I was contacted by a gentleman who was suffering from unknown and rather severe respiratory irritation whenever he spent some time in his home. His symptoms have appeared and then gradually worsen since he moved into his new home. The property itself was about 30 years old but has been newly refurbished and re-fitted with new appliances. His symptoms started and mild respiratory irritations and then gradually worsened into severe irritation and neurological problems. His situation has become so desperate that he had to wear a full face respirator whenever he went inside of his property.
I have carried out full indoor air quality investigation including mould sampling and analysis of indoor air for chemical components. The inspection of the property did not reveal and areas of problems, dampness or contamination. The mould species and counts were more or less similar to those outside so the mould inspection results were inconclusive. The analysis of the indoor air components picked up only chemicals typically associated with vegetation (Alpha pipene, limonene) and some aldehydes in very low quantities.
The only possible source of contaminants was revealed when I used my particle counter which showed increased levels of fine particulate matter in the lounge of the building. The lounge had a small wood burning fireplace (newly installed) and the particle count sky rocketed when it was in use. The fireplace for installed by the manufacturer himself, subsequently inspected and found to be in order. The owner of the property then called another supplier who has dismantled the fireplace and identified wrongly placed gasket which has cause release of fraction of very fine particles from the fireplace whenever it was burning. The particles were very fin in nature and were the roof cause of the severe respiratory irritation.
Air management during decontamination efforts
Once the problem has been identified we have proceed to fully decontaminate the property. We have removed all pieces of furniture, all furnishing and stored items. The property has been divided into individual containment zones and air management system has been put in place. The whole operation took us about three days to complete. The whole process included apart from HEPA vacuuming of all soft furnishing, deep clean of impervious surfaces, indoor air purification and contaminant neutralisation also wiping of all wall and ceilings.
- Deep decontamination
By Tomas Gabor
