The HBIA position
We work on buildings. Your provider cares for the patient.
Connecting a building to a person's health is a medical judgment. It belongs to licensed providers, and HBIA does not make it. What HBIA can do is make sure the building is no longer the part nobody examined.
HBIA works on the building
- Looks at moisture, ventilation, and what is present in the building
- Documents conditions found, in plain terms
- Writes findings so a licensed provider can work from them
- With the patient's written permission, talks with the provider about what was found
Your provider cares for the person
- Diagnoses and treats
- Decides whether building conditions bear on the patient's health
- Orders and interprets any clinical tests
- Decides what the findings mean for the care plan
Diet, sleep, stress, movement, environment.
Many integrative practitioners treat the indoor environment as one more part of the picture worth looking at. When they do, someone has to look at the building carefully, and report what is there without overstating it.
For patients new to this
What is functional medicine?
Functional medicine is an approach to care that its practitioners describe as looking for the underlying causes of a person's symptoms, rather than treating each symptom on its own. A functional medicine workup often looks at nutrition, sleep, stress, gut health, immune function — and sometimes the places a person lives and works.
Integrative medicine is a related approach that combines conventional care with other evidence-informed practices. Both are delivered by licensed providers. HBIA is not one of them; it works only on the building.
What HBIA offers practitioners
Standards, testing guidance and plain findings
HBIA does not take over a patient's environmental care. It gives providers a standard to point to, and findings they can read.
Published standards
What evaluation and remediation work should achieve when a sensitized person lives or works in the building, including Level 4 requirements where the occupant is sensitized.
Sampling beyond visible mold
Moisture, air and dust sampling, and where requested, mycotoxins, endotoxins, actinobacteria, VOCs and formaldehyde — analyzed by independent laboratories.
Findings written for providers
Conditions documented in plain terms, with the full laboratory reports, so a provider can read them alongside their own workup.
Independence
HBIA sells no remediation and takes no referral fees, so nothing in a report exists to sell anyone work.
Trained professionals
Training for the assessors and contractors who do the work, held to a code of conduct that bars health claims and fear-based selling.
An advisory panel, being formed
HBIA is forming an advisory panel of outside licensed practitioners. It is not yet seated, and no member will be named until they have agreed in writing.
How it works
Four steps, and the last one is the provider's
1
The building is looked at
A credentialed professional evaluates moisture, ventilation, and what is present — the things that are actually measurable.
2
Findings, not a sales quote
Conditions are documented and written so a provider can use them. Nothing in the report exists to sell work.
3
Shared with permission
With the patient's written permission, the findings go to their provider, and HBIA can talk with the provider about them.
4
The provider decides
Whether those conditions bear on the patient's health is the provider's judgment, not HBIA's.
Conditions providers ask about
Where practitioners most often ask about the building
These are the conditions for which providers most often ask HBIA-trained professionals to look at a building. Listing a condition here is not a medical claim: HBIA does not diagnose or treat any condition, and does not say a building caused anyone's symptoms.
CIRS and biotoxin illness
A priority focus for the institute. We work the environmental side of a condition that remains actively debated, and we do not overstate what the evidence supports.
MCAS and chemical sensitivities
People with mast cell activation syndrome or chemical sensitivities often ask their providers about indoor conditions.
Mold-related illness
Patients and providers working through a leak, flood or long-term moisture in the home.
Lyme and tick-borne illness
Some providers treating long-term Lyme disease ask about mold in the patient's home as part of the workup.
Long COVID
People with post-acute effects of COVID-19 who, with their providers, want to understand the buildings they spend their days in.
Immunocompromised patients
Transplant recipients, people in cancer treatment, and people with autoimmune conditions, whose providers may want the home looked at closely.
Children with asthma and allergies
Children spend most of their time indoors, and their families and pediatric providers often want to know what is in the air.
Question and answer
What are mycotoxins?
Mycotoxins are chemical compounds produced by some species of mold. Unlike spores, they can remain in dust and on surfaces after visible growth has been removed, and they can be moved around a building by its heating and cooling system.
That is why removing what you can see is not always the whole job, and why some laboratories test dust or air for mycotoxins. Those results are most useful when the patient's provider has asked for them. There are no generally accepted exposure limits for mycotoxins in homes, so results are interpreted in context, not as a pass or fail.
More on what can be measured, and what testing cannot tell you, is on Test Your Environment.
A note on companion animals
Pets share the same air
Dogs, cats and other companion animals live in the same indoor spaces as their families. Veterinarians are part of the provider audience HBIA serves for that reason, and the same line applies: HBIA documents the building, and the veterinarian decides what it means for the animal.
Boundaries
What we will not say
What HBIA will not tell a patient or a provider
- That a building caused a symptom or condition
- That a space is “safe” or suitable for someone with a named condition
- That any work will improve, cure or reduce a symptom
- What a clinical lab result means
These are rules HBIA holds its own credential holders to, published at Standards & Governance.
A provider with a patient whose building is part of the picture?
Or a patient trying to figure out where to start? Tell us what is happening, and we will tell you honestly whether this is something we can help with.
Prefer to talk to someone? 1-800-781-7986
About this page. Conditions named on this page describe who providers most often ask about, not a medical claim. Descriptions of functional and integrative medicine are general and educational, and are not a substitute for advice from your own provider.
Training and certification. HBIA has certified indoor environmental professionals under its earlier program since 2005, and certifications issued under that program remain valid. The current HBIA certification program — a revised standard with an expanded review process — is in development. Until it launches, completing an HBIA training course results in a Letter of Course Completion, which confirms training only and is not a certification under the new program. Under that program as designed, a review board will evaluate the letter alongside verified credentials; completing a course will not guarantee certification.
What HBIA certification is and is not. HBIA certifies individuals and firms against its own published standards. HBIA is not a licensing authority and does not issue or replace any state license. Where a credential requires a professional license, HBIA verifies a license issued by someone else — it does not grant one. HBIA is not a 501(c)(3), and is not accredited by ANSI, ANAB, or NCCA.
Ownership disclosure. The Healthy Building Institute of America was incorporated in Ohio in 2005 and is currently a division of WeSpiritus, LLC. HBIA shares common ownership with AMOLDBUSTER and Apollo Environmental Solutions, which provide independent indoor environmental assessment and consultation services and perform no remediation. HBIA does not receive referral fees, and HBIA training and certification do not require the use of any affiliated company, product, or brand. HBIA is working toward establishing the institute as a separate legal entity.
Scope. HBIA characterizes indoor environments and sets standards for work performed by others. HBIA does not perform remediation or construction. HBIA is not a medical provider and does not diagnose, treat, or interpret health status. All health decisions remain with licensed healthcare professionals.
Educational content only. Information provided by HBIA is educational and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition.
Page reviewed and updated October 9, 2026.
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