Stefan McGuire Posted March 10, 2013 Report Posted March 10, 2013 There is some good general information on the EPA's website. I have found that usually a root cause is excessive humidity from within the inside of the structure. http://www.epa.gov/mold/pdfs/moldguide.pdf
Jim Katen Posted March 10, 2013 Report Posted March 10, 2013 . . . I don't buy the argument that exposure to elevated mold spore does not affect the health of a person who is initially healthy. Marc Then provide evidence to back up your assertion.
Mike Lamb Posted March 10, 2013 Report Posted March 10, 2013 . . . High mold spore count CAN make people sick sometimes. Kinda difficult to know where to draw the line sometimes. I'd rather err on the side of caution. . . There's abundant evidence that people can have allergic reactions to mold. There's abundant evidence that people who have problems with their immune system can be infected by mold. There's abundant evidence that people can have toxic reactions after ingesting mold. There's no evidence (that I can find) to back up the assertion that breathing mold, spores, or VOCs from mold in a residential setting can cause any toxic reactions in healthy people. If you know of such evidence, please direct me to it. Find the worst moldy house that you can, pay my standard fee, and I'll be happy to live in it for a month and walk out as healthy as I walked in. I don't buy the argument that exposure to elevated mold spore does not affect the health of a person who is initially healthy. Marc Why can't any credible studies prove this? I need to know before I can ever recommend mold testing. Without any medical science to back this assertion up you are merely falling into a fashionable explanation for a medically unexplained illness. I don't think any objective HI should be doing this.
John Kogel Posted March 11, 2013 Report Posted March 11, 2013 A moldy orange would make me sneeze, I think, but cat dander makes me sneeze, so maybe it's that, or dust mites. Maybe it's moldy dust mites that are covered with cat dander? []
hausdok Posted March 11, 2013 Report Posted March 11, 2013 We here in Washington live in spore central. It never gets too hot for mold here and it rarely gets cold enough here to send it into stasis - it thrives here and grows 24/7/365. Why isn't everyone in this state wearing an oxygen bottle and breathing through one of those little rubber masks? Why aren't the childrens hospitals here filled up with kids living in bubbles? Why is it that I can go into a poor neighborhood, do an inspection on a beater and find a family living with mold surrounding them and when I ask how everyong is doing and do any of them have any sinus problem, headaches, body aches, allergies, etc., most of the time they say they are fine? Why is it that I can go into a well-to-do neighborhood and find some mildew stains on some caulk and the buyers freak out and want to know if the home is "infested with mold." Today I explained all of this to a lady client and then said something like, "I bet I could go to your home right now, take samples, send them to a lab and that home will have as much mold as this home - perhaps more because there is someone living there. Face it, mold is all around us, it's on your clothes, in your hair, stuck to your eyeballs and in your lungs. Got a baby at home - that baby is covered with mold spore. Don't believe me, ask your doctor. If he knows his butt from his elbow he'll tell you I'm right." She thanked me as she shuddered and brushed off the sleeve of her coat and I feigned being choked by the mold she'd dusted toward me. Get real people - the stuff was around before we arrived on the planet. If it were so bad how the hell did we manage to populate the planet? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike
mlparham Posted March 12, 2013 Report Posted March 12, 2013 . . . High mold spore count CAN make people sick sometimes. Kinda difficult to know where to draw the line sometimes. I'd rather err on the side of caution. . . There's abundant evidence that people can have allergic reactions to mold. There's abundant evidence that people who have problems with their immune system can be infected by mold. There's abundant evidence that people can have toxic reactions after ingesting mold. There's no evidence (that I can find) to back up the assertion that breathing mold, spores, or VOCs from mold in a residential setting can cause any toxic reactions in healthy people. If you know of such evidence, please direct me to it. Find the worst moldy house that you can, pay my standard fee, and I'll be happy to live in it for a month and walk out as healthy as I walked in. This would be a yummy home in which to spend a month. Click to Enlarge 60.88 KB
hausdok Posted March 12, 2013 Report Posted March 12, 2013 . . . High mold spore count CAN make people sick sometimes. Kinda difficult to know where to draw the line sometimes. I'd rather err on the side of caution. . . There's abundant evidence that people can have allergic reactions to mold. There's abundant evidence that people who have problems with their immune system can be infected by mold. There's abundant evidence that people can have toxic reactions after ingesting mold. There's no evidence (that I can find) to back up the assertion that breathing mold, spores, or VOCs from mold in a residential setting can cause any toxic reactions in healthy people. If you know of such evidence, please direct me to it. Find the worst moldy house that you can, pay my standard fee, and I'll be happy to live in it for a month and walk out as healthy as I walked in. This would be a yummy home in which to spend a month. Click to Enlarge 60.88?KB Looks kinda like the basement apartment in that triplex I inspected on Sunday. Some guy and his teenage daughter living there. She was in her room doing homework and he was kicked back in front of the telly watching football when I came through. Leaking stop valve under the toilet. Floor wet as hell. All humid and every window closed up tighter than a gnat's ass. Says he's lived there 8 years; there was so much crap in the heaters that it looked like nobody had blown them out in 8 years. Told him one looked like a fire waiting to happen and explained that the front should be taken off of those and they should be blown out twice a year. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "It ain't my job to clean those things out," and went back to watching the game - whatever it was. Looking out a window - that ain't black paint.... Click to Enlarge 41.69 KB The "smoke 'em if you got 'em" heater.... Click to Enlarge 47.7 KB ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike
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