Mold Boot Camp Article of Effect of Heating-Ventilation-Air Conditioning System Sanitation on Airborne Fungal Populations in Residencies
By R.A. Garrison, L.D. Robertson, R.D. Koehn, and S.R. Wynn
Effect of heating-ventilation-air conditioning system sanitation on airborne fungal populations in residential environments
The seeds of Allen & Company were sown in 1982 when Bob Allen and Jerry Betsill incorporated Abbey Road Clean-Aire (Allen & Company’s antecedent),, a pioneer in developing safe, effective methods, equipment and chemicals for use in cleaning HVAC systems
In 1989, Bob Allen and Jerry Betsill, owners of Abbey Road Clean-Aire (Allen & Company’s antecedent), wanted to know if the duct cleaning process they were using really worked. They had read claims made by another local duct cleaning company and realized what a great tool they would have if they could show quantifiable results. Betsill, who later left Abbey Road to become an attorney, and Allen, currently vice-president of Allen & Company Environmental Services, recall, “Anecdotal evidence, reports from customers, etc., supported our conviction that what we were doing was effective, and we came to believe our process could withstand the scrutiny of a formal test.” Enter Robert Garrison of Mycotech Biological, Inc. Garrison had performed air testing on the home of a woman with severe allergies before and after the air ducts were cleaned by Allen and Betsill’s company. The results showed a phenomenal reduction in mold and fungal spores, and an idea was born.
Allen and Betsill commissioned Garrison and his partner Larry Robertson to design a protocol for an independent, controlled study of their duct cleaning process. Conducted in 1990 by Mycotech and completed in 1991, this innovative study underwent an extensive (2 ½ year) peer review process before its publication in the Annals of Allergy Medicine in 1993. Assigned by editorial advisors to an anonymous panel of Ph.D.’s and M.D.’s, all questions and criticisms had to be answered and addressed to the satisfaction of all members of the panel. Says Robertson, “We had invented a whole new sampling method, so it was the method itself, as well as the results, which were under review, Our process and results withstood this rigorous examination.” Later this study was endorsed as “recommended reading” by the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology during its literature review course in Charleston, S.C. in 1995.