Phil Morey, Ph.D., CIH

Air Date: 12-12-2008 | Episode: 106


Philip R. Morey received his Ph.D. degree in Biology from Yale University and is certified in the comprehensive practice of industrial hygiene by the American Board of Industrial Hygiene…

Full Description:

Philip R. Morey received his Ph.D. degree in Biology from Yale University and is certified in the comprehensive practice of industrial hygiene by the American Board of Industrial Hygiene. Dr. Morey has held various teaching positions including Lecturer of Biology at Harvard University and Professor of Biological Sciences at Texas Tech University. He has also held a research position (Research Microbiologist; Research Industrial Hygienist) while at The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in the 1980s and was subsequently Director of Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)/Microbiology at several consulting companies. Currently, Dr. Morey is Principal Consultant Microbiology at ENVIRON International Corporation. Dr. Morey was one of the panelists for the first consensus mold remediation guideline published by the New York Department of Health in 1993. He was Assistant Editor of the 1999 American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists Bioaerosols: Assessment and Control book. He has written two books: How Trees Grow and Biological Contaminants in Indoor Environments.

Z-Man’s Blog:

Dr. Phil

The cream rises to the top, and when it comes to investigation of buildings Phil Morey, Ph.D. CIH is the creme de la creme of microbial forensic building investigation. Whether working in the public or private sector Dr. Phil has been involved in many high profile microbial contamination and landmark mold cases such as the TVA Building, the Hubert Humphrey Building, Marion County Courthouse, hotels in Hawaii and the residence of Ed McMahon..

Dr. Morey offered some good advice for IEPs wanting to get better at the craft:

  1. Physical inspection is more important than sampling.

If your not an MD, don’t include in your reports health affects which can be attributed to the organism?

Dr. Phil used his IAQradio interview to publicly clarify the 1,000 colony forming units of fungi/per cubic meter from his 1984 paper which is often cited by others with the caveat that unless you were a physician you can’t attribute occupant health systems to it.

Dr. Morey offered some good suggestions to the IICRC Standards Committee:

A standard should provide general examples. What is normal fungal ecology? What is black water?

We would be better served with examples that we could agree on. In our post interview discussion, Dr. Phil made an excellent point that during litigation some terms within IICRC standards inevitably has been left up to interpretation by experts and that when standards committee members can’t even agree and experts can’t agree how can others be expected to agree?

It’s aerie that John Warnock Hinckley, Jr. was a student of Dr. Phil’s when he was teaching at Texas Tech University.

Z-Man signing off

Today’s music: Callin’ Dr. Phil by: Donald Fuller