One can be exposed to mold in several ways, such as through skin contact, inhalation and ingestion. When mold is ingested it can lead to disease, such as cancer. Inhaled mold can colonize in the lungs of people who have compromised immune systems. Rashes can develop from mold coming into contact with skin. These are severe cases however they are not uncommon. Mold allergies are more common though and are often a good indicator that there is mold within the home. Allergies can present themselves as sneezing, congested nose, itchy eyes, ears and throat, chronic cough and difficulty breathing. If left untreated, mold allergies can develop into more severe problems such as Allergic Bronchopulmonary Aspergillosis (ABPA) and asthma.

Even if your home has not experienced a water related disaster, it is still possible for mold to grow over time from continual moisture exposure. Certain areas of your home are more vulnerable to moisture collection so it is important to keep an eye on these areas. They include closets, carpets, trash cans, cabinets underneath sinks, air conditioner units, washing machines, foam pillows and the basement. The bathroom can also be very susceptible to mold growth, even just from splashed water from the shower collecting over time. Properly ventilating your bathroom is one way to help prevent mold growth. Other ways to prevent mold growth is to never store damp clothes in dressers or closets, use a dehumidifier to keep humidity low, use paint with a mold inhibitor, use mold killing cleaning products in the bathroom and use exhaust fans in the kitchen and bathroom to reduce moisture. If you’re ever unsure how to remove mold or if your home has experienced water damage and is in danger of mold damage, contact a professional water damage restoration and mold remediation service to keep your home in healthy condition.

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.
• However, in the last few years studies have shown that asthma is due more to environmental factors than it was previously believed. There is a link between exposure to black mold in early life and the development of asthma later on.
• It is difficult to carry out a study on the effect of mold on the development of asthma, but the anecdotal evidence out there is overwhelming. Hopefully in the next few years, a definite link will be established.

Flu Symptoms

• Some varieties of toxic mold can produce flu-like symptoms. This includes nausea, fever and headaches. It is difficult to diagnose as black mold poisoning, however, because it could be so many other things.
• Toxic mold spores can cause problems for any part of the body, including the digestive tract. We usually think of mold having an effect on breathing, but spores enter the body through the respiratory system. From there, the microtoxins can go anywhere.

Mental Illness

• It is hard to believe that something as seemingly harmless as mold could have an effect on our brains, but it does. Exposure to toxic mold can have neurological effects, as spores enter the body and release toxins into the bloodstream.
• Common symptoms include chronic fatigue, hearing and memory loss, and mild symptoms of dementia. These are symptoms of the very advanced stages of toxic mold poisoning. If someone you know is suffering neurological damage due to toxic black mold exposure, you should seek medical help immediately.
• These symptoms are elusive, and that is why you should make sure your house is mold free. Have your house tested, either by a professional or do it yourself with a mold testing kit from your hardware store. Keeping the mold out of your house will greatly reduce the risk of developing these symptoms of black mold exposure.

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.

In addition to known allergens like mold, tobacco smoke, and dust mites, children’s allergies may also be exacerbated by emissions from composite materials, the chemicals that make plastics flexible, and even paints.

In a paper for the journal Indoor Air, Mendell conducted a review of epidemiologic studies published in scientific journals from 1989 through mid–2006, comprised of 21 studies mostly from outside the United States. These found associations between common indoor materials and increased risk of asthma, pulmonary infections, and allergies in children.

The growing body of research identified specific risk factors including organic chemicals like formaldehyde, benzene, and phthalate esters (the “plasticizers” that make some plastics flexible); indoor materials including carpet, paint, flexible flooring, and other plastics; and various activities related to installing and cleaning these materials indoors.

Mendell is careful to note that “causal relationships have not been demonstrated” in these studies. However, his review of these studies, most of which were conducted in Europe, suggests that U.S. scientists should take a closer look at emissions from indoor materials for their possible effects on children’s health.
Asthma prevalence growing

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the prevalence of asthma in children in the United States increased from 3.6 percent in 1980 to 6.2 percent in 1996. This is an average increase of 4.3 percent per year, a relatively high growth rate that worries health experts. Asthma can be a severe, life-threatening illness; moreover, both allergies and asthma are expensive to individuals and to society. Current science suggests that risk factors for developing asthma include genetic predisposition; specific allergens such as dust mites, cockroaches, and pet dander; moisture and mold; and environmental tobacco smoke. There could be other risk factors, as yet unknown.

A complication for researchers seeking the causes of the asthma growth rate is that while a few risks have been clearly demonstrated, the case for others is weak. “Sufficient evidence of a causal relationship” is the CDC’s strongest level of evidence; “sufficient evidence of an association” and “limited evidence of an association” are weaker. The CDC also draws a distinction between factors that cause a condition, such as the development of asthma, and those that exacerbate an existing condition, for example by triggering asthma attacks.

In an authoritative report published in 2000, the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, concluded that there is sufficient evidence for a causal relationship between the development of asthma in susceptible children and exposure to house dust-mite allergen. The report also concluded that there is sufficient evidence of an association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and development of asthma in younger children, a statement strong enough to suggest that parents should protect children from exposure to tobacco smoke. Except for environmental tobacco smoke, however, the CDC currently does not recognize association of chemical agents encountered in the home with asthma.
Building materials are emitters

“The most frequently identified risk factors related to indoor residential chemical emissions include formaldehyde or formaldehyde-emitting particleboards, plasticizers or plastic materials, and recent painting,” says Mendell.

Some common household substances and materials emit chemicals like those diagrammed here, including formaldehyde, benzene, phthalate esters, polyvinyl chloride, polyurethanes, and epoxy resins.

Pressed wood products include particleboard, medium density fiberboard, interior plywood, and interior hardwood paneling. The urea-formaldehyde resin within them releases formaldehyde over time. So do other indoor sources, including tobacco smoke, varnishes, paints, and carpets. Moisture on building materials can also accelerate the release of airborne formaldehyde. Painting and freshly painted surfaces release various volatile organic compounds into indoor air.

Formaldehyde emissions and particleboard were associated with asthma, chronic bronchitis, and other respiratory symptoms. Phthalate plasticizers, or the presence of phthalate-containing surface materials such as polyvinyl chloride or vinyl, as well as painting and other room renovation, were also associated in various studies with asthma, allergy, and respiratory symptoms.

The studies that examined indoor material emissions differed widely in design and focus, says Mendell. Their methods varied from measuring actual chemical concentrations of indoor air or dust to simply observing the presence or absence of materials that emit organic chemicals. Thus there is a need for more rigorously controlled research to eliminate possible confounding factors; for example, other unmeasured factors could be the real explanation for the findings in some studies.

“Future studies will have to carefully measure formaldehyde and other chemicals indoors,” says Mendell. “They will need to determine whether it’s a specific chemical such as formaldehyde that causes the association, or some other emission that is always associated with the presence of that chemical. Formaldehyde emissions, for example, are known to come from particle board, but this material also emits other chemicals.”

One chemical compound, or several working together, could be the cause of health conditions. Still, when all the studies are taken together, and considering both their strengths and weaknesses, “it is hard to imagine what else could explain these findings that is not related to indoor chemical emissions,” Mendell says.

Mendell has been studying the associations between health and indoor environmental factors throughout his career. As an epidemiologist with the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, he studied the indoor factors associated with “sick building syndrome,” a set of respiratory and other symptoms among workers in office buildings. Detailed by the CDC to Berkeley Lab in 2000, he continued to work on those issues and ultimately joined the staff of the Lab’s Indoor Environment Department.

“I believe that studying health impacts of the indoor environment is one of the most important directions for building science,” he says. Most employed people work indoors and indeed spend most of their lives indoors, yet the health effects of the indoor environment are not well understood. Berkeley Lab’s Indoor Environment Department is one of the few research groups in the U.S. currently doing research in this field.

It was while considering literature relating indoor environments and respiratory health effects in children that Mendell noticed the large number of papers from outside the United States that seemed to implicate emissions from building materials. After carefully reviewing the available evidence, he says, “These studies justify conducting further research in this area, especially where the evidence is strongest — as with formaldehyde at levels commonly found in homes.”
What should concerned parents do?

Currently there is not, in the CDC’s phrase, “sufficient evidence of a causal relationship” between respiratory problems in children and building-material emissions. Yet some parents may want to take steps to minimize risks to their children before a scientific consensus on this question has formed. What are reasonable steps to take?

Strategies to reduce possible risks from chemical emissions include using natural bedding like feathers, which also harbor fewer dust mites, plus furniture made of real wood and flooring of real wood or authentic linseed-oil-based linoleum.

“I would think twice before repainting an infant’s nursery or using pressed wood products in children’s rooms,” says Mendell. “Also, in the case of an asthmatic child, I would avoid wrapping the child’s mattress in a vinyl product.”

Wrapping a child’s mattress and pillows is often recommended as a control measure to minimize factors that exacerbate asthma, because dust mites and other organisms known to be associated with biological risk factors tend to take up residence there. However, some of these wrappings are made of vinyl that emits phthalates over time, and the emissions could pose respiratory health risks to children.

Despite the common practice of providing children at risk for asthma with synthetic pillows and comforters, synthetic bedding has been consistently associated with greater occurrence of respiratory health effects than natural bedding like feathers. It is not yet clear if this is due to chemical emissions from synthetic bedding or to the enormously higher growth rate of dust mites in synthetic bedding than in feather bedding — a surprising finding, yet one demonstrated by substantial research.

Parents could also avoid putting particleboard furniture into children’s rooms. Particleboard is sometimes covered in wood-grained vinyl in an attempt to reduce formaldehyde emissions, and the extensive use of these materials in mass-produced furniture means extra work for parents looking for furniture free of them. Alternatives are available, however.

Mendell also suggests choosing alternatives to PVC flooring for children’s rooms — for example, real wood or authentic linoleum. Product selection can be tricky. For instance, most bamboo flooring, widely promoted as a “green” flooring material, contains the same formaldehyde-releasing glue as particleboard. Some manufacturers of bamboo, however, use the non-formaldehyde-emitting glues required for all composite wood products sold in Europe and Japan. The U.S. has not placed the same emphasis on controlling indoor emissions for health.

Mendell’s hope is that further research in the U.S. will quantify these health risks to children, and to adults as well, helping guide informed consumers to take health-protecting actions.

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.

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

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.

As far as management for the building being aware of the issue, well they have had a copy of my mycologist reports since last year’s testing took place. What I have come to find out, is this mold issue has been in the building and problems a lot longer than I rented from them and nothing but washing a few apartment walls and repainted was called the remediation. Only one apartment recently that had some molds coming out of the walls, well the painters came in, cut out portions of the walls, took out portions of the insulation, put portions of new wall board and new pieces of insulation, painted and that was their remediation. On this particular occasion, when I had walked down this hallway, there was a big gray cart with the moldy wall pieces laying on the top. Yes, this sent me back into urgent care being treated for yet another overwhelming hit.

Although, I can’t say that any of my days are great, since still living in the toxic building that consists of disabled/handicapped and elderly people. I have asked over and over, why doesn’t anyone take this story to the media, well I have tried and turned heads is what I got. Although I must add that one television station almost took the story, but backed down before coming with the reasoning that the editors just decided not to take the story. Is it because it is a HUD subsidized building complex, who knows. These people know it just isn’t the few of us that have medical documentation to prove our illness, but what if the entire 300 or so people from the two buildings got sick, and I bet some are and don’t even acknowledge that it is caused from the molds.

A recent meeting a few months back, with the vice president of management confirmed their were others that had complained about the molds issues for a few years, (both buildings), how does this slip by and noting is actually done except for the painters or on staff maintenance man trying to remediate molds problems in the walls or the HVAC system.

My health has deteriorated so much, not ever having a respiratory illness before, now having asthma, COPD, RAD, Bronchitis, skin rash, shortness of breath, cough, raspy voice, chest tightness, heaviness in the chest, fibromyalgia that has exacerbated, the list just goes on and on. The many medications including nebulizer treatments, inhalers, oxygen tank, and many pills….there is just no end. I cant have a life, I am always to exhausted even to play with my little grand-daughters let alone do anything else. My children are seeing their mother deteriorate before their very eyes, I am only fifty and feel like I am 100. It just never ends….I don’t want to die from this,but with the project housed voucher from HUD, I can’t rent any where else.

What happens to the 300 people between both buildings. We all are not safe here. Who will help us speak out, after all we could die from these toxins. Here is little of what is happening with the toxins that are affecting us here. I would like to help in getting more stories out by putting them on my oped news, and on Myspace with some others. If I can help by putting these stories out there, please feel free to email me stories at dsb06 at yahoo dot com or send them to http://www.myspace.com/fightdeadlytoxins

I want to be involved by helping others get their tragic stories out more into the public eyes. We need to be heard, and if the only way I can be heard is through the internet sharing my story, I hope others will let me post their stories as well. This is a national health crisis, and needs more attention from all of us.

Thanks Darlene for sharing your story! If you have a story you would like to see published please submit it into the comments of any post and we will publish it. Lets get the word out.

Toxic mold syndrome — illnesses caused specifically by exposure to mold — continues to cause public concern despite a lack of evidence that supports its existence, researchers explain in the September issue of the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Several critical reviews have failed to find scientific support for toxic effects from breathing in mold spores as a viable mechanism of human disease, they add.

One of the most dramatic changes brought about by the union of the organizations is the change to theeducation and certification programs. IAQA is now responsible for all training and education programs, and AmIAQ is the recommended and endorsed certification body for IAQA members. The prestigious Council of Engineering & Scientific Specialty Boards (CESB) recently accredited the AmIAQ Councilcertified Indoor Environmental Consultant (CIEC) designation. IAQA conducts Indoor Environmental Quality education courses that prepare candidates seeking AmIAQ certification. This accreditation of the certification program, and the separation of training from certification, is unique amongst all organizations that specifically deal with IAQ issues.

“The goal to have a clear separation between training and certification is accomplished,” said Joe Hughes, chairman of IAQA’s Education Committee. This new position for IAQA brings an unsurpassed level of professionalism and credibility that will further the certified members’ abilities to accurately and effectively provide services to the public.

Three major educational and certification tracks are either online or in the final stages of consolidation. They include Indoor Environmental Quality Consulting, Microbial consulting/Investigation, and Microbial Remediation. Highly qualified trainers offer these courses across the country to bring this important training directly to those IAQ professionals that aspire to reach the highest level of professionalism in their respective fields. More than 100 IAQA education courses are scheduled in 2006. “The training tracks are the most professional that I have seen and will surely benefit not only the IAQ professionals involved but also any person or company faced with preventing, investigating, or mitigating an IAQ problem,” said Glenn Fellman, executive director of IAQA.

IAQ professionals and those involved with hiring professionals to handle IAQ situations can learn more about the training, certification, and what professional designations to look for by visiting www.iaqa.org.

About IAQA
The Indoor Air Quality Association (IAQA) was established in 1995 to promote uniform standards,
procedures and protocols in the Indoor Air Quality industry. IAQA is the nation’s largest IAQ trade association with over 5,500 members and 41 local chapters. The association is a non-profit, 501(c)(6) organization.