While personal lines carriers may have succeeded in averting any potential "mold crisis" through state-sanctioned exclusions, commercial lines writers are growing less wary of the exposure as they seek to expand their environmental books of business. Today, virtually all commercial operations face risks related to pollution conditions, thanks in part to concerns such as mold exposure, which have intensified in recent years.

Bill Pritchard, president of Charlottesville, Va.-based Beacon Hill Associates, said that "in the past three or four years, in particular, the general commercial marketplace has recognized the environmental exposures that all businesses have."

While there is some limited pollution coverage in other policies, such as property and commercial general liability, most carriers endorse absolute exclusions onto their GL forms. "So, what there was is gone anyhow," Mr. Pritchard said.

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