Dear Steve, Adam, and Ginger,

It was wonderful to meet you and to observe your work. After over 4&1/2 years of dealing with alleged mold professionals, some who did more harm than good, it was especially refreshing and relieving to discover you. Your approach is more thorough, thoughtful and fine tuned than any other. In addition you have high integrity, ethics and an attitude of not ripping people off, when you certainly have much more to offer than many who charge more for less. I will definitely recommend you and do what I can to promote your work.

There is a very long timeline which started in my house in PA in the summer of 2001, starting with a leak in the roof valleys and basement, stachybotrys, penicillin and aspergillus, etc., which was improperly remediated, spread through the house. In June 2003, stachy reappeared in the same roof through the chimney flashings which were not inspected when the valleys were repaired. Although I begged to have it removed immediately, the insurance company refused to do that until One Source evaluated the entire house, not available for 6 weeks later of a hot humid summer during which the house got recontaminated. Several professionals, remediators, CIHs knew there was stachy there and colluded in delaying removal - which probably would have taken a few hours, despite my begging? I even called a different remediation company to come out who had a crew available, and Chubb refused and said I had to wait and use the other company. One Source did an evaluation of the house on August 4, 2003, and it was removed August 5 or 6, followed by much more remediation. My 6 large file drawers were pulled out and left open in a different room, while other things in my study were taped up and sealed. After the remediation, I was going through my files and broke out in a sweat and my head started swimming, and discovered that all of my life's work, writing, records, childrens' work, etc., was contaminated. The remediation of my 5 bedroom house was one day of HEPA vaccuuming on September 5.

On September 8, 2003, I moved to a 6 month rental in DC, while my youngest was doing a high school semester abroad. I had planned to move back into my house in January when she returned, and had hoped to rent it out during that time, but the reconstruction was not done yet and I was still reacting to it. It was not finished until May 2004, and I was still reacting. I sold it in July 2004 to a family that gutted it for renovation, and also did clearance testing, so my conscience is clear, because I would not have let another family go through what I went through.

When I moved my furniture to DC I started reacting to it. Most of the time I did not really understand the phenomenon of mold contamination and spent a huge amount of energy on things that didn't work, or only worked partially. Chubb sent someone up to test my contents and found spores of stachy in one of my books and all my porous furniture was contaminated. I also started reacting to my clothing. I moved to a sublet for 2 months December 2004 - February 2005. I thought I was reacting to that apartment, but in retrospect I think it might have been my clothing, books and papers. I made settlement on this condo in Dupont Circle a year ago yesterday, February 15, 2005. I intended to have this be very clean. I took out the old carpet and only used paint with 0 VOC and flooring without formaldehyde, etc. When I brought my nonporous furniture and boxes of stuff out of storage in March, I started reacting again. I took out my boxes of books and papers, and got a lump in my groin and a headache after packing up the boxes. I tried many machines and products.

I spent much of May 2005 in New York at the Nuclear Nonproliferation Review Conference and felt better, looked better, less bloated, and committed myself to get a professional remediation afterwards to finally resolve this so I could heal, fix up my place, have a life and work. I spend many hours and days on the phone interviewing hygienists and remediators. Chubb sent John Koerner with Environmental Compliance, whom I thought was very good, compared to most. He recommended Southern Insulation, Mike Streiter to do the remediation which they did in early August 2005, while I was in Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the 60th anniversary of the bombings. They cleaned all surfaces with soap, vacuumed contents, sent out laundry to hospital laundry, and dry cleaning, ripped out some walls under the heating units (no mold found there), etc. When I returned on August 11, I walked in the door and immediately felt a reaction. It was maybe 50% less than before, but still problematic.

I tried many things, moving furniture into the other room, machines, products. I suspected my framed pictures with cardboard and paper backing and matting. I put them in plastic bags and felt a little better. I discovered EM, Effective Microorganisms and started spraying and fogging my place with them, which helped. I felt a little better every day and also used it to treat my car which helped.

I asked Chubb about reframing my pictures and the CIH said because I put them in a bathroom with an ozone machine, and they vacuumed them, they were sterile. I took then out again to hang them up and reacted a lot. A few days later I put them back in plastic and my whole condo still felt worse, seemed to be recontaminated. I started treating again with EM.

Susan recommended Chris Rad, so he came here November 13. Mannie and some of his workers worked with him. We were fortunate to have an empty apartment in the building, and removed most of my furniture, cleaned all surfaces with surfactant soap, followed by EM, a protocol which Eric Lancaster recommended. He said Bob's lab found that the EM didn't kill mold, and that the surfactants broke down the cell walls of the mold and that the EM kept it from coming back, if I remember correctly. I had the impression that Bob's lab recommended that protocol. I did experience that surfactants followed by EM did feel significantly better than just soap. So we treated the rooms that way.

However, I was still reacting, and kept removing more furniture, like my bed frame, my desk, believing each thing was a problem. Chris had to return to Texas. Mannie continued to help me where Chris left off. We made a radical decision to rip up the hardwood flooring which was installed in March 2005, because I was worried that the porous underside of the wood was contaminated when my furniture came out of storage. Since everything was out and I was still symptomatic, I was afraid of never resolving my problem and for peace of mind we took up the floors and did indeed find visible black mold underneath.

I still wasn't feeling well enough, and realized the only think I hadn't tried yet, that Susan recommended, was hydrogen peroxide. I did some research on the web, especially H2O2-4U.com, and read about following it with vinegar. On December 28 - 9, Mannie helped me treat my unit with H2O2, which helped a lot. It was the best I ever felt here. After following it with vinegar on December 30, I felt even better. I was sleeping better, remembering my dreams, less puffy and bloated. We had planned to follow with EM and enzymes.

Then members of my condo board forbade me to continue, believing neighbors had symptoms associated with toxic fumes coming out of my condo. I also put up cotton insulation which was supposed to be covered with sheetrock the next day, which they also forbade me to do for some irrational, nonlegal reason. I think I was reacting to the insulation, and my symptoms returned, and I felt worse every day. On January 24 the board kindly gave me permission to put up walls, and the Department of Health wrote a report that vindicated me (that didn't stop them from still believing I contaminated the building).

Mannie put up walls, and we repeated the H2O2 and vinegar, which didn't help as much this time. Mannie decided it would be best to go back to neutral by recleaning all surfaces with surfactants. Joan also had the brilliant insight that the surfactants would hold the H2O2 and allow it to work better and longer. On Monday, Feb. 13 Mannie's guys cleaned surfaces with surfactants and at the end sprayed with food grade H2O2. It felt much better. I expect it will feel better after doing vinegar -- hopefully today, and cleaning more contents, and using Mighty Micros. I wonder if that will keep it from coming back.

Yesterday, Feb. 15, Ginger found no mold in my unit. Joan and I still had some mild reactions. I believe that we are extremely hypersensitized to trace amounts or residuals that cannot be detected by a dog or any equipment.

Thanks to Ginger and you I have much peace of mind and believe I can complete our protocol, put in floors, get furniture and put my life back together. Without Ginger, I would have lingering doubt. The peace of mind is worth a lot. I am hopeful that my 4&1/2 year ordeal may be resolved. I still have to deal with replacing or cleaning lots of stuff in storage, which I can begin to do in the near future.

I am very grateful to all of you and expect that collaboration among Mold Help, Mould Works and Detect Mold will revolutionize the field and help many people. I am honored to know you all and to be the in fortunate position to be part of the exploration, collaboration and synergy.

Sincerely, Diane Perlman