Mold –the real dangers and its prevalence

A long time ago, I had heard that Connecticut along the coast had the second highest mold problem in the nation.  I am unable to verify this as a fact, but there is logic around this.

Why, you ask?

1)      Elevation rises rapidly from the coast line, in land, trapping moisture from the Sound,

(550 feet in10 miles).

2)      There are a lot of trees and therefore leaves on the ground, trapping moisture, (even with all the leaf pick-up, they go some where).

3)      Summers, generally are warm and humid, winters, generally are cold and damp.

4)      We are a wet coastline, this is not Southern California.

That all the logic I have.

Now all molds can be hazardous, allergies can kill you.  Mold can kill you; any mold not just the ones that make the news.  Now I happen to be sensitive to mold, I walk into a room with a high concentration and I stop breathing.  Really!

I follow a scientific site out of the UK, http://www.aspergillus.org.uk/updates/AllNewsletters.html

This keeps me updated on all things mold.

Lately there have been a lot of calls on molds.  Many people have spent lots of money testing the air in their homes for molds.  Now, most knew there was mold and now they have a fact.

There is a simple reality that these testing companies do not want you to know:

WHERE THERE IS WATER GETTING INTO A HOME, THERE IS MOLD.

You have a leak in your roof, the ceiling will get wet and grow mold.

You have a window that leaks; there will be black forming around it.  This is mold.

Mold, in order to propagate, produces spores, which are air borne.  You will breathe them in.

Mold is everywhere outside and for it to live inside it likes a nice damp, dark place (sunlight is molds #1 enemy, Clorox is another).

You can kill mold by exposing it to sunlight, removing the moisture and hitting it with Clorox (some precautions about Clorox use in a moment).

If it is growing, it will produce spores that will still affect you, even after it dies. Clorox does destroy those allergens, but produces hydrogen chloride gas in the process, which can be worse.

So when you use Clorox, YOU MUST VENT THE AREA!  Go outside and take an “air” break every few minutes (5 is maximum).  WEAR GLOVES!  USE A MASK! (Still take those air breaks (unless you have an oxygen fed mask, rare for most, not for me).

Make sure that water does not get back in and you will not have the problem again.

One person asked if it can from the drinking water, no it comes from the air.

Another asked about a specific mold type being worse than another, they all can be bad.

Another wanted me to test the black stuff growing around the window to see if it was mold, I would not because it is.

That is all the insight that I have on mold.

We have had a very wet year and mold is liking it!