by Charles Hugh Smith

Excerpt

Here in the U.S., few understand that defective construction is extremely expensive to fix. Quickly built McMansions are primarily at risk of water damage from leaky flashing, windows, etc. Once water seeps in, then mold starts growing inside the walls, floors peel up, drywall crumbles, etc.

A few years without maintenance, and that shiny new development of McMansions becomes a “gated ghetto.” From bucolic bliss to ‘gated ghetto’ (Los Angeles Times)

Big builders have learned how to game the U.S. legal system to evade responsibility for defective construction–please see homeowners against deficient dwellings (HADD) for more on this and related issues. And of course, going bankrupt and disappearing always works, too.

Shelter is not the same as speculation. In the rush to get rich quick, the two have been seen as identical throughout the world. Speculation is a mindset, a frenzy of greed, numbers in an account, “the stuff dreams are made of;” shelter is a physical reality, an assemblage of materials in the tangible world which require care in assembly and in maintenance.

The difference between financial speculation and buildings will become ever more apparent in the coming decades as buildings built on the sands of speculations fall apart.

Full Story – benzinga.com

TRUTH OUT Sharon Kramer Letter To Andrew Saxon MOLD ISSUE

New Action Committee – ACHEMMIC- Urges Transparency in EPA Policy Over Mold & Microbial Contaminants

Truth About Mold – the most up to date, accurate, and reliable information on Toxic Mold

FEMA Using US Chamber Fraud in Katrina Trailer Litigation; EPA, GAO & Both Isle$ of Congre$$ Turn Blind Eye$

Sociological Issues Relating to Mold: The Mold Wars

Certain Corporate and Government Interests Have Spent Huge Sums of Money and Resources DENYING THE TRUTH about the HEALTH EFFECTS of TOXIC MOLD

Political Action Committee – National Apartment Association (NAA) files Amicus Brief in mold case (two infant deaths in mold filled apt – Wasatch Prop Mgmt) citing US Chamber/ACOEM ‘litigation defense report’ to disclaim health effects of indoor mold & limit financial risk for industry

“Changes in construction methods have caused US buildings to become perfect petri dishes for mold and bacteria to flourish when water is added. Instead of warning the public and teaching physicians that the buildings were causing illness; in 2003 the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, a think-tank, and a workers comp physician trade organization mass marketed an unscientific nonsequitor to the courts to disclaim the adverse health effects to stave off liability for financial stakeholders of moldy buildings. Although publicly exposed many times over the years, the deceit lingers in US courts to this very day.” Sharon Noonan Kramer

Information on Riverstone Residential, the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency, and the owners of Toxic Mold Infested Jefferson Lakes Apartments in Baton Rouge, Louisiana continuing to allow tenants to be exposed to extreme amounts of mold toxins

Irrefutable evidence indicates that Riverstone Residential, Guarantee Service Team of Professionals, & plaintiffs’ attorney, J Arthur Smith III, must have agreed to exclude evidence that would have shown the owners of Jefferson Lakes Apartments & Riverstone Residential had knowledge of the severe MOLD INFESTATION at the complex before we moved in

Toxic Mold Infested Jefferson Lakes Apartments managed by Riverstone Residential

Riverstone Residential Litigation

Mold Inspection Reports

Photos of Mold in Apartment

Attorney Malpractice