Talk Mold

As I sit here once again and write of how toxic mold has destroyed my quality of life after being affected in February 2006, it saddens me to say that my health has deteriorated that much more. We must as a community of victim’s of these toxin’s, spread awareness, knowledge and support one another in any possible way that we can. There are thousand’s of mold victim’s across the states that need everyone’s help,not just the help of other mold victim’s. We need the medical, political and public to open their eyes, listen with their ears to what we are telling them. Feel free to go on our website’s, or visit our blogs.

I would not ever want to see my loved one’s go through the horror that us mold victim’s experience. Our loved ones experience the turmoil with us, though sometimes not understand to the full extent by them.

When my little grand-daughter of three years old looks up at me and says Gramma, I will take care of you, or Gramma can I sleep over your house. You see, I can not let my grandchildren stay over at Gramma’s house, because Gramma’s house has mold, toxic mold throughout the building by know fault of my own. Will the problem be taken care of, not likely.

As I continue to breath with oxygen, take my nebulizer treatments, take all the medications to help me breath at this stage in my life is like a terrifying nightmare and at sometime I wish I will wake up and it will be gone.

Please feel free to visit my website and join my free forum for awareness, knowledge and support. Pray that this never happens to you or your loved one’s because it takes the once normal life that you had, and turns it completely upside down into horror.

Help support the mold victim’s of the world…spread the word…write to our political arena’s to pass bills that are stalled in congress for air quality regulation’s. For our schools, for our homes, for our workplace.

Darlene’s Website

• 1. Ignoring possible toxic mold health symptoms being experienced by one or more residents or co-workers. Think “mold” if occupants experience unexplained health problems like ongoing itchy eyes, bloody nose, sinus problems, headaches, nose congestion, runny nose, skin rashes, skin sores, coughing, breathing difficulties, memory problems, feeling disconnected, chronic fatigue, and many other mold symptoms.
• 2. Not realizing that perhaps only one or a few occupants may experience toxic mold health symptoms, while others may have none, with all living or working in the same mold-infested area. People differ significantly in their sensitivity and body reaction to mold.
• 3. Not inspecting for mold maintenance problems and toxic mold clues. Inspect your home and workplace regularly for roof leaks, plumbing leaks, water damage, mold smells, visible mold growth, high humidity [above 50 to 60%, and a wet or damp basement, crawl space, or attic.
• 4. Assuming there is no toxic mold problem if there is no visible mold. The worst mold infestation problems are often the ones you cannot see inside floors, ceilings, walls, basement, attic, crawl space, and the heating/cooling equipment and ducts. In addition, airborne mold spores are invisible to the eye.
• 5. Not knowing that new homes and workplaces often have built-in toxic mold infestation from moldy building materials; no builder mold inspection during construction; storing materials on the ground or during construction with no protection against rain, high humidity and ground moisture; and no application of a fungicidal coating to wood building materials.
• 6. Believing that simply drying wet building materials is enough. If toxic mold spores and mold colony growths run out of moisture, they do not die. Instead, mold becomes dormant, patiently waiting for high humidity or a future water leak to resume mold growth. Even dormant mold and its smell can make some mold-sensitive persons sick.
• 7. Not realizing that bleach is ineffective to kill toxic mold on and in porous surfaces like building materials. In addition, bleach is not an EPA-registered fungicide. Find out much more about why mold is inappropriate for mold remediation at http://www.bleach-mold-myth.com
• 8. Using other ineffective products to kill toxic mold—such as paint primers that hide water stains but are inappropriate for mold remediation, regular paint [which mold eats as a snack food, paint containing a mildicide [if used as the sole mold remediation treatment, ammonia, and most other household cleaners and disinfectants.
• 9. Thinking that just spraying something on the toxic mold will take care of the problem. You need to both kill all visible toxic mold growth and invisible mold spores encountered in mold remediation, and remove and discard the mold-damaged building materials. In addition the mold remediation area needs to be protected with a fungicidal coating.
• 10. Not understanding that many mold remediation contractors’ efforts fail because of: (a) failure to find and fix all of the hidden toxic mold infestation locations in a home or workplace due to incomplete and unprofessional mold inspection and mold testing; (b) inadequate worker training; (c)not using effective mold containment procedures and mold remediation techniques; (d) taking shortcuts; and (e) sometimes fraud and dishonesty.

Below are some common symptoms of black mold exposure that are often mistaken.

Chronic Sinus Trouble

• More than 35 million Americans suffer from chronic sinus trouble. This means that you have congestion, runny nose, sinus headaches and other symptoms. You don’t have a cold or hay fever; you just have “bad sinuses.” It’s something genetic that’s been passed down, or a seasonal allergy. Most people leave it at that.
• Recent studies have shown that sinus trouble is almost always caused by environmental factors. And, the number one environmental factor is exposure to black mold.
• Mold releases spores which become airborne. Everyone is allergic to these spores in varying degrees. When you come into contact with airborne spores, they irritate your sinuses and produce these symptoms.

Asthma

• It has traditionally been accepted that asthma was genetic. It seemed that it was passed down from one generation to the next, and if it was in your family tree, you would be more likely to develop it.

Read the rest of this entry »

A groundbreaking public health study, led by Brown University epidemiologist Edmond Shenassa, has found a connection between damp, moldy homes and depression. Results are published in the American Journal of Public Health.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A groundbreaking public health study has found a connection between damp, moldy homes and depression. The study, led by Brown University epidemiologist Edmond Shenassa, is the largest investigation of an association between mold and mood and is the first such investigation conducted outside the United Kingdom.

Shenassa said the findings, published in the American Journal of Public Health, came as a complete surprise. In fact, after a few U.K. studies published in the last decade had suggested a link, Shenassa and his skeptical team set out to debunk the notion that any link existed.
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If you would like to have your mold story posted here please write it within the comments and we will create a page for it. We need to get the word out that mold is a serious issue and the more people know the dangers the better.

From the Science at Berkeley Lab
Contact: Allan Chen, a_chen@lbl.gov

Those factors in the home that cause or exacerbate asthma and allergies in children are not well understood, but scientists agree they include allergens like dust mites, mold, and environmental tobacco smoke.

Mark Mendell, an epidemiologist in Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division, suggests another set of factors worth investigating: emissions from common indoor building and decorating products, such as composite wood materials that emit formaldehyde, flexible plastics that emit “plasticizers,” or even a fresh coat of paint.

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I’m here writing this because there is a part of me that still clings to the hope that my nightmare of toxic mold will one day end. I am only one voice and so far have experienced over and over again, not being heard or being dismissed by doctors, an insurance company, my local health dept, the State Dept of Health, My local Red Cross and numerous other organizations, institutions that all respond with. We don’t deal with issues of toxic mold. My story starts with living and raising my 4 children in my country home that sits on 5 acres that is now uninhabitable. There is an $800+ a month mortgage payment on a house we can’t live in and the insurance company doesn’t cover mold. The cost for remediation is far too costly to afford so the house just sits there while I try to figure out some way to resolve this nightmare.

I can no longer work due to chronic ongoing health problems, COPD, fibromyalsia, emphysema, and I am only 44 years old. I lived for 4 months with an extremely painful rash on my stomach, went to countless doctors begging for help/relief because I had no idea what could be causing this rash. I had biopsies done and were sent to a lab that came back inconclusive. This was after 3 months of getting very little sleep, due to the pain that seemed to get worse each day. When I mentioned the possibility of toxic mold to the dermatologist, he totally dismissed my comment and said that mold doesn’t cause rashes. I have no idea just how many doctors I saw within that four months still unsure what I was dealing with until someone suggested having air testing done after my 7 year old daughter had her first nose bleed at my kitchen sink. This was the last time my daughter stayed in our home. Between the rashes my children would break out in whenever they were in our home and the rash I had that never went away, I had the air and surface testing done and the deadly toxic mold was found under my kitchen sink where my daughter got the nose bleed. There were high levels of mold throughout the house and we had to evacuate our home immediately. The was the second time that I’ve experienced this kind of loss. The first was when my parent’s house burned to the ground and all of our family memories with it. The difference between that experience and this one is that people did reach out then and now after this experience and reaching out for help over and over again with no results it leaves me feeling more helpless, more devastated and broken. Heartbroken, I sit here with a lump in my throat just wanting to go back to the life I knew before all of this when I was raising my children in the only home they have ever known, when I was healthy and could play with the children and could plant in my garden and tend to my home.

To those of you who have experienced the pain and agony and the devastation you feel at having to tell your children that they can no longer live in their home, when you close the door not knowing when if ever you will return and how you are going to financially afford it, my heart goes out to you. I wish I had one answer for us all. I go to my old home and stand outside and grieve with the longing for home, for God to make a way for us to go home. I hope that one day there will be some good to come from this and quite honestly right now I searching for what it could possibly be. I am grateful that we got out of there with our lives because I know there are those who haven’t been as fortunate. The last five years have involved one loss after another starting with my sister and her death from lung cancer, my father being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, a pending divorce, the loss of our home and my health.
At this point I am searching for hope and doing the best I can to cope with life as I know it now.

After in excess of 400 phone calls to get help, I still have received no direction on what to do. I would like believe that there is something I can do, somewhere I can turn to get the help I need and any suggestions would be a blessing. Please, those of you that are feeling the same sadness, frustration, longing to go home know that you are not alone and I am waiting for prayers to be answered.

Thank goodness you are all there and providing info & support on this issue!!

My experience is classic:
On 11/01/06, I leased a HUD/USDA subsidized apartment, and became ill within 3 weeks. Having been exceptionally strong & healthy all of my 52 years, I spent 6 months in an environment that had been water damaged twice (1999 & 2002)w/out remediation. Like everyone else but the wealthy, I have been misdiagnosed medically & psychologically, evicted, homeless, ace losing everything, and am in despair. This is hell on earth, when the EPA, CDC, FEMA, OEMS, etc. are informed but are not taking advocacy stances. I knew the lady who lived in the apartment before me; she passed away in 2006, diagnosed w/emphysema, lung cancer, allergies, also classic. She was a kind, intelligent woman; her suffering was needless. Equally appalling is the refusal to adhere to HUD regulations by the owner & mgmt. agents as well as the Public Housing Authority. This inaction & subsequent evictions, etc. is “Victim Blaming”. When a person is made ill from an environment they did not create & is forced to question their sanity or the reality of the basis for illness, it is CRIMINAL. Times for major rally/lobbying~ I’m e-vailable:januarymoon1@yahoo.com, ready to act & advocate however.

Peace,
Neysa K. Claytor

Thanks you Neysa for sharing your story. If anyone would like to share their mold story please leave a comment and we will post it so everyone can see what a huge problem this really is.

Hi Amy and family,

My name is Jennifer Jakubowski, last October my family and I were told we had to leave our home and throw all our possessions away. Due to toxic mold, so I understand how confused and overwhelmed you are feeling. My husband and I have 3 children, 9, 6, and 1. So the feeling of fear for you children’s health I also understand. The spore count in our house was over 11,600 spores per cubic meter, with over 8 types of dangerous mold present. As your probably aware 500 is considered alarm for serious health issues, and an unsafe living atmosphere. Our baby’s room read (to numerous to count) according to the lab that analyzed the results. We had just bought the house one year prior to that, moving our children out of a busy city. The mold took everything we owned, and infested the entire house, including the frame work, so the whole thing needs to get demolished. I read your story and felt my heart going back to the first few months after we found out. I wish I could tell you it gets easier, however for us it has been 9 months since we found out and we are still homeless. Our insurance also does not cover anything. We are stressed with having to give up our property, which we don’t want to do. However we can not afford to live paying both a mortgage and rent for much longer, as well as trying to get financing to build a new house. We both are working more to pay the difference and are sacrificing time with our family. Though it may seem weird you are blessed that the builder actually is willing to help you in some way. My husband helps build with habitat for humanity even while we don’t have a home. I was glad to read that they are at least trying to help in any way they can. As I’m typing this, I’m not really sure of my point, except that you are not alone, and there are other people who know the loss you are feeling.
Keep you chin up, don’t be angry it doesn’t help, I’ve learned this because for the longest time that was the strongest emotion I felt. And I guess be patient. God will guide you and help doors open to help you. I tell myself these same things every night, waiting for the guidance which I know will come at some point in time. In the meantime all you can do is make decisions on what you feel is right, and pray it all comes together in the end. Also be thankful for the help you do receive. Our community helped us with new clothing and other things, the amount of care from complete strangers was overpowering. And I do believe from this that there is hope, and things will get better. My prayers are with you and your family.

Jennifer Jakubowski

Our dream home that we built has ended up being a NIGHTMARE. The day after closing we had a water leak that the plumber didn’t tighten a supply line. That started the TOXIC MOLD ISSUES. A month later preparing to have a birthday party for a friend of mine I noticed a spot on the ceiling which it ended up storming and caving the ceiling in and MORE toxic mold on the wall. As well as the windows not being sealed or the vents in the attic. Lots of ways to have major mold GROWTH that has Created very serious issues. I had surgery and 2 of the children have had to have surgery and we have to give breathing treatments to a child of ours that never had been sick.

RECOMMEND:
Even if it is new construction hire a inspector, we were told that we didn’t need one due to all the the inspections that we would have to have to get the certificate of occupy. Had
I know that they would just sign off due to new construction I would have done an inspection on our own and the inspector would have found all these problems and we wouldn’t have closed on the house. Now we are stuck in it as we can’t sell it in the shape it is in and we will loose a
lot due to the disclosure laws. I Pray that they will by the house back in the litigation.