Mike Buettner, founder of Respircare Analytical Services

In the early 1990’s, indoor air quality science appeared to be on a “collision course” with the real estate industry. IAQ contaminants, such as mold and radon, were becoming increasingly common issues in real estate transactions. By the turn of the millennium, hype and fear gave rise to the ‘mold is gold’ motto ringing throughout the industry, leading to consumers being hurt by the lack of true biohazard awareness, education, and cost effective investigation.

In 2001 Mike was asked to join Aerotech Laboratories, one of the nation’s leading, state-of-the-art analytical facilities. Mike was tasked with developing training programs for real estate professionals, home inspectors, and consumers that explained IAQ issues and offered cost effective solutions. Having lost his mother to cancer, Mike believed finding solutions to IAQ problems could be a partial answer to some cancer issues which appeared to be indoor environmentally induced, so he eagerly accepted their offer.

In 2002 Aerotech Laboratories funded a new nonprofit association that was named the Indoor Environmental Standards Organization (IESO); Mike Buettner was a founding member and later became the Vice President. The IESO mission was simple yet daunting; provide inspection standards for indoor air quality assessments, sample collection, and laboratory data interpretation. This training was vital for two primary reasons:

1. Contain the destructive “mold hype” that threatened the IAQ industry
2. Offer consumers a science based solution for IAQ issues

Assigned dual roles at Aerotech as the Strategic Markets Director and as the Training Director for the Aerotech Technical Institute, Mike spent countless hours of research in order to assist in the development of training programs and inspection standards. During this time, Mike’s sister, Rita, a non-smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer. After questioning and researching various possibilities, Mike came to the realization that Rita’s cancer may have been environmentally induced by Radon. Fueled with this knowledge, Mike’s passion to provide even better biohazard awareness and education became his life’s purpose and although Aerotech Laboratories was sold to Severn Trent Laboratories in 2004, Mike stayed on with the company full time for another year and then as a private consultant on paid retainer for an additional year.

On June 24th, 2005, approximately one year after his sister’s death, Mike founded Respircare Analytical Services with the goal of carrying on the legacy of “Biohazard Awareness, Education and Investigation”.

Over the years, many of the inspection professionals that attended the Aerotech/Respircare Analytical training classes expressed interest in continuing their education and relationship with Respircare Analytical. For a prolonged period of time Mike Buettner provided business advice and analytical review services at no charge to the students that had attended his training. As the years passed, the number of students using the data review and business services grew to the point that it became necessary to organize a structured entity to continue Mike’s vision of biohazard awareness, education, and training.

As a result, in 2007 the RespirNet was officially launched to provide the desperately needed link between an ill-informed consumer/public and qualified Indoor Air Quality professionals who are genuinely dedicated to their profession and their clients. The RespirNet is now a highly structured group of IAQ professionals committed to raising the bar of integrity and excellence in the IAQ industry through professional education, training, resources. All educational courses and course materials are either developed and taught by Mike Buettner personally, or reviewed and approved by him.

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