The Santa Barbara County District Attorney and 10 other state prosecutors fined a mold remediation company $425,000 for pesticide law violations and false advertising.
Pure Maintenance Holdings LLC and its founders– Michael Adams and his son, Brandon– were accused of misleading the public about their products and selling pesticides without the appropriate licenses or paying required taxes.
According to court documents, they falsely claimed their treatments were approved by the EPA and California regulators. One was marketed as “dry fog,” even though it left surfaces wet. The company also advertised the treatment as safe and nontoxic, even though the pesticides used required “warning” and “danger” labels.
Santa Barbara County Senior Deputy DA Christopher Dalbey said that kind of misinformation can be harmful to consumers.
“People who are using them– the applicators, the people whose businesses or homes– they need to have the accurate information so they know the level of toxicity of a substance that they're allowing to be in their space,” Dalbey said.
The company also reportedly promoted a process called InstaPure as EPA-approved to kill all bacteria and viruses during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In response, Pure Maintenance CEO Brandon Adams called the case a “semantics game.” He said dry fog is an industry term that refers to particle size, not moisture. Regarding claims that the company falsely marketed EverPure and InstaPure as pesticides, he says the company promotes both as cleaning processes, not chemicals.
Adams said he disagrees with the charges, despite settling.
“It just became the biggest headache, and we're trying to do everything right– we really are,” Adams said. “We have no customers with any complaints.”
Adams said the company has since hired a firm to ensure clearer language in advertisements moving forward.