He’s a detective of dreck; an investigator of infestations; and an entrepreneur of exponential growths. Al Langley, CEO of Alpure Environmental, a Newbury Park mold inspection and remediation firm, launched the firm in 1998 long before the issue became popular. “A lot of people got on the bandwagon once it became the ‘issue-du-jour,’” Langley said. Before becoming a business owner, Langley was a licensed sanitarian working for a firm that was contracted by Nestlé. He became seriously ill from a spore infection deep within his lungs while inspecting a baby food plant in Mexico. Spores are the constituent organisms involved in mold infestations. “The thing about mold is that there are so many – too many to name species of spores and mold out there,” he said. “And, as far as we know, no two people have the same reaction to any of them.” Langley’s own reaction to the spores he breathed in was nearly fatal. By 1998, however, he had recovered and knew what he wanted to do. “That’s really why I started Alpure Environmental,” he said. “To help people by preventing mold infections.” Langley’s personal nightmare with a mold-caused illness ultimately led to his founding what has become a $2 million operation. But the journey began when he spent three weeks in the mountains of Veracruz, Mexico, during one of the region’s worst rainy seasons. “It’s constant rain during those months — flooding, mudslides,” he said. “It’s just wet everywhere. They didn’t even have a motel, so I was put up in a little apartment with a drooping, soaked ceiling, wet carpet, and I developed a bad cough.” By the time Langley returned to California, he was very sick. “I had to quit the company after the doctor found mold spores and fungus in my lungs,” he said. While at UCLA Medical Center getting treatment from one of the country’s most prominent pulmonologists, Dr. Donald Tashkin, Langley inquired about some of the patients he saw bound to respirators, finding that many of them had lungs infected with spores just as he did. “They were terminal in a lot of cases.” Early studies Medical knowledge of infectious fungi was limited at the time, according to Langley, who said the process of classifying the myriad species of mold was still a nascent discipline at the time. “That’s the good thing about being at a research hospital like UCLA,” he said. “They were doing that work at the time I was receiving treatment.” Though rare, mold can and does kill, Langley said. With a head full of data from his ongoing treatments at UCLA, Langley soon set out to find out where he could gain the best formal training and certification program for mold inspection and remediation. “I’m certified as a mold inspector and remediation specialist by Duke University,” Langley said. “At the time I got that certificate, there were some certified industrial hygenists, but very few at the Duke level of expertise with mold.” What irritates Langley is that some of his competitors say they can achieve 100 percent removal of mold. “You can never get rid of mold in its entirety,” he said. “What we attempt to do is reduce it to levels that can be controlled with regular maintenance.” Langley cautions consumers and business customers to be wary of those who promise to completely eradicate their mold problems for good. Indeed, there seems to be some confusion on the topic of removal vs. remediation. An informal survey of local contractors revealed an evenly split industry. Two out of four said “yes,” while the other two said “no” when asked the question “can mold infestations be permanently and completely removed?” However, when told they were being asked for an article to be published in the newspaper, all four of the firms (one each in North Hollywood, North Hills, Van Nuys and Simi Valley), declined to be quoted in print. One employee did agree to be quoted anonymously. “No, that is not true (that mold cannot be fully removed) because once the remediation in a specific area is done, a clearance test from an independent hygienist has to reveal a 100 percent clearance of the mold,” the employee, who was not authorized to speak to the media, said. In fact, according to CalEPA, the U.S. EPA, and WebMD.com, mold cannot ever be fully removed. While inspections for real estate and insurance transactions may require a “100 percent-clean” sample reading, achieving such a reading is a point of reference, not a guarantee that there is no mold present in a building. Alpure Environmental does inspections and remediation for residential, commercial and industrial customers. Each type of customer requires a different type of remediation regime, according to Al Langley. In terms of cost, residential remediation jobs can run from $1,000 to $100,000, while inspections can cost as little as $500 for a 900 to 2,800 sq. ft. home. Commercial and industrial customers can incur much higher charges. His work is split in even thirds among the three — residential, commercial and industrial. “We were really hit by the real estate market collapse,” he said. “We probably lost about 30 percent of our sales in 2009 compared to 2008.” But the recession weeded out some of the competition, Langley said. Now, he feels well-poised to take advantage of the recovery as it unfolds. In fact, he said, Alpure is a lean and efficient organization. “I am an optimist,” he said. “We have a great opportunity to make 2010 a prosperous year.” Langley started the company in 1998 with $20,000 in seed money. Today, the company has four full-time employees, and usually has 10 to 50 contract employees at any given time. “The future for us is also in radon gas,” Langley said. Radon problem Radon is more prevalent and better known in the eastern United States than on the West Coast, he said. “I’m not saying where exactly, because I don’t want to negatively impact the real estate business, but there are some areas in California where we have a lot of radon gas in the ground.” The problem with radon is that it doesn’t stay below the surface of the earth. As it comes up into structures, humans are at risk of developing lung cancer if exposed to enough radon, which is odorless and colorless. Alpure recently completed a large remediation job in Arizona. “It’s a fairly simple process, whereby we drill a tube that collects the gas and disburses it into the atmosphere where it quickly dissipates,” he said. While Al Langley decided against franchising his company to other states partly because of the complexity of franchising and partly in order to maintain brand integrity, he has licensed one firm to use the company’s name and procedures. “There is a lot of confusion about this business,” he said. “I want us to move methodically forward to improve awareness and accurate education about mold because the health risks are so serious. At worst, Langley said, mold can kill. “At the very least, it can make people very sick,” he said. “That’s why I’m so passionate about this work.” Alpure Environmental Inc. Founded: 1998 Headquarters: Newbury Park Annual Revenues: $2 million Employees: Four full time, up to 50 contracted Expertise: Mold and Gas Remediation
Spores Be Gone
