Questions & Answers on Molds
by: Phillip Fry, Mold Expert
November 1, 2002
Q.
I have had some severe effects from mold,
sinus infection, upper respiratory infection, sinusitis, rhinitis, hay fever, asthma, and
bronchitis all at one time, also eye infections and swelling of upper resistor membranes.
I did not know how severe mold can affect someone, until this happened. It took along
time to figure out what was making me get sick with sinus infections all the time. Thank
you for your web site that informs others, hopefully they will see this is serious stuff.
I think many thought it was in my head, I did to at times! Because we could not see it,
but eventually we could smell it, it smelled musty. We had a mold test done in the
bathroom, it was Aspergillus, Aureobasidium, Mucor, Rhizopus and Rhodotorula. It was not
our home and I had to move for health reasons. My questions are, what can I do to help
prevent this problem from happening in our new home (It's old house 1920's) And what kind
of protection is there for home buyers out there? mold inspections are not part of the
house inspections. Finally my last question, what can I do to continue to restore my body
back to health. Is there something out there that will continue my healing of health from
mold? Certain vitamins or something?
A.
Thank you for your kind comments about
our website. When someone starts suffering on a regular basis with one or more of the
mold health symptoms listed halfway down the home page of
Mold Inspector, it is very
wise, as you did, do hire a mold inspection and mold testing service. To test your
present home, you would be helped the most by hiring one of our Certified Mold
Inspectors. Please check your state in the Inspector Directory.
The best way to prevent mold and mildew problems and mold infestations is to regularly
check your home for evidence of water leaks and to check regularly the relative humidity
of each room of your home [target: just 30 to 40% humidity level to discourage mold and
mildew growth]. To check the relative humidity, buy a digital hygrometer [about $30] from
Lowe's, Home Depot, or a hardware store. The only protection a prospective property owner
has against buying a home or other real estate that is already mold contaminated is to
have a Certified Mold Inspector do an extremely thorough mold inspection and mold testing
of the air in the various rooms; check inside walls, ceilings, and floors for mold
growth; and investigate the heating, air conditioning, and ventilating equipment and
ducts for mold problems. For someone already suffering from mold problems, obviously
leaving the mold hell as you did is the first step. The second step is to find the best
pulmonary physician [lung specialist] and have your blood tested for mold antibodies and
your lungs checked by biopsy and xray for mold growth deposits inside your lungs [such as
Aspergilliosis disease resulting from one's exposure to Aspergillus mold spores. Over the
period of time, if one lives AND works in a mold healthy environment, one's body can make
some natural recovery against past health problems from mold, but your physician might
need to do surgery to remove Aspergilliosis growths in one's lungs, and to take
prescription medicines to help cleanse one's body of mold spores and mold diseases.
October 24, 2002
Q.
I recently had all my furniture returned
to me after being in storage at a "climate controlled" facility for over a year. All of
it came back moldy! It smelled horrible and green mold was visible on many pieces. The
movers took it all back (after it sat overnight in my newly built home-we couldn't sleep
it was so bad) They say they are going to clean it but after reading up on the internet
about mold, I'm afraid it will never be the same. Especially on a hot humid day, I think
it will still reek. Can you give me your opinion?
A.
You have a reason to be concerned: (1)
mold growth on hard-surface furniture can be easily removed and mold-remediated with the
use of any EPA-registered mold killer fungicide---visit
Mold Killer
but (2) for mold growing IN upholstered furniture, your best bet is to throw such
mold-infested furniture away.
October 22, 2002
Q.
I am interested in mold inspection, but
want to be sure the mold inspection is affordable and truthful. I'm wondering if there is
someone who doesn't do the remediation, but only tests.
A.
Your concern is a real one that needs to
be addressed by all property owners with properties suffering from mold infestation. One
way to help avoid a conflict of interest is to hire a Certified
Mold Inspector who does only mold testing, or one who knows that is all he or she
will be doing for you is mold testing only, and NO mold removal or mold remediation. Then
after your have the mold test results and a mold protocol plan for dealing with the mold
contamination, get at least three competitive bids from unrelated
Certified Mold Contractors or
Certified Mold
Remediators. To find certified, honest mold professionals in your area, please click
on: Inspector Directory and
Contractor Directory.
July 24, 2002
Q.
My husband and I have two small children
- a 1 year old son and a 4 year old daughter. When we purchased a brand new home nearly
two years ago (Oct. '00) we had extensive water intrusion. The primary source of the
water intrusion was around a large window in the upstairs family room. In May of this
year we had noticeable water intrusion for a third time. The first two times our general
contractor came out to our home and simply caulked around the window and sliding glass
door. The third time the water intrusion occurred we started investigating the situation
further. We have had moisture scan testing performed (half the home tested high for
moisture) and recently a mold sample taken several weeks ago came back as Stachybotrys.
As homeowners we are doing our best to educate ourselves on the potential effects of
Stachybotrys. What we do know for sure is that our son has been sick numerous times since
his birth. He has had coughs, itchy eyes, sinus-type symptoms, and even bloody noses. My
husband and I have also gone to the doctor many times during the past two years with what
we thought were sinus infections. We both seem to have headaches all the time and my
husband has had migraine headaches on 2 or 3 occasions in the past year - never before
has he had them. The amount of information available on toxic molds is mind-boggling in
itself. However, more mind-boggling is how much each person's opinion on the topic of
toxic molds varies. We have filed a claim against our general contractors insurance and
have recently started working with an attorney in Minneapolis. In your opinion, are there
steps that we should be taking immediately to make sure that no one in our family
develops more of these symptoms? Some of the more severe symptoms such as memory loss and
brain damage are permanent (from what we have read). I'm having a difficult time with
this situation and hate to think that each day we live in our current house I may be
putting my children and myself at risk for serious health risks.
A.
You have one immediate big action to
take---move your family out of this mold hell and into a healthy place to live. If your
home were on fire, you would not hesitate to get your family out of the home immediately.
Well, your home is environmentally on fire with major health damage to your family
members. After you move out, ask your attorney to obtain a moratorium on making your
mortgage payments until your home has been safely and completely remediated. The lender's
collateral value is at risk because of the serious mold infestation of your home. After
you move out, start getting competitive bids for doing complete mold remediation of your
home. To find a Certified Mold Remediator in your area, please click on:
Contractor Directory.
July 23, 2002
Q.
My home doesn't have the proper run-off
from rain or when I'm watering the yard. Sometimes the water stands around the base of
the house on the north side. Could this be a problem if the water somehow gets under the
house every time it rains or I water?
A.
Improper drainage of water toward a home
rather than to take the water far away from the home can cause large water intrusion into
crawl spaces, basements, foundations, and concrete slabs beneath homes. You need to find
ways to take rain water from your roof via gutters and drain pipes so that water goes
elsewhere. You need to build up the land around your home and have grade be downhill away
from your home. Water intrusion can provide the water that mold needs to grow.
July 22, 2002
Q.
We recently read an article on mycotoxins
in the "USA Weekend" tabloid in our Sunday newspaper. My husband, a truck driver, has
been having bad headaches, fatigue and overall just not feeling well. He had mentioned to
me a few months ago that there was a leak in the floorboard of his truck, which was
caused by the truck's air conditioner. Do you think it's possible that mycotoxins could
be present and causing this problems?
A.
Yes, water leaks into a car or truck's
interior and/or air conditioning system can cause dangerous molds to grow which will make
the driver and passengers sick.
June 18,2002
Q.
Thank you for a tremendously informative
site. I have stachybotrys and aspergillus in four areas of my home as confirmed by mold
testing. My insurance has agreed to cover the remediation of all four sites. After
hearing about my mold problem, my neighbor informed me that the real estate agent who had
sold us this house had left the water on in the back yard and had flooded our house and
the water damage had gone undetected for two solid months. My neighbor said the odor in
the house was horrific. We did not experience any health issues immediately when we
purchased the house (1995), however, when we had water damage in 1997 my husband started
having severe headaches, chronic sinusitis and subsequent surgeries, panic disorder,
dizziness, and shakiness. After hearing about his degrading health for two years, I just
started assuming he was a hypochondriac because it was always some new symptom- but
always the severe, debilitating headaches. My son also has asthma, severe allergies, and
language and speech delay. I have had sores on my scalp and face for two years now and a
dermatologist told me they were skin tags and burned them off which did not do a thing.
Also during this four year hell I have been diagnosed with depression and then subsequent
bipolar disorder. After three days of vacating the house for a hotel, I was not able to
tolerate the medicines for the bipolar and have since been able to quit all of the
psychotropic meds. Hopefully this will be a lasting thing as I am not exposed to the
mycotoxins. Luckily, my daughter only has chronic allergic rhinitis due to this mold
exposure. My main question to you is do you think the house can ever be cleaned up to a
point that any small amount of water damage won't immediately cause the stachy to regrow?
Would we be better off remediating and rebuilding and then trying to sell to help insure
our family won't go through the four year nightmare that we have been through? Should we
install a HEPA filter unit on the new AC we plan to install to help reduce our exposure
even for the time it might take to sell it (if we ever can)? We do have several items of
linoleum and cabinets that prove the realtor took out the linoleum, dried it out, and
then put that same linoleum down. We will be contacting an attorney on this matter as the
flooding was never disclosed to us. Any ideas on this process would be most helpful. At
this point, we are just letting the insurance clean up before we start any legal process.
Upon further documenting the health effects of all of our family, I guess you might say
that no house on earth is worth what we have been through.
A.
I hope you and your family are still
living away from this mold hell. Don't return until you have clearance testing that the
home and your personal possessions are mold-safe. Be sure to have your motel room checked
for mold infestation by a Certified Mold Inspector because many motels are mold
contaminated. One way to determine how salvageable your home may be is to examine wall,
ceiling, and wall cavities with the help of a fiber optics inspection device. A half inch
hole is neatly cut into a wall cavity [without dropping any drywall materials backward
into the wall cavity and thus cover any mold growing with white drywall material]. Then
the fiber optics device is inserted and moved around the wall cavity side to side and up
and down to examine the wall cavity for mold growth. You would need to check a number of
cavities through out your home to determine how serious your mold infestation problem is.
You can obtain fiber optics inspection services by hiring your local Certified Mold
Inspector. Please visit the website:
www.certifiedmoldinspectors.com. Make sure that you replace your mold-contaminated
hvac equipment and system AFTER you have done complete mold remediation and your home
passes final clearance mold testing to establish that you have solved other mold
infestation problems. During remediation, you would not use your hvac system, and you
would seal off all duct registers to prevent mold contaminants from leaving the hvac into
the rest of your home. Your new replacement hvac system should contain a mass media hepa
filter and enough ultraviolet lights to be able to kill mold spores [requires help from
your local Certified Mold Inspector]. To make sure the mold remediation is done properly
and thoroughly, you ought to consider taking the two day mold training course offered by
the Professional Certification Institute. Visit the
Mold Training Certification section of this web site. You
also should contact a mold lawyer to see if you have any legal rights against the former
homeowner who sold you the property. Visit:
www.moldlawyer.com.
June 18, 2002
Q.
I, along with several of my co-workers,
were moved to a room in the basement of the building my corporation is renting from the
US Postal Service. Two weeks ago, when we had all that rain, there was a pretty severe
leak in the room where you can see the wall coming apart. There was also a lot of water
under the carpet in one location approximately 10 ft from where I sit. I have never had
problems with allergies, hay fever, or asthma, but for the 10 days have felt miserable.
After I get in in the morning, my eyes start running, I have a very hard time breathing,
am struggling to talk, and am very tired all the time no matter how much sleep I
seem to get. We have sent e-mails to our maintenance dept but have not really gotten
anywhere. Any suggestions?
A.
Certified Mold Inspector to test your
work area. Please visit our Inspector Directory to find one
in your area. |
