Toxic Black Mold In Homes

Most Homes Have a Mold Problem. Even if your home looks clean, chances are good you've got mold, often at levels high enough to trigger allergy and asthma attacks. That bit of dour news comes courtesy of a new university research study that also found the mold is frequently in areas most people don't associate with it -- windowsills, for instance. After surveying 160 homes in seven U.S. cities, Kelly A. Reynolds of the University of Arizona, Tucson, found that 100 percent of the homes tested positive for mold on some inside surface. The discovered molds were all highly allergenic molds. Read the entire home mold research. "Up to one-third of [non-residential] buildings in industrialized countries are sick," according to the World Health Organization, 1995.   Get your mold question answered FREE about mold environmental health problems. The Ottawa, Canada-based Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) warns in a pamphlet published at its web site that "if you live in a damp house, or have ever experienced flooding, your house may be breeding an often invisible and always unwelcome intruder - mold." Ken Ruest, Senior Researcher with the CMHC points out that, "a lot of people are unaware there's a toxic mold problem until their house is so badly affected they can't live in it anymore."  Toxic black mold in homes is also common. New home mold is also a very common problem.  Hire a Certified Mold Contractor to get rid of mold in the home or workplace.

Mold fungi grows well in homes, condominiums, apartments, offices, and other work places and buildings because most property owners and managers do NOT properly maintain building roofs; exterior siding; windows; heating, ventilating, and air conditioning [hvac] equipment and ducts; and plumbing fixtures, water lines, and sewer lines to prevent water intrusion, and/ or they fail to quickly find, detect, search for, and repair mold water plumbing problems such as water leaks, water and sewer breaks, broken water and sewer lines, dripping water, running water, flooding, flood damage, and other water, moisture, humidity, sewer, mold damage problems, black mold infestation, and toxic mold contamination. One square foot of moldy drywall can harbor more than 300 million mold spores.  Recipes to make your mold disinfectant. Hot Tip: Airborne mold spores from live indoor plants can travel in air currents to cause health problems for occupants and possible mold growth in the home through mold cross-contamination. To help prevent mold, do not keep live plants indoors. Also, you should not keep inside dried flowers and plants upon which mold loves to feast, utilizing high indoor humidity to drive the mold growth.

The food source for fungal growth in buildings may include cellulose, which can be found in ceiling tile, insulation, sheetrock, as well as wood and dirt. Clothing, carpeting and padding, draperies, upholstered and wood furniture, leather shoes, and other cellulose-based home contents are also favorites for mold to eat and grow. Mold organisms have three modes: (1) active, live mold growth when the mold has your house to eat and access to high humidity or water leaks; (2) dormant mold or inactive mold, when the mold spores and mold colonies go into sleep waiting for renewed access to high humidity or water leaks; and  (3) dead mold [no longer capable of reproducing or living]. All three modes are dangerous to health. Even the smell of dead mold can make mold-sensitive persons sick.

Mold Remediation and Mold Removal

Just four words neatly summarize what has to be done in effective and safe mold removal and mold remediation: CONTAIN, KILL, REMOVE, and PROTECT. Learn how to do it.  Learn how to find mold and test toxic mold.

        (1) CONTAIN the mold from spreading into uncontaminated areas;
        (2) KILL the mold;
        (3) REMOVE the dead mold; and
        (4) PROTECT the cleaned out area against future mold infestations.

Bleach does NOT kill toxic black mold spores and mold growth or household mold or stop toxic black mold growth on porous surfaces such as wood and other builng materials. "While bleach is often recommended for remediation of surface mold on wood, our [university research study] results illustrate that the treatment does not eliminate the surface microflora," is the conclusion of the Oregon State University study of the effects of chlorine bleach on mold growth on Douglas fir wood [an important timber crop in the state of Oregon]. The research study was conducted by Professor Jeffrey Morrell, Dept. of Wood Science, Oregon State University, as assisted by Adam Taylor [graduate research assistant] and Camille Freitag [Senior Research Associate], Forest Products Journal, 54:4, 2004.

Mold Cross Contamination

Environmental molds potentially can result in human illness by the production of allergens, proteases, beta-glucans, and volatile organic compounds, and toxic mycotoxins and mold spores. Any mold of ANY color in elevated levels indoors can cause health problems. The worst mold problems are often the ones you don't see because of hidden mold growth INSIDE walls, floors, ceilings, attics, crawl spaces, basements, and heating/cooling equipment and ducts. Moody & Moldy? You may be suffering from health problems caused by mold, which include headaches, diminished brain capacity, and brain damage. Is your neighbor's house mold-contaminated? The adjacent moldy house mold is very risky to your family health and home investment because air currents can regularly transport airborne mold spores from the moldy exterior of the neighbor's house to mold cross contaminate your entire home by entering your open windows, doors, and fresh air intake of your heating/cooling system.