^tDsr-% • B \ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General At a Glance 16-P-0308 September 8, 2016 Why We Did This Review We assessed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) actions to address recommendations in Office of Inspector General (OIG) Report No. 13-P-0356. Public May Be Making Indoor Mold Cleanup Decisions Based on EPA Tool Developed Only for Research Applications, issued August 22, 2013. The Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development was the action official responsible for ensuring completion of the corrective actions we reviewed. This report addresses the following EPA core value: • Science, Transparency, and Rule of Law. Follow-Up Review: EPA Updated Information for indoor Moid Research Toois What We Found Corrective actions taken by the EPA should help ensure that the public has correct information about EPA- approved technology and tools for evaluating indoor mold. In 2013, we reported that some licensees were inappropriately marketing the EPA-patented Mold Specific Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction technology and the agency- developed Environmental Relative Moldiness Index tool. The OIG noted that some licensee advertising could mislead the public into thinking that the EPA had endorsed these research tools for evaluating indoor mold for public use, even though the EPA readily acknowledged that these tools were for research applications only and had not been validated for public use. The OIG's 2013 report contained three recommendations to address these concerns. Recommendations 1 and 3 remained open with corrective actions pending, and Recommendation 2 was closed upon issuance of the final report. For the two open recommendations, the EPA completed agreed-upon corrective actions. The EPA reviewed websites of active licensees to look for language that suggests EPA endorsement, and finalized the agency's fact sheet on indoor mold to include discussion on the tools' limitations. These actions resulted in updated information, and agency reviews of licensee websites helped ensure that information about the agency's tools is correct. We make no further recommendations. Send all inquiries to our public affairs office at (202) 566-2391 or visit www.epa.gov/oiq. Listing of OIG reports. ------- |