With Hurricane Katrina putting an exclamation mark on mould and pollution exposure, brokerage firm Integro is anticipating more risk managers will investigate environmental insurance programmes.

Integro, through its subsidiaries, is an insurance brokerage and risk management firm which specialises in placing environmental policies for entities ranging from real estate companies to chemical plants. Headquartered in New York, it also has offices in Bermuda as well as a handful of other major cities in the US and Canada.

Ed Morales, senior associate in Integro?s San Francisco office, told that the aftermath of the third quarter 2005 hurricanes which devastated the Gulf Coast sent a clear message to commercial property owners that they must pay attention to mould coverage if they have not done so in the past.

?The results of Katrina has really put [mould on the front burner in respect to considering mould as an absolute necessity for coverage going forward,? he said adding that the environmental insurance marketplace is ?pretty robust? with most insurers willing to offer such cover as long as they can underwrite to it.

?Certainly the advent of Katrina is really going to raise eyebrows as to how they underwrite to mould,? he said.

While some of Integro?s clients have previously forgone mould coverage as well as pollution because the cost has been prohibitive, Integro sees last year?s hurricanes as a wake up call for businesses. However the future cost of such coverage depends on whether individual insurance companies are able to get their reinsurers to work with them.

?[Prices certainly have [gone up on the property side so it may overlap and impact the environmental side from the treaty perspective and from reinsurers that may decide to pull out of backing insurance companies that are providing mould coverage or environmental coverage,? Mr. Morales said.

His colleague John Kim, a principal in the San Francisco office, adds that education is also important when it comes to environmental cover since the typical risk manager is ?probably not too familiar with what environmental insurance can and cannot provide?.

?As they get more educated and find out the benefits to environmental insurance the purchasing of environmental insurance will increase,? Mr. Kim said.