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.

“We thought that once we statistically accounted for factors that could clearly contribute to depression – things like employment status and crowding – we would see any link vanish,” said Shenassa, the lead author of the study and an associate professor in the Department of Community Health at Brown. “But the opposite was true. We found a solid association between depression and living in a damp, moldy home.”

Shenassa noted the study, an analysis of data from nearly 6,000 European adults, does not prove that moldy homes cause depression. The study wasn’t designed to draw that direct conclusion. However, Shenassa’s team did find a connection, one likely driven by two factors. One factor is a perceived lack of control over the housing environment. The other is mold-related health problems such as wheezing, fatigue and a cold or throat illness.

“Physical health, and perceptions of control, are linked with an elevated risk for depression,” Shenassa said, “and that makes sense. If you are sick from mold, and feel you can’t get rid of it, it may affect your mental health.”

The study was a statistical analysis of data from the Large Analysis and Review of European Housing and Health Status (LARES), a survey on housing, health and place of residence conducted in 2002 and 2003 by the World Health Organization (WHO). To conduct the survey, WHO interviewers visited thousands of homes in eight European cities and asked residents a series of questions, including if they had depressive symptoms such as decreased appetite, low self-esteem, and sleep disturbances. WHO interviewers also made visual checks of each household, looking for spots on walls and ceilings that indicate mold.

Shenassa’s team analyzed LARES data from 5,882 adults in 2,982 households.

“What the study makes clear is the importance of housing as indicator of health, including mental health,” Shenassa said. “Healthy homes can promote healthy lives.”

Shenassa and his team are conducting follow-up research to see if mold does, indeed, directly cause depression. Shenassa said that given the results of the current study, he wouldn’t be surprised if there is a cause-and-effect association. Molds are toxins, and some research has indicated that these toxins can affect the nervous system or the immune system or impede the function of the frontal cortex, the part of the brain that plays a part in impulse control, memory, problem solving, sexual behavior, socialization and spontaneity.

The research team includes Allison Liebhaber, a former Brown undergraduate; Constantine Daskalakis of Thomas Jefferson University; Matthias Braubach of WHO; and Mary Jean Brown of the Harvard School of Public Health.

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.

A potentially harmful mold was found on the Kaliste Saloom Road campus March 31, and at least seven students have tested positive for exposure to a toxin that the kind of mold found at Plantation can produce called trichothecene. The test used on the children is not FDA-approved.

An expert in the field, Linda K. May, will conduct the meeting to help parents find answers. May is an accredited instructor of the OSHA Training Institute and is certified by the Environmental Protection Agency.
She has been dealing with hazardous environment sites for more than 30 years. She spoke briefly to the school board Wednesday night and offered her services.

The school district has test results from a March 31 testing that show one of the three rooms tested had high levels of Stachybotrys mold, which is referred to often as black mold or toxic mold.

The school cleaned the room where Stachybotrys was found, retested it and found no mold in the air. However, the district never found the source of the mold.

At the urging of parents, the school district later performed campuswide tests, cleaned and then performed more tests. The results of the tests before and after cleaning have not been received by the district.

Questions about mold began in December when the parents of a Plantation student, the Phillibers, contacted the district to inform them their son tested positive for a toxin produced by mold called trichothecene. He had been sick since November.

The Phillibers tested their home and when they found no unusual levels of mold in their home asked to test the campus.

In February, after making no headway to gain access to pay for and conduct tests on campus, the Phillibers filed suit to test the school.

Before their hearing, the district told the Phillibers they could test the campus. They and the district tested three rooms March 31.

The Phillibers have not released their test results. However, their attorney has said they found high levels of Stachybotrys in the band room, which is the same room where the district found the mold.

Other parents have said their children have symptoms ranging from vomiting and diarrhea to blurry vision and headaches along with sore throats.

Experts disagree about some of the effects of mold on humans leaving parents with questions about how to care for their children.

Via The Advertiser

The first house opened escrow with a full-price deal and a full-price back-up offer. The buyer ordered a mold inspection and that black stuff with the unpronounceable name turned up in the remodeled kitchen and bathroom. The sellers cited an as-is clause in the purchase contract and refused to remediate the mold. The buyer walked away $1,000 poorer.

The sellers then immediately sold the house at full price to the second buyer. Did the seller and the seller’s agent conveniently forget to disclose the mold? Did the seller credit the buyer the cost of remediation or did the buyer just not care that the house was potentially toxic?

The second house opened escrow around the same time, but months later still has a for-sale sign in the front yard. The house is vacant and swathed in plastic sheeting, workers have been going into and coming out of the house with huge fans and other mold-remediation equipment and someone is suing someone else over the deal, according to an agent who listed another house on the same block.

It’s all been very intriguing and entertaining for my parents and their neighbors–aside from the very worrisome reality that the toxic stuff might be lurking in their houses too.
– Marcie Geffner from the Inman News Blog

Read the rest of the article here.

Amy has worked hard to make the house Habit for Humanity built for her five years ago a home. Landscaping has been done. Small ceramic and concrete figures stood post in a bed of woodchips.

There was evidence of children. A purple-and-pink pogo stick and a plastic pump-action toy shotgun sat on the patio next to a couple of chairs.

But the inside of the West home was another matter. The family was in the middle of a chaotic, unplanned move. There was no place to sit in the living room. Boxes, blankets, sheets and articles of clothing covered the couch and recliner chair.

The Wests’ move could be called an evacuation. Their home is infested with mold.

“It must have been about three weeks ago that I first noticed the stain on the ceiling,” Amy said.
She pointed to a portion of the ceiling in the kitchen. Spots that resembled black oil sat in the middle of a light brown stain.

“At first, it was just a light brown spot on the ceiling,” Amy said. “There is an attic crawlspace up there and it looked like water had leaked through the roof and was coming through the ceiling.”

Jeremy opened the attic hatch door and immediately knew they were dealing with more than just a leaky roof.

“Jeremy went up there and shined a flashlight in,” Amy said. “The first thing he said was ‘We’re in trouble.’ He saw the mold.

“I started freaking out.”

Dangerous mold

Amy’s concerns turned out to be well-founded after she called in Randy Stufflebeem, a mold specialist for Be Sure Environmental Services.

“I was there to do air sampling and testing,” Stufflebeem said. “When I walked into the home, I saw the black stains on the ceiling in the kitchen.”

The black spots are stachybotrys.

“Stachybotrys is called ‘black mold’ or ‘toxic mold.’ It is not a good thing,” Stufflebeem said. “Stachybotrys carries microtoxins that can be poisonous if they are inhaled.”
The toxins stachybotrys carry can cause all kinds of illnesses and even damage the structural integrity of cells.

Stufflebeem’s samples were sent to ProLab in Florida. The results that came back, according to Stufflebeem, went “way beyond the pale.”

“The raw count in the home was 848,” Stufflebeem said. “For comparison, a raw count of 1 of stachybotrys is considered elevated.”

Stufflebeem said a number of factors were present in the Wests’ home that made mold growth possible.

“I can’t tell exactly what happened structurally,” he said. “But when I went into the crawlspace under the house, I sunk in mud. It is very wet. And the dryer vent empties into the crawl space. That’s warm, moist air being pumped in there every time someone used the dryer.”

Stufflebeem said the attic area looked bad.

“As I crawled into the attic, it just got worse and worse,” he said.

Help from Habitat?

Amy West said she isn’t “out to get Habitat for Humanity.”

“This house was built for me by Habitat for Humanity about five years ago and I really appreciate it,” Amy said. “I wouldn’t have ever been able to have a home if it was for Habitat.

“That’s why I feel so bad now. I appreciate everything they have done for me in the past, but I feel left alone on this now.”

Jeremy and Amy said they contacted the Rev. James Ecklund, director of Habitat for Humanity of Knox County, and explained the mold problem.

Ecklund said Habitat for Humanity will do everything within its power to help the Wests.

Habitat for Humanity of Knox County started building homes in 1993 and has averaged three projects a year. The 35th home was dedicated last week, home No. 36 is under construction and work on No. 37 recently began.

Habitat for Humanity in Knox County has never encountered a mold problem in any of its homes, but the Warren County chapter had to remediate a home in the past year. Habitat for Humanity in Warren County bought out the mortgage of the family that lived in the home and a new family is living in the house.

“We don’t want to just leave Amy and her family with this problem,” Ecklund said. “This is not an easy situation for anyone. We will bend over backwards to help them.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is that Habitat is in a unique situation. We are the builders, but the people we build for own the home. The owners pay a 20-year, interest-free mortgage,” Ecklund said.

So far, the Wests have received $319 from Habitat’s maintenance fund. Amy has been contributing to the fund since she moved into the home.

The Wests already have paid $490 to have the house inspected. They will have bills for medical tests and relocation costs.

The bills are mounting and the Wests have no idea how they will pay for them while they search for a new home.

“Our insurance won’t cover the damage or the repair,” Jeremy said. “They found that it was a structural problem with the house and the house wasn’t damaged.”

Jeremy said his insurance company said a flaw in the construction caused the structural problem. Stufflebeem estimated the cost to fix the mold problem started at $30,000.

“It’s the cost of another home,” he said. “We can’t get a loan to buy a house. Where are we going to get the money to fix this one?”

Ecklund knows the Wests need answers now.

“Amy and Jeremy and their family need to move fast,” Ecklund said. “But it is a situation where we can’t move as fast. We’re looking at a major financial issue and we are trying to help them figure out how to solve it.”

An answer could be provided by Habitat for Humanity of Knox County’s insurance agent. On Friday, Ecklund said Habitat is working with its insurance agent to determine what can be done with the house.

Health concerns

Amy’s sons, 7-year-old Cameron and 9-year-old Austin, moved to their grandmother’s March 9.

Jeremy’s daughter, 5-year-old Brenna, splits time at her mother’s house. She is there for the duration.

Stufflebeem said the stachybotrys mold is toxic and can cause an array of health issues, from sore throats and headaches to hair loss, general malaise.

According to Amy, the boys tested positive for the presence of mold in their blood.

Amy now looks back at her sons’ history of health issues and can’t help but wonder if the mold in her house was the cause or a contributing factor.

“The boys have had illnesses – mainly things associated with sinus and allergies,” Amy said. “Austyn had to see a pediatric neurologist because of headaches and Cameron does get bloody noses quite a bit. And Cameron had a fungal infection around his bottom. I’ve learned that mold can cause fungal skin infections.

“Now I’m left to wonder. And I wonder if there will be health issues down the line for our family.”

Stufflebeem said he wasn’t surprised West’s children have had health issues.

“Not everyone reacts to stachybotrys exposure in the same way,” he said. “But kids, older people and people with compromised immune systems are especially susceptible.

“I think this story is extremely troubling. Let’s put it this way: If I lived in that house on First Street, my family would not be in it right now.”

The future is as much a question as the present. The Wests said there is no resolution in sight.

“We’re living with my mom right now,” Amy said. “I don’t know where I’m going to live. And I don’t know how I’m going to live.

“Right now, we just don’t know what to do.”

Then a few of my friends started asking me questions. Had I left the wall oven long enough to let the area behind it really dry, they wanted to know? Had I sprayed behind the wall with bleach to kill mold spores? Why didn’t I get an expert to make sure that mold wasn’t growing back there, ready to wreck my property and my investment?

I thought they were crazy. It sounded like paranoid nonsense to me. And luckily, I dodged the bullet, because I never had a problem with mold growing behind that wall. But a year later when I happened to be in western Canada, I saw dozens of homes boarded up because of mold damage. And that scared the heck out of me and made me see that mold really can wreck a property.

Read the rest of the article here.

For most of us our home is our castle. But for more than 20 million Americans, invisible house guests can be the cause of year round allergy symptoms such as sneezing, coughing, runny nose or congestion, and dry, scaling, skin.
Uninvited Allergens

Homes everywhere in the world are full of two uninvited, but common allergens (generally harmless substances that can cause allergic reactions), dust mites and mold.

Dust mites are tiny spiders that can only be seen with a microscope. Household dust is a dust mite’s castle. Their favorite room is the bedroom where they feed on the large portion of the skin flakes we shed. They love warm and humid air. The thousands of mites that inhabit just a pinch of dust leave up to 200 times their body weight in waste. This waste contains a protein that is an allergen for many people.

Molds also thrive in humidity. Bathrooms, kitchens and basements are their comfort zones. Household mold and mildew produce microscopic spores (seeds) that are released when humidity is high. These spores are allergens that can cause hay fever-like symptoms when they attach themselves to the lining of the nose. If the spores reach the lungs they can cause asthma and other serious illnesses.
Can You Evict These Intruders?

It is impossible to be completely rid of dust mites and difficult to entirely wipe out household mold. However, with an aggressive approach you can minimize their effects. Similar measures for the two allergens are:

Keep the humidity in your home below 50% for dust mites and ideally at about 35% for mold.
When using dehumidifiers, drain them regularly to clean the condensation coils and bucket.
Wash bedding weekly in water that is at least 130′ F to remove dust mites and the potential for mold created by perspiration.

Other Effective Actions You Can Take:
For Dust Mites

* Use allergen-impermeable covers on your mattress and pillows, being sure to tape over zippers.
* Remove the bedspread at night.
* Remove carpets from the bedroom.
* Use plastic or washable materials for window coverings.
* Put clothes in plastic bags in the closet.
* Use a damp mop or cloth when you clean or dust.
* Ask someone without dust mite allergies to dust and vacuum and stay away from the area until the stirred up dust can settle.
* If you must dust or vacuum, wear a filtering mask.
* Look into special filters for vacuums that reduce the amount of mite waste that can re-circulate into the air.
* If you must have floor coverings in other areas of the house, low pile carpets that are frequently steam cleaned are preferable to a deep pile. However, hardwood floors, tile or linoleum, are easier to clean. Area throw rugs can be easily washed in hot water.

For Molds

* Reduce dampness in the bathroom by installing an exhaust fan or keep the window open whenever possible.
* Repair plumbing leaks immediately.
* Remove bathroom carpeting.
* Scour sinks and tubs regularly. You can use laundry bleach (dilute one ounce in a quart of water) for problem areas.
* Clean garbage pails often.
* Clean the refrigerator drip pan and the gaskets on the door.
* If your bedding is made with polyurethane or rubber foam, it should be covered in plastic or replaced with other materials.
* Your old books, newspapers, bedding and clothes should be recycled or thrown away.
* Houseplants can form mold so check them often or keep them outdoors.
* Make sure ground water drains away from your house.
* Add a HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filter attachment to your central air conditioner to help trap spores before they reach you. Your air conditioner should also be cleaned regularly.

Consider Immunotherapy

If these anti-dust mite and mold measures don’t reduce your symptoms, talk to your doctor about immunotherapy (allergy shots). Minuscule amounts of the offending allergens are injected regularly over a 2 to 5 year span. The amount of the allergen extract is gradually increased, building your tolerance over time. As the treatment progresses you may find your sensitivity to the specific allergen reduced and your reactions becoming milder. Your symptoms may even disappear.

DUDLEY— A local family has gone from exile from a home condemned for its toxic mold infestation to finalists for the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” show on ABC-TV.

Jason and Jennifer Jakubowski and their three children met yesterday with the show’s representatives from ABC.

“Originally, they started off with a thousand families who applied from Massachusetts and out of the 1,000, they’ve narrowed it down to 20,” Mr. Jakubowski explained. “We’ve been chosen as one out of 20. From 1,000, one out of 20 is not bad.”

After being interviewed at the home of relatives in Oxford, the Jakubowskis took a ride to their condemned home at 169 Klondike Road and led the “Extreme Makeover” casting agent and camera person from Los Angeles on a tour inside and out. Waiting for them in the frigid cold for nearly four hours were family, friends and neighbors.

A nomination video of testimony in support of the family’s application was shot yesterday. It will be used by the show’s producers to decide whether the Jakubowskis’ story has what it takes to make the final cut. If so, some of the footage might make its way onto a Massachusetts edition of the TV show.

“We are excited,” Mr. Jakubowski said. “We’re trying not to get our hopes up. We’re trying to be real about it.”

In October, the Jakubowskis and their three children, Jacob, 9, Clair, 6, and Lily, 10 months, were forced by the extensive toxic mold to abandon their one-story ranch home and most of their personal possessions.

They had bought the home in September 2005. A month after they moved in, they started getting sick. It was common for everyone in the house to have cold or flu symptoms, Mr. Jakubowski said.

Richard Power of the Worcester-based Commonwealth Environmental Services was called in October 2006 about possible mold problems in the house. He said he found the worst case of mold exposure he has ever seen in a house where a family is actually living.

Mr. Power said he saw extensive growth of mold spores throughout the property, the attic and the basement, as well as on the family’s clothing and footwear. The family abandoned their dream home, leaving behind their possessions to be destroyed as well.

“It’s a young family starting out, trying to do the right thing, raise their children properly, and unfortunately they got knocked down, and somebody needs to help pick them up by their bootstraps and set them back on the right path,” Mr. Power said yesterday. “And there is no way individually they can overcome this.”

Martha Kneizys, microbiology laboratory director at the Woburn-based Pro-Science Services, took mold samples from the premises Oct. 12. She found the spore count so high the data were coming up as TNTC or “too numerous to count.”

A 500-spore mold count or higher is a level worthy of concern. The sample from the house with the lowest mold spore count totaled 11,600.

“The family needed to be nominated because anyone that met them, anyone that heard their story, could put themselves in their shoes,” Ms. Kniezys said yesterday. “Looking under the microscope and seeing how much mold they were breathing in every single day, it’s the right thing to do to help this family. And this is an opportunity that they deserve.”

Chilled by the weather but noticeably warmed by the enthusiastic signs of support, the Jakubowskis were met with cheers as they got out of their SUV with two of the show’s representatives.

“It’s been quite the phenomenon,” Mr. Jakubowski said as he was mobbed by well-wishing neighbors, as though he were a celebrity.

“I’m just very overwhelmed by the support of our community and friends,” Mrs. Jakubowski said. “They helped us out through this whole thing and the support continues. Even though we have ups and downs and we wonder, the support is still there. And it’s great to have a whole community that cares so much.”

Mr. Jakubowski started to fill out the official “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” written and video application, but he never completed it. It turned out that he didn’t have to because he had, unbeknownst to him, plenty of friends and neighbors who truly cared.

“It’s fantastic,” said Mr. Jakubowski, who was notified Friday that he was a finalist. “When they called us, they said most of the applications that they received is from our neighbors. It’s a good feeling to know that our neighbors care that much.”

Whether Ty Pennington will lead his “Extreme Makeover” team of carpenters, contractors, designers and workers to Dudley to transform the Jakubowskis’ toxic mold-infested home into a new dream house, Peter and Ellen Blinn, Mr. Jakubowski’s stepfather and mother, are just thankful for the show of support.

“They said it was one of the better interviews, so we’re encouraged by that,” Mr. Blinn said. “They’re one of the 20 finalists, but we’re realistic that there’s going to be 19 disappointments. So we have to hold our breath and hope for the best.”

“From the past week and from the very beginning, the outpouring of support has just been tremendous from everyone,” Mrs. Blinn said. “It’s just such an encouragement when so much of a struggle is going on. It gives people hope and that hope keeps people going. Even if they are not chosen, they know that they are not alone. And that encouragement is there and that’s a blessing.”