Ian Simon is using a thermal imaging device on fellow diners as they eat their eggs and sausages at a local breakfast spot. It's a yellow, handheld device, the same that the cops use to look for drugs. It feels delightfully invasive to read the diners' body temperatures and transform their trunks into swirls of neon colors or blue, green, yellow and pink on a small screen, which rests on an object smaller than an oversized flashlight. In the proper light, Simon says, you can see right through to their skeleton. He then turns it on the wall, and you can see stripes of wood, depth, texture. Thankfully, there's nothing moving. But he says it can locate a dead cat within seconds. And, though it's his business to find it, there's not a speck of mold to be seen.
But he's not looking for mold right now. He's just playing, demonstrating the device that he uses as a mold inspector, remediator and partner for the company Odor Masters. Simon has come to this restaurant with his amusing device to explain the state of mold in Las Vegas, and to outline how his company wants to help out the community. It's time, he says, to give something back.
"I know there are families out there that have this problem but don't have the capital," says Simon. So once a month, he explains, Odor Masters will inspect and remediate the home of someone who can't otherwise afford it. "I call it community tithing."
He's inviting residents to write in and share their story with Odor Masters. Once a month, a home will be selected for free inspection and remediation, and cost will not be an issue. It's Simon's way of directly having an impact on the community in which he's been battling mold for 15 years—long before the media began blasting warnings about the deadly Stachybotrys.
Simon is something of a moderate among the mold-men in the world. He's not prone to wearing the Hazmat suit or frightening homeowners with tales of death and destruction. In all his years in the business, he says he's only been to two homes that actually constituted a health hazard. In fact, he once admitted freely that he'd lick mold if challenged to do so, and it wouldn't affect him in the least.
His voice was a welcome calm two years ago, in what felt like the era of the black spores. Back then you could barely flip through a news channel without hearing about killer mold. Homes were being bulldozed. Children were coughing up blood. Lawsuits were making headlines everywhere. The end of the world was surely upon us. And then, as quickly as it started, it stopped. Was it a matter of divine intervention? A giant sham? Desert heat killing off the specks?
Nah. "It's still happening," says Simon. The media simply distracted themselves with things like terrorism, Michael Jackson and potentially deadly raccoon waste. But the problem remains. As long as pipes leak and roofs drip and faucets spill, there will be issues with mold. Which means the proliferation of companies to combat mold will continue. And as long as it's unregulated, as it now stands, there will be shysters and fly-by-nighters who depend upon fear.
There's no longer any homeowner's insurance that will cover mold, says Simon, and getting rid of even small amounts can cost homeowners into the thousands. So Odor Masters decided that after 15 years of business in the community, it's time to show some appreciation to the city where they've thrived. "Vegas has been very good to us, so why not give a little back?" asks Simon.
If you think you have mold, Simon says, and can't afford to get rid of it, send him your story:
[email protected] or mail to Odor Masters, 4616 W. Sahara Ave., PMB 178, Las Vegas, NV. 89102.