ERMI and HERTSMI-2: What Dust Testing Can and Cannot Tell You in Oklahoma
ERMI and HERTSMI-2 are the dust tests most CIRS-literate physicians reference. This guide explains what they measure, how to collect a sample that means something, how to read the scores, and the honest limitations nobody selling you a kit will mention.
What Oklahoma changes about the picture
Humid subtropical east, semi-arid west, severe storm alley throughout. Slab-on-grade homes on shifting clays produce under-slab plumbing failures with slow, hidden wetting.
Protocols are national; moisture is local. In Oklahoma, the pressure a building lives under comes from specific, predictable directions — and this protocol should be read with those directions in mind, because they decide where the risk concentrates, which assemblies fail first, and what a defensible local scope looks like.
The OK moisture drivers to read this against
- Storm and hail envelope damage
- Slab plumbing leaks in expansive clays
- Eastern humidity
What never changes — anywhere
Oklahoma changes where the risk concentrates — never the order of operations. Moisture gets located, testing characterizes the exposure, the water gets fixed before the mold, remediation runs under verified containment, and an independent third party confirms the result.
The full protocol below covers the national playbook in depth — read it alongside the OK context above.
Read the full protocol: ERMI and HERTSMI-2: What Dust Testing Can and Cannot Tell You →
- What these tests actually measure
- Why dust beats a single air sample
- Collection determines whether the result means anything
- Reading the numbers without panic
- The honest limitations
- When to retest
Oklahoma questions
Does this protocol change in Oklahoma?
The sequence never changes — locate moisture, test honestly, fix water before mold, remediate under containment, verify independently. What changes in Oklahoma is where the moisture pressure comes from: storm and hail envelope damage That determines where instruments go first and which assemblies earn suspicion.
What should Oklahoma households check first?
Start with the failure modes this housing stock is known for. Slab-on-grade homes on shifting clays produce under-slab plumbing failures with slow, hidden wetting. A moisture-focused assessment that ignores those patterns is guessing.
Can I get matched with a vetted provider in Oklahoma?
Yes — matching runs in all 50 states. Every provider is vetted on containment discipline, fine-particle competence, and willingness to be independently verified. Matching is free for households.
THIS PROTOCOL IN OTHER PRIORITY MARKETS → California · Colorado · Florida · Nevada · Texas
NEXT IN THE OK LIBRARY → The Mold Inspection, Done Right: A Homeowner's Field Manual in Oklahoma