQ or "mold investigator" cannot reliably identify a mold genera or species growing on a Building surface by the naked eye. Despite the recent public fear created by media attention, including a now-refuted "Toxic black mold" Stachybotrys chartarum study involving infant illness and death, it is simply not the case that "black mold" in Buildings is necessarily a danger to occupants.
In fact, having investigated many Buildings quite carefully, I assert that in most cases the "black mold" that you see in Buildings is most often an "indicator organism" telling you that conditions are right for mold formation. we have often found more problematic molds in such properties, such as species of Aspergillus sp. or Penicillium sp. which are airborne, travel in the Building, and are more likely to be bothering the occupants than a large, sticky, non-easily-airborne spore like S. chartarum.
These harder to see, often light-colored molds, are quite often missed entirely by inexpert owners and amateur "mold inspectors" who go on to collect, over-report the occurrence of, and react to the "black stuff." One result has been unnecessary expense for "mold testing" and in some cases unnecessary mold remediation. Some of our articles, as well as writing by others who study this field, address these problems and offer help in deciding what level of trouble and expense are appropriate.
In any case, mold in a Building should be cleaned-up, and large amounts might require professional inspection and advice. Before doing anything drastic or costly, get some competent advice.
Opinions Expressed in This Article
This is a working document and is incomplete. These views are undergoing and are subject to peer review and revision. (Critique from any reader is welcome).
Trained in Building science, we perform on-site Building investigations to evaluate the need for and extent of mold remediation in Buildings in order to give mold remediation and prevention advice. Also trained in mold and other particle identification (forensic microscopy), we operate our own aerobiology laboratory where samples, collected during an investigation, are examined.
In the course of our field surveys we often collect multiple samples even at the same surface or Building area, in order to study the relative effectiveness and consistency of the various methods, just as we test and compare other tools used to find hidden moisture and similar problems. (These extra samples, collected for purposes of scientific study, are not billed to our client.) our opinions about the usefulness of various methods derive from both study by other experts and by our own ongoing field and laboratory testing. Does everyone need to hire an "expert" like us to examine their home?
Of course not. This article offers help in choosing mold sampling and testing methods and devices. Other articles at our website offer help in determining when it's appropriate to hire an expert. The Minnesota Department of Health has useful advice [ www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/indoorair/contractors.pdf ] about hiring an investigator too.
Consultant certification - who's an "expert" and do you even need one?
Where the extent of mold damage and/or the risk to Building occupants justifies a professional survey, the inspection, sampling and testing performed, the laboratory determination of sample contents, and mold cleanup must be performed competently, lest the Building owners/occupants face an unexpected health risk (someone makes a mess of problematic mold) or cost (a poor remediation plan or bad clearance testing leaves a mold problem and the work has to be done all over again).
Whoever performs sampling or testing needs to use effective methods for inspection and testing. For professional inspections, education and experience are required for this work as substantial costs and the health of present and future Building occupants can be at risk. Consumers should review experience and education of whomever they hire to survey a Building or to clean up an environmental problem.
Regrettably various mail-order "certifications" are available which are confusing to consumers, and even within organized professions such as industrial hygiene, environmental inspection firms, engineering firms, and home inspection companies, individual training, experience, and depth of knowledge vary enormously. Consumers hiring an inspector or remediation company should consider the education, experience, and track record of people they may employ and should not rely only on a professed "certification."
(Years ago our dog Katie became a "certified inspector," and received a full diploma from a national "certification" agency. Try going to the "certifying" agency's website to see if, for simply mailing in a fee, or perhaps taking a weekend course, you, too, could become "certified" as a "mold remediator" or "environmental inspector.")
The CIH designation is a real credential as is P.E. "real" for certain specialties. But some CIH's and P.E.'s do not know Building failures and leak tracing, and may match other "mold investigators" who are not familiar with mycology, aerobiology, air and particle movement indoors, microscopy, chemistry, proper ways to use equipment, how to evaluate the expertise of their "mold lab," or even what mold looks like.
The Pan American Aerobiology Association [ http://www.paaa.org/ ] has recently completed and turned over to an independent testing agent [ http://www.paacb.org ] a national examination specifically to test the competence of people identifying fungal spores, a test which was offered beginning in 2004.
Look for this and other pertinent professional associations or certifications provided they are from "real" professions and professional associations. And look at the background and experience of the investigator. AIHA is also interested in further investigator and lab certifications.
A collection device, slide, cassette, or tape are used with a calibrated air pump to collect airborne particles. we are not referring to culture plates which rely on passive collection or settlement of particles as these have even worse inaccuracies and errors than the reservations I describe about active air sampling described here. Some common examples of air samplers include:
But as a "mold test" for the presence or absence of a mold problem in a Building, a negative air sample result is of little confidence. As a measure of "mold exposure" quantitative analysis (spores/cubic meter) is invalid unless long-term time-weighted average measurements are made under all varying Building conditions. While this is an important diagnostic tool, and one which we apply regularly, it cannot be relied alone on in the way some investigators would use it: dashing into a Building and grabbing an air sample.
Air sampling as a "pass/fail" or "present/absent" test for mold in Buildings is unreliable as a "mold test." Many variables cause a wide range of particle levels in air over short intervals. However this method has a place in a thoughtful Building investigation: air sampling can be useful as a background check for the possibility that there is a large reservoir source which has not yet been found in a Building.
But a negative result is of absolutely no confidence, and quantitative work (spores/cubic meter) is invalid unless long-term time-weighted average measurements are made under all varying Building conditions. our own time-lapse sampling proves that particle levels vary by a factor of 10,000 due to common variations in Building conditions such as fan on off, human activity, mechanical disturbance of moldy stuff, etc
. While this is an important tool it cannot be relied on in the way most "inspectors" would use it, dashing into a Building and grabbing an air sample. See "Quantitative Analysis" comments below for an elaboration or see Mold Testing: Air samples and their interpretation - a quick tutorial.
In sum, air sampling is useful as a background screen for the possibility that there is a large reservoir source which has not yet been found in a Building, and may be useful to compare relative particle levels between a problem area and a control area, or in an area before and after cleaning. Independent from spore counts, a qualitative analysis of an air sample by an expert technician can provide compelling evidence of a nearby problem mold reservoir in certain cases, for example if the indoor sample contains long chains of Penicillium or Aspergillus spores. These spore chains are so fragile that they break apart quickly while traveling through the air. So spore chains found in (a pre-remediation) indoor sample, even if the total count is low, deserve some further thinking and investigation.
Examining particles on a slide to count Mold spores/Meter3 of air, Mold Spores/M2 of surface area, or Mold CFU's - colony-forming units is a common practice in Building investigations. These measures can be used to describe the results of some sampling or "mold testing" methods in Building.
While there is no fixed (nor fix-able) standard of absolute allowable "spore counts" in air (we'd need a standard for every genera and species by toxicity, weight, mobility, etc.), investigators have now seen so many moldy and not-moldy Buildings, and complaint and non-complaint areas that it's reasonable to have some general guidelines about what levels are probably a problem and what levels may not be a problem.
Acceptable Mold Levels: While there is no well-established quantitative standard for fungal spores on surfaces or in air, mold contamination is considered present in a Building when the total mold spore concentration per cubic meter of air is above 10,000. (Baxter, ETS). Acceptable levels for individual species vary since species toxicity varies widely as does spore size, weight, and other features which affect risk to Building occupants. E.g. Aspergillus/Penicillium in a "clean" residential Building study was at a mean of 230, in Buildings known to have a moisture or flooding problem it was at 2235 and in mold contaminated Buildings the figure was 36,037.
Surface samples of mold: the presence of toxic or allergenic mold as a dominant particle in any sample (surface or air) is usually a cause for further investigation or remediation. The presence of incidental occurrences of toxic or allergenic material in surface samples requires interpretation in light of other Building conditions, type of particle (spore chains), and other factors.
For example, in a pre-remediation Building where occupants have Building related complaints and mold contamination is suspected, even a modest indoor level of 500 spores/M3 of air might suggest a problem if those spores formed a high percentage of the total indoor spore count and only a low percentage of the corresponding outdoor spore count taken as a control. our own field experience is similar to the counts suggested by Baxter.
Since indoor environments in the U.S. and many other parts of the world are similar in conditions and often in Building materials, it is likely that these levels are not very dependent on region of the country.
Watch Out: interpret all quantitative data with great caution. Individual samples of particles in air show tremendous variation from minute to minute, making "ok" test results a thing to view with care. In situations of particular risk additional or periodic testing should be considered.
However, because indoor conditions of mechanical disturbance, ventilation, occupancy, and use vary widely over short intervals of just a few minutes, an indoor "mold spore count" is at high risk being inaccurate, incoherent, and confounding.
Recipients of such reports are may not realize the distinction between highly precise results (lots of decimal places) and results which are fundamentally accurate or inaccurate, depending on the design of the sampling plan and the variation in Building conditions during the sampling interval. Unless there is good experimental design, quantitative results are precise (lots of decimal places in the answer) but almost certainly wrong (off by a factor of thousands) as a characterization of a Building.
Therefore quantitative studies are most useful as part of a more broad qualitative approach, indicating either relative differences in mold levels between a control area and a problem area or the relative change in Building conditions before and after cleaning.
They are much less reliable as an absolute pass/fail criteria. Other substantial quantitative report issues other than accuracy include wide variation among labs in counting and skill levels, and more interestingly, the lack of and virtual impossibility of establishment of valid quantitative standards for mold exposure. For example, two different particles have different toxicity, different air movement; two of the same particle can vary in toxicity depending on supporting growth surface.
Shortcomings of Quantitative Analysis of Mold Spores in Air
Clear cellophane tape is pressed into a sampled surface, then removed and affixed to a clean surface such as a plastic bag or a microscope slide for mailing to a lab. The lab prepares the tape for microscopic examination. For mold genera and species identification the tape is examined in the laboratory. Tape samples can also be cultured (see Culture discussion below). This is the least-expensive collection method available, and is a preferred tool.
Using clear adhesive tape pressed into a surface to be tested is the first choice recommended method for identifying mold in a Building, particularly when combined with visual inspection as part of a mold investigation, per AIHA and other expert sources. This method permits rapid identification of genera (family name) and very often species (individual member name), particularly when the mold sampled has uniquely-identifiable spores or where the sample collects the conidiophore or spore-producing body as well.
In some cases genera determination alone is quite sufficient as the some of the common problem-genera (Penicillium sp. and Aspergillus sp.) do not have non-problematic members which grow in Buildings. Speciation is more likely to be needed when doing medical diagnosis. Tape samples can also be cultured if additional speciation is needed. Since tapes can collect the conidiophores and hyphae (when tape spot is chosen with some thought) they give more data than an air or vacuum sample.
For Building where large amounts of mold are found or suspected, tape sampling is a qualitative approach which is usually quite successful in addressing the basic question: is there a problematic genera which requires professional remediation? Combined with a visual inspection to locate target areas of risk and to find visible problems, it is the most essential component of a Building mold investigation and is the method recommended by experts writing in the field and by the AIHA's own training materials.
Tape samples are the preferred method of collecting surface samples in Buildings. Tape pressed into appropriate portions of suspected mold growing on a surface collects the most material from the surface and often includes sufficient structural material to identify the dominant problematic genera and species present. A properly collected sample is likely to contain both fungal conidia, conidiophores, and hyphae, the latter two of which are important aids for speciation. Tape samples of Building dust and even tape samples of moldy carpet are also generally useful in this manner but have some limitations discussed below.
Nearly all Building mold genera can be determined by light microscopic examination of tape samples. In the majority of Building investigation cases the key question is "is there a problematic genera (toxic or allergenic) requiring containment and professional remediation?" This can almost always be completely answered from genera alone. This is because within the more common troublemakers, their non-problematic member species may not occur in Buildings. For example, Penicillium notatum, used for the drug penicillin, does not grow in Buildings! If you find Penicillium sp. in a Building in quantity it needs to be remediated.
Speciation of many mold genera can also be determined from tape sample material alone in many but certainly not 100% of cases.
Some examples of easily
speciated molds from among the most common genera and species found in
Buildings: Cladosporium sphaerospermum,
C. cladosporioides, Ulocladium chartarum, Taeoniella rudus, Pithomyces
chartarum, Stachybotrys chartarum, Chaetomium globosum, Chaetomium aureum,
Many other airborne spores appear in Buildings and can be similarly speciated, but are not Building molds. Other airborne molds such as the Aspergillus and Penicillium families are probably a sufficient hazard in Buildings that if they are present in a large reservoir, speciation is not needed to decide to remediate.
In sum, the determination of the presence of a Building mold problem (toxic or allergenic) vs. cosmetic mold can usually be made from tape samples alone.
A collection canister is connected to an air or vacuum pump which is used to draw particles onto a filter-surface or into a special collection container. The lab clears the filter onto a microscope slide, washes the filter onto a microscope slide, or uses another method to transfer particles for examination by microscope for preparation by culture.
Vacuum samples can be useful for testing soft goods (clothing, bedding,
curtains, carpets) for high levels of contaminated
spores in a qualitative approach. We particularly like vacuuming a number of
surfaces in an area using a single collection device as a less-costly way to
make a more confident inspection of the level of contamination by moldy dust in
Buildings with a known problem.
We also use this method as part of a mold clearance inspection to evaluate the thoroughness of both the containment system and the general cleaning effort. For example we may collect a sample of vacuumed surface dust from 10 different surfaces in 5 rooms on a floor of a home, forming a more broad screen for moldy dust than single tape lifts of surface dust.
We've found wide variety in levels of mold found growing in or on carpets, depending on a number of variables including even the level of other dirt present in the carpeting. Some experts question this measure. Carpet vacuuming for mold is interesting as a pre and post remediation baseline data source for areas out of the remediation/containment area, but for any carpet this method quickly overloads a particle sampler.
We enjoy using this method, but one must take care not to overload the sample. If insulation is not exposed for testing one needs to make a sufficiently large opening to agitate and then vacuum the insulation - we use a 4" square opening and take care to avoid vacuuming up simply a collection of drywall dust.
Vacuuming Building cavities is a popular screening practice to look for mold
reservoirs. The investigator is trying to explore wall cavities while doing
minimal or no visible damage.
A wall-check system has been marketed for this purpose and several manufacturers have copied the basic idea: a receiving Air-o-Cel or MCE filter cassette is attached at its inlet side to a tube which is inserted as a probe into a wall cavity, permitting creation of only a small hole.
The outlet or pump side of the test device is connected to a pump and operated, typically at 15 lpm. Where we have tested this method we have experimented with both passive collection (what most investigators use) or aggressive collection (banging on the wall/ceiling at various points to attempt to dislodge and stir particles).
Short duration samples, 1-2 minutes using an Air-o-Cell permit a comparatively large number of samples to be collected in a reasonably short interval. Long duration samples, perhaps for up to two hours, are collected using an MCE filter cassette.
Shortcomings of vacuuming Building cavities through a tube but our testing strongly suggests that this method is very unreliable for characterizing wall contents. we do not believe that enough air movement is created in the wall cavity (sucking any lpm flow through a small diameter tube) to reliably collect what could be a severe mold reservoir that happens not to be right next to the probe. Further if the cavity is insulated there will be virtually no air or particle movement except from very close to the probe.
At many investigations we have found a large hidden mold reservoir in Building insulation, particularly fiberglass insulation in attics under roof leaks over drywall, and in crawl spaces which have been damp or wet. we have also found very moldy fiberglass in basement ceilings after moldy surfaces and debris have been removed (such insulation should have been removed during the remediation). our method is to agitate the target insulation (simply poke it with your flashlight or a ruler), followed by holding our vacuum cassette an inch or two away from the insulation surface.
This reliably picks up particles from the insulation without overloading the sample with fiberglass. (A baseline comparison sample collected in nearby Building air before any such agitating sampling is also needed.) This method has been remarkably successful in finding and allowing the removal of several "mystery" problems in Buildings where severe mold-related complaints were heard.
Any of several types of vacuum cassettes are used to collect dust from a surface. we use Air-o-Cel cassettes and MCE filter cassettes. we am experimenting with vacuum cassettes loaded with high-adhesive tape. The contents of the cassette may be examined by light microscope or may be used for preparation of cultures.
One special (and costly) cassette method collects dual samples permitting both direct examination and culturing. This method may be used for both qualitative and quantitative analysis, depending on collection method details. It is best suited for sampling dust from surfaces and from soft goods such as carpeting or upholstered furniture. It's strength is its use in examining multiple hard surfaces with relatively low levels of debris (avoiding sample overload) or individual soft surfaces where tape may not collect particles imbedded in the surface, and in collecting dust from multiple locations in a single cassette as a Building dust scan for mold.
Mold cultures involve the collection of particles by air sampling pump, by gravity settlement, or by lift from a surface using a swab or tape. Some sampling equipment (Anderson spore traps) can collect spores directly into a petri dish of culture medium, and are used for "viable spore sampling in air."
The sample by pump, gravity, tape or swab is in any case applied to one or more petri dishes of culture media for incubation and subsequent examination of the growth product. Mold Culturing is useful for genera speciation once you have collected a single or dominant sample whose importance (frequency in the Building) you already know. As a "home test kit" for the presence of problematic mold in a Building this is an unreliable method, as we describe below at "shortcomings."
Mold Cultures are useful for:
Identifying the genera/species of a mold which was not readily named by (faster, cheaper) light microscopy
Identifying a problem genera to the species level for medical diagnostic purposes - i.e. pass this (possibly accurate) data along to your doctor if you're sick
Distinguishing apparently similar outdoor mold counts from indoor mold counts of "look-alike" spores that may really be different genera/species
While this is an important tool which has a place in our arsenal, mold culturing is questionable as a means to characterize a mold risk in a Building, particularly if it reports the absence of a mold problem. The objections listed below mean that field investigators must collect samples with some care and interpret lab reports with some caution.
While we enjoy growing mold cultures in our lab (it makes for nice, photogenic mold colonies), it is less often useful than direct microscopic examination of a field-collected surface or vacuum sample. Without the added step of mold culturing, from a good surface sample using adhesive tape, a trained microscopist can identify mold genera and mold species as well in many cases.
In many instances, knowing the mold genera is enough to decide on a course of cleanup action without further expense. For example, if we agree that there are no harmless Aspergillus species or Penicillium species that grow indoors, then for purposes of deciding on the need for remediation, only the size of the reservoir is important. P. notatum, used for making the drug Penicillin, has not to our knowledge been found growing on Building materials.
For more discussion about mold cultures from settlement plates or swabs see The Validity of Cultures
Swab samples can be used to pull particles for microscopic exam but destroy the identifying conidiophores and hyphae; They are more often used to prepare cultures which have the shortcoming cited above. We make use of swabs to sample for bacteriological contamination.
A sterile swab is wiped across a sampled surface, the inserted into a
sterile tube for mailing to a lab.
Swabs are processed in one of two ways:
Swabs are great for testing for bacteriological contamination testing but in our opinion they are of less use in fungal work.
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) can be used to identify individual genera/species with good accuracy and fairly quickly. The method requires costly equipment and is not available at most laboratories. Perhaps more important is that the data base of PCR identification information is limited to a small set of species compared with the wide range of genera/species which occur. At least one excellent national laboratory offers this service for mold speciation.
Depending on how rapidly technology drives
down the cost and how rapidly the identification data base is expanded, I
suspect that this method will see increased use.
The limitations of this tool are currently two: first, it is quite costly to perform per sample, and second, it is excellent at identifying the presence or absence of a specific mold you're looking for. It is less useful as a broad spectrum scan expected to pop up with a result of what's present out of the 1.5 million possible candidates - of which only a few are yet even in the PCR database.
Settlement plates, culture media, or swabs which are later cultured, used alone for Building mold risk analysis are invalid methods which risk both false positive results (saying there's a problem when there is not) and false negative results (missing an important problem). More about this is in this article and you can read in greater depth at The Validity of Cultures.
What about other do-it-yourself tests? Amateur mold "testing" by a homeowner, using a tape lift of visible mold, perhaps with some good advice on where to look, might be an inexpensive way find out that the "black mold" on the floor joists is a "cosmetic-only" mold, thus avoiding the cost of a more expert professional Building investigation/remediation.
However anyone using this approach should understand that it is incomplete and superficial: you might collect your sample from a spot which is not representative; you will not address the risk of hidden mold in Building cavities; you will not have expert mold remediation advice; you will not have baseline data to support a later clearance test after cleanup, finally, you risk leaving another problem in the Building. These warnings should be considered carefully where large areas of mold are already visible or at-risk occupants are involved.
Of the mold samples sent to our lab by owners who have had no collection advice, we find that "black molds" seem to be over-represented and I suspect these are often not the real problem in the Building. The mold the owner sees may be simply the indicator of moldy conditions. Lighter, harder-to see molds in the Penicillium sp. and Aspergillus sp. families, for example, are under-represented in owner-collected samples (based on our field experience and on our review of statistics of samples sent to Dr. J. Haines at the N.Y. State Museum for identification) because these genera are often more difficult to see.
We are making up this temporary distinction to make clear an important point.
Mold Testing a Building for the presence or absence of a problematic level of mold is unreliable if by "testing" one means a simple air test, an arbitrary surface or vacuum test, a swab test, or any culture method used alone and without a careful and complete inspection of the property. In particular, failure to detect problem levels of problem mold with an air, culture, swab, PCR or similar test (used alone) is not sufficient to conclude that there is no problem.
1. Airborne particle levels vary widely over short time intervals. What's in the air in a Building varies enormously, possibly by a factor of thousands, over just a few minutes, depending on things like the level of activity, mechanical disturbance of dust, fans being turned on or off, hot air heat or central air being on or off, and more subtle changes in humidity, etc.
2. Cultures whether from a "home test kit" culture plate or a swab are unreliable as a characterization of presence or absence of mold because first, only about 10% of all of the 1.5 million mold species on earth will grow in any culture under any condition, second because what grows on a particular culture may be what likes that culture not what is the dominant problem, and third, because accurate speciation of some of our problem groups such as Penicillium sp. and Aspergillus sp. require arduous multiple cultures under very controlled conditions for reliable results.
3. PCR tests are highly accurate in identifying individual molds, if you know in advance what you're looking for. PCR is not reliable as a broad spectrum scan to find what's in a Building.
Mold Problem Identification, as
I'm speaking here, is an important part of a Building investigation for mold
(or other allergen) problems.
By this we mean, an investigator should be charged to identify the presence of problematic mold, including no less than the following:
first, the evidence that problematic levels of mold are present and that the predominant genera/species are ones which can be expected to be toxic or highly allergenic;
second, the evidence that a large problem reservoir exists; third, the location(s) of the problem reservoir; fourth, the underlying causes for the presence of the problem reservoir. This information permits preparation of a remediation plan to specify the cleanup needed and the Building repairs needed to avoid simply producing more mold.
Key in a Mold Problem Identification investigation is the actual visual
examination of the Building, its history, its leaks, and other physical
As a part of such an investigation, samples are collected of visible mold to distinguish cosmetic from problematic material, and other samples might be collected to examine the level of moldy dust settled in Building areas where mold is not present. Additional samples may be collected for comparison baselines such from outdoor areas or from non-complaint areas in the problem Building.
A thorough Building investigation will include sampling or "tests" to identify the presence of mold and to identify the dominant problem molds by genera and often species. By contrast, a quick and simple "mold test," particularly a random spot check, is of little value by itself: grabbing a 90 liter air sample or putting a settlement plate in a closet for an hour is not a reliable Building characterization for mold, and a tape sample of the single square foot of mold in a Building is unnecessary.
Clean up small areas without testing:
If there is no large mold area, no leak history, no at-risk occupants, in sum,
if you simply have a little moldy area, just clean it up, and spend your
"test kit" money on cleaning supplies or dinner out. Small amounts of
mold can often can be cleaned-up by the occupant or owner provided that person
has no special allergy or risk regarding mold.
Some states define "small" as less than 30 sq.ft. of contiguous mold. Your own area may use a different criterion. Larger areas of non-cosmetic mold are likely to require work by a cleanup professional.
If you think you need to hire someone, see "When to hire a professional" for more detailed help in deciding when and how to proceed.
Why try to identify mold at all. Some practitioners argue that no testing is needed, mold should simply be found and cleaned-up. we agree with this approach for small areas of mold where there are no larger issues such as occupant complaints or BRI (Building related illness).
But if mold present in the Building is only of "cosmetic" concern, it
is unlikely that special cleanup methods such as negative air, establishment of
a containment system, and special personal protection for workers is needed. If
these special methods can be avoided, the cost to remove mold will be
substantially less.
Therefore it cases where a large amount of mold is present it may be appropriate to have an expert perform testing and to prepare an appropriate remediation plan to guide the remediation contractor. The same expert may be used to perform clearance testing later to assure that the cleanup was proper and successful. Also see Can mold make you sick?"
Harmless "Black Mold": A very common example is the Ceratocystis/Ophistoma group which appear as "black mold" on framing lumber and which are more commonly known as "blue stain" or sapstain molds. This mold is found on lumber as it arrives from the lumber yard - a condition that is readily apparent to a Building expert and which can be confirmed by sample identification.
Allergenic mold: Other dark molds, including the most common genera Cladosporium sp. are often allergenic: a potential respiratory irritant or a problem for people with allergies, asthma, or other sensitivities.
Toxic/Pathogenic mold: a third broad group are molds which we call "toxic" and includes species which are toxic, pathogens, or infectious agents which in some cases may be capable of infecting humans or of producing disease in humans. Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, are two examples.
We find in many cases that large areas of "black mold," about which owners/occupants may be unduly frightened, are Ceratocystis/Ophistoma, a common mold that is found on framing lumber from time of construction, and which is known to be only of cosmetic concern, and which is not an indicator of mold-conducive conditions in the Building - it came in on the lumber and is inactive and cosmetic.
Without knowing what this is, people may make large and inappropriate expenditure on "professional remediation" - in one case in CT a client was about to launch a $600,000. complete re-framing of the first floor of a Building, a totally inappropriate step which was completely unnecessary with a little knowledge of mycology and Building science.
A second example of this sort is the need to distinguish between two "mold counts" that appear to be the same but actually mean very different things. An outdoor 500 Pen/Asp spores/M3 of air and an apparently low indoor 400 Pen/Asp spores/M3 may take on a new meaning if the outdoor spores are a different genera/species than the indoor ones.
Proving that mold in a Building caused a health concern is so arduous and
costly as to be inappropriate in most cases. If a lot of allergenic or toxic
mold is present, it needs to be removed.
But information about what was found in a Building may be useful: a number of our clients have health complaints for which IAQ problems are a potential cause or contributor - information which they want to convey to their physician. For example, a delay in diagnosing fungal infections in two of our clients led each to have permanent loss of eyesight.
We acknowledge that these cases are not common, but they occur
enough for caution to be in order. we don't submit that we should be practicing
medicine nor diagnosing ailments, rather that information about a sick person's
environment might be useful to their physician.
Harriet Burge at the Harvard School of Public Health has taught us that the cost of proving that a specific illness is caused by a specific mold or allergen in a particular environment is so arduous as to be impractical. However we agree, as we expect you do too, that if a large area of allergenic or more toxic mold is present in an environment it should be removed.
We live in a sea of mold, and other stuff in the air we breathe, on cushions we sit on, clothes we wear, pools we swim-in, and so on. Most mold is not hurting anyone, and some of it makes us well when we're sick (Penicillium notatum, for example). Fear of mold (mycophobia) is unjustified and in our opinion, more a result of media hype, enviro-scare, and gouging consumers.
A healthy person walking through a room of moldy air is not likely to die. On the other hand, there is a wealth of less rigorous empirical data matching occupant complaints with indoor mold and allergens. Finally, for certain people, mold can be a serious problem if it's at high levels indoors. It's probably an overstatement by those authorities who assert that "... there are no proven links between mold and illness."
We refer readers to some of our lab's references for descriptions of illness-related molds, some of which are found in Buildings:
Where large areas of remediation are needed, using professional cleaning
services, we find that in many cases the "professional" does not
properly maintain containment, and actually increases the level of allergens in
the Building.
In Buildings where occupants are at particular risk (elderly, immune-impaired, infant, asthmatic) we have had cases where an occupant entered an area contaminated with high levels of allergenic mold and suffer severe asthma attacks. In Ellenville, NY we are aware of a fatality involving just such an instance.
For large remediation projects we find it very
useful to have a base-line of data on what areas need to be cleaned and which
are acceptably clean before the remediation project. Then a quick test after
the remediation can confirm not only that it was successful, but that the
remediator did not inadvertently fail to contain.
If the containment was unsuccessful and other Building areas have become contaminated enough to want to have additional cleaning (typically HEPA vacuuming or wiping), having the baseline showing that the contamination followed the remediation rather than preceded it protects the property owner or occupant from additional unnecessary expense.
The usefulness of samples depends on the knowledge and thoroughness of the person collecting the sample as part of a Building investigation. Arbitrary or random samples are unlikely to be a reliable characterization of a Building. Choice of method as well as how the method is applied (for example, just where to stick the tape to collect a surface sample) makes a large difference in the quality and representativeness of the sample.
Continue reading at ACCEPTABLE MOLD LEVEL or select a topic from closely-related articles below, or see our complete INDEX to RELATED ARTICLES below.
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watch out ,watch out, watch out !Watch out for scare tactic doomsday mold abatement contractors. and i use contractors loosely. sold a custom spec house to a very unhappy in general lady doc who rented 1st floor of 3 out and tenant soaked floor and surounding area from shower. after 3 years of blaming me for everything wrong with her home and life i stupidly agreed to help her. big mistake. i cut out about 10 sq ft of d wall after removing alittle base and floor. got a mold test from one of these mold mongers and all three floors were off the chart. needless to say all my fault. they recommended 12k of abatement work. no guaranty ,could need more. yaa $$$ i sprayed the area in bath w/ 50/50 bleach h20 daily for 3 weeks. re tested w/ a different co. and guess what, that's right a miracle ..... no mold ..... 4 bucks o bleach B- WARE - Greg G 5/27/2012
Greg G
I agree that the skill level of mold contractors and investigators varies widely. One step that can protect you is to never use as a mold investigator someone who has any business or financial or other relationship with the mold cleanup company who would do the work if a mold problem is found. For example I have come across a mold remediation company whose principal owner is the mold investigator, a handsome fellow who uses a temperature sensor to find oool spots on the walls claiming it's a "mold detector". Like any good falsehood, there is a slight possible element of truth, but basically he's not much different than those window salesmen who used to run around with a light meter telling homeowners it was an energy loss meter. True, but false.
Also, anyone who is relying on "bleach" as a mold cure is telling you in advance they don't know what they're doing.
I have a foul oder coming from a storage room that has no outside ventilation or windows. This roon has no plumbing nearby and has clean smelling air to the top attic area and below and to the right wall and entry area. The only walls i am unable to check is the two outside walls. There is a smell that smells like sewer smell and have no idea what to look for next. - Bill 10/1/12
Check for a dead animal in a building cavity. Check contests for something that leaked. See ODORS GASES SMELLS, DIAGNOSIS & CURE our odor diagnosis procedures for details about how to track an odor to it's source & then remove it.
Should an outside air sample be taken at the ground level or on the porch which is five feet off the round? - Dan Tewell 9/26/2012
I would never collect an outdoor airborne mold sample right at ground level unless the purpose is fungal research - that is, an effort to collect fungal spores that are at or on ground level materials. Few people spend much time inhaling air with their nose on the ground. There are other defects in outdoor air mold level comparisons, as we discuss in mold test validity articles here.
As for taking an air sample on an outdoor porch, that may give a more representative sample, and depending on wind direction and other weather conditions, might avoid severe sampling errors that can occur when using a typical portable slit impaction air sampler or vacuum cassette outdoors in wind.
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text:
- 22h
- Event Facebook
Michael Mooney
Alt Rock / Singer-Songwriter
"The shock never really wears off", says Michael Mooney, unshaven and bundled against the winter's first minus 20 morning. "Each year I'm fucking flabbergasted."
It's the singer-songwriter's third winter in Montreal, and slowly but surely, this native of Jamberoo, Australia, (population 935), is adjusting. In 2008, Mooney met his wife to be, Anne, and decided to follow her here. And so he landed, at first plying his trade in the service of music for advertising, but all the while amassing a bundle of songs and connecting with like-minded collaborators to form the collective that has become the Mooney band.
There is definitely a sense of transformation and turmoil in the songs on Mooney's debut EP, Machine Made Hand, the inner workings of a human being finding his footing and confronting demons in a strange, new, cold place. And Mooney admits it -- "the next record won't be nearly as freaked out and miserable, I promise"
There is brutal honesty too, delivered with a dramatic showmanship that almost makes fun of itself. And in the sound, a marriage of rusty, folky instrumentation to dense electronic trickery. It's vulnerable and tough, obscure and direct --like the man himself, a little hard to read -- there's a wisecrack hiding behind the sensitive singer-songwriter mask.
Stoner, Garage, Punk
Trois maillons faibles qui s'tiennent ben serrés.
I was thinking the garage rock scene needed a new dose of energy, but I never expected it to come from Montreal. However, after hearing Cheval Fou's new LP, Brutal Bisou, I stand corrected. I now bow before these fuzz-blasting bearers of basement rock from North of the border. Along with the typical grungy nuggets of scuzz you expect from this genre, Cheval Fou add their unique Quebecois touch; think a French-Canadian version of the Pogues. The band's distinct regional identity rings clearly through the waves of distortion. If you're a fan of 60s-style psych punk, I highly recommend adding Brutal Bisou to your playlist.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Carly Rae Jepsen FLUBS Baseball Pitch [WATCH]
Carly Rae Jepsen threw out the first pitch at the Tampa Bay Rays' game and it was possibly the WORST PITCH IN HISTORY.
The Canadian pop star spiked the ball into the ground and the pathetic attempt sent the balling rolling towards the first base dugout.
Does she get a pass because her nation's sport is hockey, not baseball? Lol.
Don't quit your day job, Carly!
Thumbnail Source: Getty Images


text:
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text:
Add to the list a new one from this century: supporting the anti-terror USA Patriot Act after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"The original Patriot Act is a case study in the perils of speed, herd instinct and lack of vigilance when it comes to legislating in times of crisis," the West Virginia Democrat said Monday on the eve of the Senate's final votes on its renewal. "The Congress was stampeded, and the values of freedom, justice and equality received a trampling in the headlong rush."
This week as he embarks on a re-election campaign for a record ninth term, Byrd, 88, will vote "no" on renewing 16 major provisions of the act due to expire March 10. He argues that even with new privacy protections added this year by the Bush administration and its allies, the law has given the government too much power to pry.
"This new proposal would erase too many of our freedoms guaranteed to the American people," Byrd added in a statement to The Associated Press. "In essence, this legislation says that the Bill of Rights is right no more."
His position allies him with Sen. Russell Feingold, a relative Senate newcomer who nonetheless foresaw potential problems with the original Patriot Act before Byrd or any other member of the Senate. In 2001, Feingold, D-Wis., cast the lone vote against the new terror-fighting law.
"I wish I had voted as he did," Byrd lamented on the Senate floor.
Now, with a long list of complaints against what he says are the Bush administration's overreaching on the war on terror — including a controversial eavesdropping program by the National Security Agency— Byrd is siding with Feingold against the Patriot Act.
"Ben Franklin, that wise man among the Constitution's framers, perhaps said it most simply," Byrd says now. "'Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.'"
Those who support the bill acknowledge lingering civil liberties concerns, including its sponsor, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa. But they argue that the compromise legislation, even flawed, holds the best chance of renewing the law because the House is willing to pass it. Without such accord, Congress would end up extending the existing law repeatedly or let it expire.
Specter is looking to strengthen the act's civil liberties protections further by introducing legislation Tuesday to restore several provisions contained in a Senate bill unanimously passed last year and rejected by the House. The measure would make several changes, including one requiring law enforcement officials to notify the target of a secret search warrant within seven days of the search, rather than the 30 days included in the compromise. Specter said he will convene hearings on his bill next month.
For his part, Bush argues that the bill now before Congress strikes the right balance between personal freedoms and a muscular war on terror in an age when the nation is squarely in al-Qaeda's crosshairs.
Byrd is one of two senators who stuck with Feingold against the bill as the opposition first grew large enough last year to block the measure — then shrank after the Bush administration and key Senate Republicans struck a deal to strengthen the rights of people targeted in government terror probes.
On a 96-3 test vote earlier this month, Byrd, Feingold and Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., were the only dissenters.
A few senators planned to use a second test vote Tuesday to protest the majority Republicans' refusal to allow amendments. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., for example, planned to vote "no" with Byrd and Feingold on Tuesday, but "yes" for the bill's final passage Wednesday. The House was expected to consider the Patriot Act renewal later in the week.
With his white mane and weighty presence, Byrd typically commands great deference from colleagues of both parties. That's because Byrd literally wrote the book on the Senate, a four-volume history. He is fond of declaring that that he loves the institution more than its members. Sponsors of contentious bills often find themselves confronted with one or another "Byrd problem" — shorthand for procedural concerns raised by the senior senator from West Virginia.
Byrd's reversal on the Patriot Act on procedural and constitutional grounds dovetails with his growing opposition to the Bush administration's handling of the war on terrorism.
He tried to block the creation of the Homeland Security Department, which he said would give too much authority to the president. He voted against the war in Iraq.
And in 2004, Byrd published a book that minced no words. In Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency, Byrd blasted his colleagues for failing to challenge Bush's polices and expanding executive power.
As for changing sides, Byrd's got a favorite phrase, from the poet James Russell Lowell:
"The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions."


text:
- ME: Brush your teeth.
- ME: Put on your clothes.
I first started by buying each of them a closet organizer. It has five slots, enough to hold an outfit for each day of the school week. On Sunday evening, we went through their clothes and picked out five outfits for each of them and put them in their organizer. Then we paired up five pairs of sock and put them in the organizer as well.
After that, I got on the computer and created a morning routine checklist for them. I have a son who can read and one who can't, so I combined sentences with pictures so each of them would be able to use it. I then printed out the directions, put them in a page protector and tacked it on their wall at eye level.
Everything has been going well so far. I am trying to inspire independence in them, so we have been running a little late this week. Once they get use to getting ready on their own, I know that they will pick up the pace and get better at it. I have had to intervene a few times here and there, but overall the morning routine checklist is doing its job.
Click picture to expand it.


text:
Third Edition Handbook
Carl Slawski
Systematic Set-up
The Introduction to the book sets the stage for beginning students by defining philosophical and technical terms, presenting four criteria for evaluating theories, and providing a general approach for comparing theories.
Each chapter begins with a brief preview page summarizing one theory in social psychology, then discussing it in simple, applied terms at a level that beginning students can easily understand.
Chapters are grouped in Parts according to the tradition they represent for comparative purposes, allowing students to focus on their favorite theory and compare it to others. Both psychological and sociological points of view are presented. Library readings are recommended for each theory.
Following the presentation in each Part, a Critique section helps students evaluate each theory on the basis of the four criteria (especially explanatory power and information value) as well as to see the relationships among the theories. In evaluating each theory, two questions are asked: 1) How can one achieve self-actualization with this theory? 2) How can this theory help one to change a person?
An alternate topical table of contents is included. The Conclusion to the text briefly classifies the perspectives by disciplinary domain and approach to research, providing guidelines for larger scale comparison and possible syntheses of the theories in social psychology. Triangulation of theories is advocated for greater understanding of the field.
Graphic Diagrams
The two flow chart templates for each theory aid visual memory of the central concepts; they make for easier comparison and intuitive review of competing theories; they help to show the deficiencies and areas of conceptual neglect of each theory by easy demonstration of the blank areas appearing in the boxes; they help promote a high level of critical thinking and suggest syntheses. The "Social Problem Solver" templates suggest key questions to be asked by a counselor or consultant who is an expert in that theory.
Utilizing the learners' experiences
Instructions are given for a number of exercises and activities that encourage students to apply the perspectives to their everyday lives, thereby reinforcing their knowledge of a theory in practice. Application activities include write-ups, with one complete sample student write-up, study questions for each chapter, and instructions for classroom simulation games, including application of scenes from theater plays. Video-taped film scenes are also easy to evaluate with the approach outlined.
Solidly presented
This text is not a standard social psychology text. It provides undergraduates with a wide range of readable theories, then makes them active participants in applying theoretical principles to their lives. The four criteria for evaluating the usefulness of more than one theory at a time are spelled out and repeatedly applied to concrete cases. The text meets your students' needs for a theoretical approach, practical applications, and a method for deciding why or how one theory is better than another.
About the Author:
Dr. Carl Slawski is Professor of Sociology Emeritus at California State University---Long Beach and has taught social psychology for over 25 years in the U.S., Canada, and Germany. Dr. Slawski holds an A.B. from the University of Southern California, an M.A. from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana. Dr. Slawski is also a member of the American Sociological Association, the International Society for the Systems Sciences, and numerous other professional associations.
For more details, a flyer or a xerox copy of the text for possible adoption, contact:
555 S. Ventu Park Rd.
Newbury Park, CA 91320
Or E-Mail:
For text outline click on
Table of Contents


text:
Coffee and dark chocolate both have 1000 mg of polyphenols per serving.
dark chocolate is often paired with caramel or butter crunch and some wines that have similar flavors work superbly here.
And the darker the chocolate, the better, as dark chocolate is rich in beneficial flavonoids and antioxidants.
It goes beautifully with dark chocolate, making for an enticingly spicy version of hot cocoa.
dark chocolate tends to be deeply flavored but not terribly sweet.
I noticed that the water was of a dark chocolate color, which means—mud.
I will see if we can match the colour (dark chocolate) on Monday.
Shortly after death the skin of the whole body changed to a dark chocolate hue.
In life the dorsum is greenish tan with brown mottling; in some individuals the entire dorsum is dark chocolate brown.
The cirri and mouth are dark chocolate red, like the outside of the animal and the upper part of the sack.
a slightly bitter deep-brown chocolate with no added milk


text:
Written on: 05/12/2012
Avoid like the plague.
Bought a special deal pan with knife set. I was told it would be a long delivery wait 60 odd days( cant remember now ). Not a problem, not in any rush. Never recieved confirmation of my order. Money taken from my account. No items ever appeared after 20 weeks ( to be honest forgot about it ) I contacted customer services who told me they had send out the items months ago. Then told me to send all my details in an email and I would be entitled to a refund or to have new items sent out. I sent them an email only to be emailed back saying I had left it too long for anything to be done. Shocking. I have proof of payment, do they have proof of delivery I paid £5 for. Shower of robbing B*****ds.
Written on: 03/04/2013
I am in the same boat, requested a full refund as they did not deliver even though I was 'urged' by them to pay an extra £7 for express delivery! Rang them , was promised I would receive a full refund within a few days - now going onto a month, without as so much as a word! AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COST!
As rated by our community of reviewers
" Buyer beware this is a great product BUT does not last " Read More
Written by J.Andrew
" Well I WAS a fan of ProCook ! " Read More
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" Lid fell apart and burnt hand " Read More
Written by Loman79


text:
3.6 Unifying ensemble forecasting and data assimilation
The fundamental goal in subseasonal prediction, just as in seasonal prediction, is to predict the forecast probability distribution function (PDF) accurately. In the previous sections, we have discussed research efforts at CDC toward this goal. It is hoped that statistical methods like the LIM or CCA, when combined with an NWP ensemble, will improve the mean of the forecast PDF. The spread-skill relationship discussed in section 3.4 shows that useful information can be extracted at short forecast ranges from the second moment of the NWP ensemble. One obvious way to improve the accuracy of the forecast PDF is to improve the accuracy of the initial PDF. Currently, all operational centers construct an ensemble of initial conditions by perturbing a single control analysis, obtained from a three-dimensional (as at NCEP) or a simplified four-dimensional (as at ECMWF) data assimilation system. The methods used to generate the perturbations to the control analysis, breeding vectors at NCEP and singular vectors at ECMWF, are fundamentally ad-hoc and not representative of analysis uncertainty. CDC scientists have been investigating new ways of coupling the ensemble forecast and data assimilation steps, in order to improve both the initial and forecast PDFs.
The coupling of ensemble forecasting and data assimilation is natural. The essence of data assimilation is statistical, in that it amounts to blending "first guess" forecasts with new observations using weights determined by their respective error statistics. Carefully constructed forecast ensembles can provide such statistics. Currently, operational methods make rather simplistic assumptions about the error statistics, assuming, for example, that the correlation of forecast errors at two locations depends only on the distance between them and not on the location or whether the atmosphere has recently been quiescent or stormy (Fig 3.13a). Results from simple model experiments using sophisticated "Ensemble Kalman Filter" techniques suggest that the quality of initial conditions can be dramatically improved by using forecast error statistics estimated from a specially constructed ensemble. For example, error statistics from the ensemble permits a single observation at a fixed location to make very different corrections to the first-guess depending on the flow of the day (Fig 3.13b). By estimating the analysis increment to the first guess in this flow-dependent manner, ensembles of initial conditions can be dramatically improved, perhaps even to the point that they are more accurate than analyses based on four-dimensional variational methods.
Recent CDC efforts in this area have focused on algorithmic details of ensemble-based data assimilation experiments. We have sought to understand how the statistics of forecast errors estimated from an ensemble depend on the size of the ensemble, and how one might extract useful information from smaller ensembles-an important issue, since larger ensembles make heavier demands on computational resources. This research has demonstrated that with an accurate specification of forecast error statistics, new problems can be tackled in a theoretically justifiable manner, including problems such as determining where supplementary observations would be most beneficial for reducing analysis or forecast error (the problem of "targeting" observations). In addition, since ensemble-based data assimilation techniques are particularly useful when observations are sparse, CDC scientists are planning to adapt such techniques to extend the NCEP reanalysis back into the pre-radiosonde era (pre-1948).


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South African President Thabo Mbeki has launched the African National Congress' re-election campaign in a speech to thousands of supporters in Pietermaritzburg.
The date of the elections has not yet been announced, but it's widely expected they will be in March or April.
Sunday was a baking hot day in the province of KwaZulu Natal.
ANC supporters - dressed in party colours of black, yellow and green - crowded into a stadium as young music stars performed on stage.
Then President Mbeki arrived and spoke of the ANC's achievements in office.
"We rescued an economy in a situation of disaster," he said.
"That economy today is strong and growing. We inherited a country in which millions of the poor were in despair.. we've changed that situation."
These elections coincide with the 10th anniversary of the end of apartheid, and South Africans of all races are taking stock of how their country has changed.
ANC supporters from the black majority say their lives have improved.
"Extension of clean running water to nine million people is no mean job," one person told me.
"I will vote ANC," said another. "When they took over, everything changed. In Johannesburg there were many squatters camp, now there are houses."
I asked him whether he wasn't worried that Thabo Mbeki hadn't mentioned Aids in his speech.
"Basically he did not address the issue," the man agreed, "but I guess he will attend to it later. He must, as the leader of our country, because most of our youth is dying of Aids."
Victory margin
As well as Aids, opposition parties will talk about unemployment and crime.
In KwaZulu Natal the election will be closely fought, as the ANC tries to overtake the Inkatha party.
President Mbeki appealed for peaceful elections in a province with a history of political violence.
"We must make sure that nobody gets intimidated, so that our people in this province are able to decide for themselves freely whom they want as the government of Kwazulu Natal," he told the crowds.
In fact most ANC supporters here say they are confident the elections will be peaceful.
And that is a measure of how far South Africa has come.
It is still a country with sharp racial divisions, but as we approach the third multi-racial elections, it is also one where the democratic process is in good health.


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Middlebury College suspends vocal group over hazing
Friday, 04/11/08
Middlebury College officials say a vocal group has been suspended for hazing, although they're not saying what happened. Middlebury Dean Tim Spears says the complaint against the all-male a cappella singing group Stuck in the Middle came from someone outside the organization.
VPR News
Team searching Otter Creek for missing college student
Thursday, 04/10/08
Police say an underwater search of the Otter Creek yesterday didn't turn up any evidence of missing Middlebury College student Nicholas Garza.
VPR News
Team to search river for missing Middlebury College student
Wednesday, 04/09/08
A technical research team from the Saranac, NY Fire Department is due in Middlebury today to search Otter Creek for a missing Middlebury College student.
VPR News
Morning Newscast: April 8, 2008
Tuesday, 04/08/08
Mitch Wertlieb
Here are the top stories at 7:30 a.m.: Vermont Congressman Peter Welch is continuing to shine a spotlight on a loophole in new federal rules that were supposed to cut down on waste, fraud and abuse in government contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan; The heating season may be winding down, but consumers are still reeling from the high costs of staying warm this winter...
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River search to begin on Wednesday for missing college student
Tuesday, 04/08/08
Middlebury police say a ground search will resume Tuesday for clues into the disappearance of 19-year-old Nicholas Garza, who has been missing for more than two months.
VPR News
Search for missing Middlebury College student costly for police
Tuesday, 04/08/08
The search for a missing Middlebury College student Nicholas Garza has been an expensive one for the Middlebury police department.
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Police: Nothing in latest search for missing Middlebury student
Monday, 04/07/08
Police say another full-scale search for missing Middlebury College student Nicholas Garza has found nothing.
VPR News
Still no sign of missing Middlebury College freshman
Friday, 03/28/08
The more the snow melts, the more the mystery deepens: What happened to Nicholas Garza?
VPR News
Former United Nations inspector to speak at Johnson State College
Tuesday, 03/25/08
A former United Nations weapons inspector is coming to Vermont to speak.
VPR News
Search for missing Middlebury College student resuming Thursday
Tuesday, 03/25/08
The snow is beginning to recede in Middlebury, and officials there will to try again Thursday in their search for a 19-year-old freshman who's been missing since February 5th.
VPR News
Police put off ground search for missing student
Friday, 03/14/08
The ground search for a missing Middlebury College student won't resume until the weather warms and deep snow begins to melt.
VPR News
Police to assess search conditions
Thursday, 03/13/08
Middlebury Police plan to reevaluate the ground conditions today before they decide whether to launch another ground search for a Middlebury College student who has been missing for more than a month.
VPR News
Middlebury approves Cross Street bridge bond, local option tax
Wednesday, 03/05/08
Melody Bodette
VPR News
Middlebury senior crusades for slope safety
Monday, 03/03/08
A Middlebury College senior who was paralyzed in a skiing accident two years ago is back on the slopes, and she's hoping to improve safety conditions and awareness in ski racing so others can avoid suffering the same fate.
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Investigators added to search for missing student
Monday, 03/03/08
Two investigators are being added to the team trying to find a Middlebury College student who has been missing since February 5.
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Middlebury to vote on new village bridge
Friday, 02/29/08
Melody Bodette
Middlebury will be voting on a new village bridge on Town Meeting Day. Voters will weigh in on a $16 million bond for a new span. The bond would be paid off with the proceeds of a local options tax, which is also on the ballot.
VPR News
Reward offered for safe return of Middlebury student
Friday, 02/29/08
There's still no sign of a missing Middlebury College freshman who vanished three weeks ago, but authorities are hoping a $20,000 reward will lead to his safe return.
VPR News
Middlebury police suspend search for missing student
Thursday, 02/14/08
The Middlebury Police Department has suspended the search for a missing Middlebury College student because of bad weather.
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Mother of missing student asking for help in finding son
Wednesday, 02/13/08
The mother of a missing Middlebury College students says she's encouraged that searchers have yet to find any trace of him despite two days of searching.
VPR News
Twenty-eight arraigned in vandalism of former Frost summer home
Tuesday, 02/12/08
More than two dozen young people were in court yesterday to face charges that, in a rampage fueled by beer and marijuana, they vandalized a farmhouse where poet Robert Frost spent 20 of his summers.
VPR News
Middlebury College crafts policy on student-teacher romances
Monday, 02/11/08
Middlebury College faculty members are expected to vote this month on a new policy on romantic relationships between students and professors.
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text:
Bright-metal pedals have rubber stubs to grip your soles and the top section of the steering wheel has carbon-patterned leather to provide good grip for your hands. A special PVO gauge cluster features satin silver bezels with a separate oil temperature gauge mounted on the driver's side A pillar.
If necessary, you can pivot up the big center arm rest/storage compartment upright and find a middle seat and seat belt, though anyone sitting in that seat has to make room between his or her knees for that handsome Hurst shifter.
We did our test drive of the Viper and Viper Competition Coupe earlier in the year at Firebird International Raceway just south of Phoenix. We drove the Viper-powered Ram on roads in and around Austin, Texas, and on an autocross course set up at the old Austin airport, where Dodge provided a Ford F-150 Lightning for back-to-back comparison runs through the orange cones.
On the roads, we were impressed -- needless to say, though we'll say it anyway – by the truck's torque. This Ram seemed content to cruise in third, fourth, fifth or sixth gear – and at 60 mph in sixth gear it was pulling only 1400 rpm.
The slightest touch of the accelerator pedal was met with immediate – and intense – reaction.
Fast? No. Very fast! Yet amazingly smooth riding, as well, with rear wheel hop only on the roughest pieces of broken pavement, and then only when we really we on the pedal. Steering was sure-footed and we felt in complete control with the truck well composed, even in fast left-right and right-left transitions on winding Texas hill country byways.
And you won't believe the brakes. We remember one of our early laps at Firebird in the Viper racecar and how those brakes were so good we nearly stopped, embarrassingly short of the turn at the end of the straightaway. Well, the Viper-powered Ram has brakes as serious about whoa as its engine is about go.


text:
Fordham University Set To Open Fashion Law Institute
New York's Fordham University is set to launch a Fashion Law Institute, the first of its kind. (Elle Woods is squealing in her fictional court room.) Partnering with the CFDA, the program will respond to the growing demand for fashion-specific legal counseling. (Remember all those knock-off copyright infringement cases Forever 21 and Steve Madden have been involved in over the past few years?) According to Fordham's announcement, the Institute "will provide legal services for design students and designers, train the fashion lawyers and designers of the future, and offer information and assistance on issues facing the fashion industry."
A law school for brainiacs who read Vogue? Pretty cool. [Fordham.edu]


text:
NEW YORK (Jun. 23)
Seymour Graubard, national chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith denounced today the action of the U.S. Attorney General in employing wiretaps on conversations of Jewish Defense League leaders without first obtaining a court order. Graubard said that while the ADL, along with most other responsible Jewish agencies and organizations, is on record as vigorously opposing the unlawful violence employed by the JDL, "we do not believe that the outrageous tactics frequently employed by the JDL warrant disregard by the U.S. government of the constitutional rights of the Jewish Defense League, its members or its leaders." Graubard added: "We will continue to denounce the JDL so long as it continues to use violence and other tactics that violate the law. But we likewise denounce the action of the Attorney General of the United States in employing wiretaps not authorized by a court of law. ADL is just as opposed to disregard of Constitutional rights as it is to unlawful violence."
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported yesterday that the conversations of 10 of the 13 JDL leaders currently facing gun conspiracy charges had been overheard by wiretaps not authorized by court order. The government contended that the wiretap was necessary and essential "to protect the nation and its citizens against hostile acts of a foreign power and to obtain information against foreign intelligence activities deemed essential to the security of the United States." The U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, where the disclosure was made last Friday, ordered the government attorney to give the transcripts to the defendants. He was given until Friday to comply with this order. Graubard stated that earlier this year, the ADL unanimously adopted a resolution protesting infringement upon civil liberties by agencies of the federal government charging that such infringements form a substantial danger to the preservation of the American democratic way of life.


text:
|Announcing a New Book now in Print
Fossils of the Tennessee Valley
Fossils of the Tennessee Valley is a comprehensive photo identification book of fossils collected in the Tennessee River Valley - North Alabama Region, 131 8.5" X 11" pages in full color. Cambrian thru Pennsylvanian, and Cretaceous Period Fossils are plentiful in this area. This Book covers the most common fossils found to the seldom discovered fossils. This is a resource book for fossil collectors, amateurs, students, paleontologists, geologists, and professionals alike. This full color Book covers crinoids, blastoids, gastropods, cephalopods, nautiloids, brachiopods, bryozoans, trilobites, shark teeth, coral, sponge, trace fossils, and much more. These same fossils can also be found in a large area of the United States.
|Introductory offer
$ 50.00which includes free shipping in the Continental USA
|Order and Pay with PayPal
|Or email firstname.lastname@example.com to order and pay with Check or Money Order.
|Geology and Stratigraphy of the Tennessee Valley Area
|Kingdom ANIMALIA
|Phylum Brachiopoda
|Class Rhynchonellata
|Class Strophomenata
|Order Productida
|Subphylum Linguliformea
|Phylum Bryozoa
|Phylum Mollusca
|Class Gastropoda
|Class Bivalvia
|Class Cephalopoda
|Class Scaphopoda
|Cretaceous Mollusks
|Phylum Annelida
|Phylum Arthropoda
|Phylum Echinodermata
|Subclass Articulata
|Subclass Cladida
|Subclass Disparida
|Subclass Camerata
|Subclass Flexibilia
|Other Echinoderms
|Class Blastoida
|Cystoids, Echinoids, Asterozoa, Edrioasteroids
|Phylum Hemochordata
|Class Graptolithina
|Phylum Chordata - Vertebrates
|Paleozoic Shark and Ray
|Pennsylvanian Period Trackways
|Creatceous Vertebrates
|Phylum Cnidaria
|Subclass Rugosa
|Subclass Tabulata and other Cnidaria
|Phylum Porifera
|Kingdom PLANTAE
|Sample Pages
Copyright, Terms of Use, and Disclamer - © 1998-2014 www.crinoids.org


text:
Richard Torbay says he brought forward plans to quit his NSW seat because of the strain the past few days has had on his family.
Mr Torbay tendered his resignation on Wednesday following his disendorsement as the Nationals' challenger to independent MP Tony Windsor in the federal seat of New England.
"My intention always was to leave the state seat this year but I have brought it forward," Mr Torbay said in a statement on Wednesday.
He said politics had placed a continual strain on his family and private life.
"It is demanding and time consuming to do the job properly and given the events of recent days and the toll it has taken on my family I feel the time has come to consider other options," he said.
He has also stepped down as chancellor of the University of New England, which he had intended to do in April, a spokeswoman for the university said.
Mr Torbay's decision came ahead of a meeting of the New England branch of the National Party on Wednesday to establish a process for replacing Mr Torbay. Queensland Senator Barnaby Joyce is considered a frontrunner.
Responding to the possibility of Senator Joyce becoming his opponent, Mr Windsor said the senator would be a fly-in fly-out candidate.
"Whatever Barnaby does it will be for Barnaby, it won't be for the people of New England,'' he said.
Mr Windsor said it had been known for years that Mr Torbay and
Mr Windsor added that the Nationals were obsessed "with getting rid of me''.
"New England has done as well as it has ever done in its history,'' he said.
As revealed by the The Australian Financial Review on Monday, former NSW Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid helped Mr Torbay enter state politics.
Mr Torbay won the NSW state seat of Northern Tablelands as an independent in 1999 and was returned in 2003 and 2007.
Queensland Senator
A win would see him move into the House of Representatives and allow the Nationals to fill his vacant Senate seat.
Senator Joyce said choosing a New England candidate was a matter for pre-selectors, and he would have to consult with family, friends and constituents in Queensland on the move.
"There's also a big say for the people of western Queensland where my home is," he told journalists in Canberra on Wednesday.
"They've also got a right to get on the phone and say g'day to me as well. I will give these people the respect of having their say before I go too far with having mine."
Mr Windsor said the Nationals were treating the voters of New England as second best, and that would especially be the case if Senator Joyce ran for the seat.
"New England has always been his second or third choice and he was the Nationals' second choice behind Richard Torbay,'' Mr Windsor said.
Nationals Leader Warren Truss told ABC radio on Wednesday that Senator Joyce would make a good candidate for the electorate because he had links to the area but the decision was up to the NSW branch of the party.
Mr Truss also said he did not know the reasons behind Mr Torbay's dumping.
"My understanding is that Mr Torbay sought to meet with the NSW Nationals and these issues were then discussed further and the NSW party took the decision that it was inappropriate for him to be the candidate in New England," Mr Truss said.
Asked about his thoughts on Mr Torbay, Mr Truss said: "I had satisfactory dealings with him."
"Mr Torbay has a record of achievement within his electorate as a local citizen, chancellor of the university, former mayor, former state member of parliament. He's certainly achieved a great deal. I'm disappointed there are apparently issues in his past about which we were not aware.
"Obviously there are issues that I wasn't aware of and those have now apparently come to light."
Senator Joyce said his main focus was on ensuring Australia did not end up with another hung parliament.
"If we give that form of government an opportunity to continue on then we are putting this nation in a terrible position so that is at the forefront of my mind," he said.
with AAP
The Australian Financial Review