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ENVIRONMENTAL BUSINESS

ENVIRONMENTAL BUSINESS

Vapor Intrusion Business Leader Heads New Industry Association

Clean Vapor CEO Tom Hatton is president of the group .
By Diane C . Walsh Contributing Editor

An entrepreneur ’ s boyhood enthusiasm for model airplanes laid the groundwork for an environmental business that has become a leader in a nationwide effort to create standards for excellence in solving buildings ’ vapor intrusion problems . Tom Hatton , the CEO of Blairstown , New Jerseybased Clean Vapor , is the president of the newly formed Association of Vapor Intrusion Professionals ( AVIP ).

The non-profit defines its mission on its website , vi-pro . org . It seeks to build a community of professionals dedicated to advancing the industry and provide a forum for an informational exchange of knowledge and science related to vapor intrusion . The association also wants to establish a central resource for technology , guidance , standards , credentialing and best practices for both those in the industry and those seeking vapor intrusion-related services .
“ A monolith of excellence is the goal ,” explains Hatton , a pioneer in the field , who , over the past several decades , has developed a reputation as
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an international expert and speaker . He invites other industry leaders who share his enthusiasm and dedication to join the new professional association . Hatton says he and his colleagues are united in their goals . They have encountered many people who believe they have contracted cancer from chemicals in the environment . “ And on a personal level we want to see an end to that ,” he says .
His career trajectory reflects the growth in the industry . Early in Hatton ’ s career , he learned about soil mechanics and air and soil construction while working for a geo-technical engineering company in Sarasota , Florida . He then added construction to his resume after working for custom home builder in Mountain Lakes , New Jersey .
That unique skill set resulted in him being recruited by Weston , which was establishing itself as one of the nation ’ s leading environmental companies in the 80s . It won many of the contracts to consult or remediate the country ’ s Superfund sites . Hatton was hired as a member of a team that advised the U . S . Environmental Protection Agency ( USEPA ) on technical matters regarding spills , midnight dumping and chemical discharges . In that role , Hatton says
The AVIP has surveyed environmental regulators and they overwhelmingly want a standardized approach to vapor intrusion mitigation , training and collaboration .
Photo : Getty Images / iStockphoto / Anton Aleksenko
Clean Vapor CEO Tom Hatton
he was “ fortunate ” to be drafted to participate in the EPA ’ s first vapor intrusion project in Bowling Green , Kentucky in 1985 .
At the time , Hatton explains , the conventional wisdom reasoned that vapor intrusion resulted from a concentrated diffusion of chemicals in the soil below the slab that break through the concrete barrier into the home or building . But he rejected that notion after analyzing the indoor air quality data . Instead , he concluded there are other factors that impact vapor intrusion from a pressure standpoint , such as indoor to outdoor temperature differential , weather , rainfall and wind speed .
He credits his unique perspective on the effects of differential pressures to his boyhood hobby building and designing unconventional model airplanes . His understanding and observation of aerodynamics led him to devise new solutions for vapor intrusion . “ It launched my career ,” says Hatton , who was on the USEPA ’ s first team of researchers tackling radon — the naturally-occurring gas that can cause lung cancer . Radon has been detected across the country and in a geological formation known as the Reading Prong that starts in Pennsylvania , stretches across New Jersey and ends in Connecticut . He was on the team that wrote “ Reducing Radon in Structures ,” one of the industry ’ s first authoritative guides .
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