The family lived in a manufactured home in Harrison County, Mississippi.  For four years they were sick and tired all of the time, but couldn’t figure out why.  It wasn’t until 2002 when their nephew literally fell through a wall while playing that they realized there was a major problem.

After a thorough investigation of the house, it was determined that the whole house was filled with mold.  The family had to move out of the home and take nothing with them, so as not to contaminate their new living environment.

The family lost $68,000 in personal article damage, but the damage to the property wasn’t nearly as terrible for the family as the damage to their bodies.  Mr. Riley was covered with lesions that were caused by mold toxins trying to escape.  The son suffered from recurring nosebleeds due to mold.

Breathing in mold can cause serious health problems because mold can  produce very toxic compounds called fungal toxins, which make people extremely ill.  The Riley’s are doing better now, but they still are overcoming their health problems by taking vitamins and medications to detoxify their bodies of the poisonous mold they breathed in for so many years.
This is why it is important to take action if your family is constantly feeling sick.  If doctors can’t pinpoint a reason for your illness and if your home’s environment is very moist, it could very well be mold.  As a precaution, moisture control systems such as HomeAire’s Active Dampness Control™ and appropriate ventilation like kitchen ventilation fans and bathroom ventilation fans can help remove damaging moisture from your home.

Winter allergies differ from their spring and summer counterparts in that they’re usually caused by mold instead of pollen.  Mold allergies aren’t confined to the winter months, as all mold spores need to thrive are moisture and oxygen, but people are more susceptible to mold allergies when they spend more time indoors.  Recommendations from the director of Allergy and Immunology at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian to combat mold include:

1. Keeping your indoor humidity level below 35 percent to help prevent the growth of mold and mites.

2. Using bathroom ventilation fans when showering or kitchen ventilation fans when cooking to remove excess humidity and odors. Avoid putting rugs in the bedroom, if possible, since wall-to-wall carpeting is an ideal place for dust mites to proliferate.

3. Not keeping plants in the bedroom, since decaying leaves and increased humidity can stimulate growth of mold.

Click here for more tips to combat winter mold allergies.

Mold allergies are common in the fall due to the amount of damp vegetation that begins to pile up on the ground as the leaves fall from the trees and as we build our firewood piles in anticipation of those cold winter nights.  Allergy symptoms mimic cold symptoms like runny noses, coughs and itchy eyes, but according to this article, some allergy symptoms could be as severe as a blood or lung infection!   This article recommends raking leaves and cleaning out gutters as soon as possible, storing firewood outside the house, and checking your basement and checking your home for mold regularly, especially in places more susceptible to water leaks and drips.

Also, this source reminds us that ventilation fans are a must to improve our indoor air quality during the transition from summer to winter.  We often begin to close our windows, but not turn our furnaces as the air gets a little chillier.  This makes the inside of the house cooler and damper and, thus, more likely to be prone to developing a mold problem.   Thought not as effective for mycotoxins, HEPA filters can be a tool in helping combat mold by reducing the spore count.

The best way to combat allergies, mold and mildew caused by excess moisture in your home is to stop it at the source, before it enters through your basement slab or crawlspace. A HomeAire Active Dampness Control System keeps out 1,000 gallons or more of water vapor per year, is energy-efficient, and – unlike other ventilation methods and products – will not create negative pressure, a frequent cause of additional indoor air quality issues.

Clean wet items and surfaces with detergent and water to prevent mold growth.   Click here for guidelines on when and how to use bleach to clean mold and where to find contractors to assist with mold control and water damage restoration.

Clothes and textiles or stuffed animals that are salvageable should only be washed in water that has been declared disinfected.  If these items are contaminated with mold, a remediation professional should be consulted to determine whether they can be saved. 

Before using your clothes washer or dishwasher, run them through a cycle and disinfect.  Also, any surfaces of an HVAC system that were affected by floodwater, should be thoroughly inspected, cleaned and disinfected by a professional   If they are not, bioaerosols of mold and other microorganisms might exist and cause harm to people living or working in the affected area.

Mold in the home needs moisture to survive.  The best way to control mold after flooding is to eliminate moisture using the above tips.  Additional steps to combat mold include making sure that your home has proper ventilation, especially in any area prone to developing moisture or condensation. A HomeAire Active Dampness Control System can also help to keep damaging moisture from entering your home.

Removing mold problems requires a series of actions, including taking emergency action to stop water intrusion, determining the extent of water damage and mold contamination, and planning and implementing remediation activities.

The CDC recommends that children and pets be kept out of the affected area until cleanup has been completed and that those involved in cleanup wear protective boots, gloves and goggles.   Those items that cannot be washed and disinfected and should be disposed of because they can remain a source of mold growth.  These include:  mattresses, carpeting, carpet padding, rugs, upholstered furniture, cosmetics, stuffed animals, baby toys, pillows, foam-rubber items, books, wall coverings, and most paper products.

Tune in for our next blog post for more details on removing mold in the home and salvaging household items.

What if you were faced with the following choices?  You feel miserable, so you go to your doctor to find out what’s wrong with you.  The doctor gives you these two options:

1. You can undergo a series of tests that will cost a whole lot of money and will probably NOT tell you what’s making you feel badly.
2. You can take several steps that will cost MUCH less and will probably make you feel better.

If you chose option #2, read on.

We know household contaminants can make people feel really terrible.  A lot of people in this country have experienced that.  In fact, tens of millions of doctor visits in the U.S. are because of allergy-type symptoms.  The amount of money spent on allergy and asthma treatments in this country (in 2002 dollars) was over $7,000,000,000 (7 billion!).  The asthma rate is sky-rocketing.   People understand that their houses can make them sick.

What we don’t know is why-or how.  Responsible scientists and epidemiologists (the folks who study patterns of illness) admit they don’t know why particular contaminants make some people feel awful.  The specialists who have studied this phenomenon all their lives know it occurs, but they still can’t explain why some people react to one contaminant and others don’t.  Or why that same person reacts to the contaminant at one time and not at another.  Or why once people have reacted badly to one contaminant, they may begin to react badly to others that are similar (sensitization).

They agree that there is no simple answer and often the causes may be so complex, we may never know why we’re "allergic" to things.  So, what are we sufferers supposed to do while they’re studying this stuff?

Some people have answered this question by getting a lot of tests.  Apparently they figure if they identify a contaminant in their homes, they can go to the doctor and have tests to tell them if that’s the problem. 

That would be great!  But it usually doesn’t work that way.  First, contaminants are EVERYWHERE.  Molds, bacteria, yeasts, pollen, animal dander, chemicals, you name it, they’re EVERYWHERE.

Let’s say you hire somebody to come in and test for mold in your home.  What do you think?  Will they find it?  Of course-it’s everywhere.  Is that what’s causing your "allergies"?  Who knows?

When doctors administer allergy tests in their offices, they use "stressors" (contaminants).  Those stressors frequently aren’t of a known type, origin, or strength and frequently don’t cause the same symptoms in people as they do when they’re found or grow in our own homes.  Or they don’t cause the symptoms unless they’re in the combination of what we’re exposed to in our homes-or workplaces or schools. 

Is the answer more testing?  I’d suggest not.  And they cost much less than testing.  I’d suggest that the most cost-effective way to make us feel better is to invest in the step-by-step evaluation and implementation of all-around good indoor air quality.  It’s much cheaper and probably what will be recommended even if you could find out what’s making you sick.  I’d suggest that the least expensive, most likely solutions to our indoor air quality problems, such as those offered by HomeAire, are already out there and available to us right now. 

Trudy Y. Smith
Senior Training Specialist
Spruce Environmental Technologies and HomeAire 

The first step to mold prevention is isolating and eliminating the moisture in the area where the mold might form. If you already have a mold problem in your home, there are ways to clean mold safely and eradicate it for good, but since cleaning mold can be tricky and time consuming, the best method for tackling a mold problem is to stop it before it even starts.

One of the most common places in the home for mold to form is the bathroom, and it makes sense as to why. Bathrooms are a prime location for moisture to build. Even if your bathroom is well-ventilated with a window, you may notice condensation forming on your walls and ceiling or fogging up your mirror when you take a hot shower. There are some surefire ways to counteract excess moisture and dampness in your bathroom with a properly installed bathroom ventilation system or bathroom exhaust fan.

Bathroom exhaust fans draw the moisture-filled air from inside your bathroom and expel it outside of your home into the outdoor air, keeping the air recirculated and moving so the moisture can be wicked away in an efficient manner. The Home Ventilating Institute recommends at least 8 Air Changes per Hour (ACH) in order to have the best effect for your bathroom ventilation. The size and strength of your bathroom exhaust fan may vary depending on the size of your bathroom and how far the air must be re-routed to reach the outdoors. There are a variety of bathroom exhaust solutions to choose from, some with a light, others with just the fan, quiet, loud, you name it! What matters the most, though, is finding a bathroom exhaust fan that will provide you with the adequate recommended air changes per hour, and that will keep your bathroom nice and dry as to prevent any mold or mildew from collecting on damp surfaces.

To learn more about how important proper bathroom ventilation is to your home and your health, read more in HomeAire’s Bathroom Ventilation Solutions section or have a look at some of the bathroom exhaust products that we offer in the HomeAire Store. Our brands are Energy Star Certified and include products such as Panasonic Bathroom Fans, NuTone Bathroom Fans, and our own Spruce inline fans.

Not everyone who comes in contact with mold reacts adversely to it, which is what makes it difficult for the government to issue regulations on specific mold levels. Whether you know you are sensitive to mold or not, it’s always better to be safe than sorry. Black mold can cause a condition called Black Mold Poisoning. Molds and other chemicals or synthetic materials can release particles into the air called VOCs – volatile organic compounds. These contaminants, while not always dangerous in small amounts, can be very toxic to breathe in larger quantities and can often be found in items like new carpeting, paints, cleaners, and other chemicals. Mold releases VOCs as it breaks down materials to feed. Mold can also release particles called mycotoxins into the air. Like VOCs, these particles are also dangerous if breathed in large quantities, or if consumed by eating a moldy piece of food.

As we mentioned before, there are many molds that can appear to be very dark green or black at first glance, and it’s important to recognize that not all molds that look black are actually the "black mold" that we’re talking about – Stachybotrys chartarum. You don’t need to remember the scientific name for this mold, but there are some important black mold symptoms to watch for.  If you suspect your home has black mold, click here to contact a professional.

Continue below to find out the symptoms that you need to be aware of.

Black mold symptoms may include:

Anxiety
Headaches
Cough
Skin and eye irritation
Nausea
Memory loss
Fatigue
Dizziness
Trouble Concentrating
Asthma
Irregularity in blood pressure
Memory loss
Shortness of breath
Abdominal pain
Numbness or pain in extremities
Mood swings
Fibromyalgia

For these and more symptoms, see Allergyscape and this Toxic Mold article from Buzzle.  

If you have mold in your home and are experiencing any of these symptoms, it’s important to get in touch with your doctor and to isolate the mold problem and eradicate it from your home. Many mold problems can be self-treated, but you may need to hire a professional, depending on the severity. The best way to avoid mold problems is to stop mold growth before it begins by making sure your home is properly ventilated to prevent the moisture molds love. Here are links to black mold solutions like room ventilation fans, active dampness control, and whole house indoor air quality solutions.

1. It’s all about moisture. Mold can’t grow in dry climates, so if you took a shower and didn’t use an exhaust fan, or spilled something on your carpet and didn’t adequately soak it up and dry it, you could be asking for trouble.

2. Two days is all it takes. Materials that stay damp or wet for over 48 hours provide plenty of time for mold to start growing and creating a problem.

3. You don’t need to be "tested" for mold. Unlike radon, which requires testing in the home due to its unnoticeable properties as a colorless, odorless and flavorless gas, mold requires no special testing to find out if you have it. Generally if you have an overgrowth, you’ll know! Testing can be performed if you’re unsure, but it can be expensive and the warning signs of visible colonies, ‘water damage’, and musty odors are generally enough to indicate a problem.

4. You might get sick or you might not. Mold can cause drastically varying reactions in different people depending on their sensitivity and predisposition for mold allergies and reactions. Some people may get bronchial infections or asthma attacks where others remain completely unaffected. This difference is what has made it difficult to devise safety regulations concerning mold growth. 

5. Not all black mold is ‘black mold’. Remember that nasty picture from one of our previous mold posts? That was toxic "black mold", Stachybotrys chartarum. It’s known for causing respiratory problems and other serious reactions due to overexposure. Many molds may appear to be black or otherwise dark in color, but not all are technically this dangerous black mold.

Are you ready to take action against mold in your home or apartment? If so, find some solutions that can prevent you from having a mold problem for as little as $54.95.

Continue this entry below to read the rest of the list!
 

1. Sometimes you need to throw it out. If porous or fabric surfaces have been soaked in a flood or otherwise damaged by water, it’s often best to dispose of them. Glass or plastic can be saved with a thorough cleaning. 

2. Clean it up. For some mold, you may be able to clean it relatively easily by scrubbing with non-bleach soap, rinsing thoroughly with water and allowing to air dry. After the area is dry, mix a 1/2 cup of bleach per gallon of water solution and disinfect the surfaces where the mold previously was, allowing to thoroughly air dry in order to prevent regrowth.

3. Ventilation is important. Whether you’re cleaning up a moldy area, or trying to prevent mold in the first place, little is more important than adequate ventilation to ensure reduced humidity and clean exchanges of air. 

4. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. It is possible for mold to grow inside the walls of your house near leaky pipes or other humid areas. If you are showing signs of allergic reactions, it may be a good idea to look into what’s between your walls as well as what’s on them.

5. All mold is not created equal. Though you are eating mold in foods like blue cheese, this does not mean that all molds are safe. Even if one part of a piece of fruit is moldy, it is generally unsafe to cut it away and eat the rest. The best policy to go by is if you’re not sure, don’t eat it!

Thanks to these great resources for providing some of the know-how behind this post:

ImmuneSupport.com, AIHA.org, Health.ri.gov