To answer this question, let’s first examine what is happening in our homes.
When a home is new, its indoor air will have about the same “Mold Load” as the outdoor air. What about all those build materials used to construct and finish the home? They will also carry their own mold burden. But how is this possible? The materials are NEW! With our temperate climate, homes are built pretty much year-round in BC. All those build materials that are exposed to the long, wet season will simply become contaminated and those spores dry out while the home reaches its dry in stage.
In other words, the indoor environment has some mold, but nothing is growing or off-gassing toxins, Yet. As a home ages, it naturally has areas in which those spores will find some moisture and some nourishment. Keep in mind that it only requires 60 percent humidity for mold to thrive, and nourishment can be as simple as dust. The locations within the home where the spores exist become small mold and toxin producing factories, if you will, throughout the home. These small mold and spore producing factories are in any number of locations including in the window sills, the drains, the over-fill holes of every sink, clothing, dish cloths, washing machines, HVAC ductwork, bathrooms in general and particularly in the HVAC air conditioning coils. It is the cumulative effect of these many areas that cause the overall “Mold Load” to elevate.
Did you ever wonder why a “grandma and grandpa” house smells like it does? Unlike bacteria and viruses, which have a short life span and will die fairly quickly on a surface, mold and fungus do not. Mold will thrive, become dormant for a time, dry out, and then spore out as a normal part of its existence within the home. As they spore out, more factories are formed or fortified. These additional spores, which number in the millions or trillions, will repeat the cycle. Dried out mold is not dead mold. It’s simply dormant for a time. With the right conditions, these too will grow and spore again and off-gas toxins. The fact that spores do not simply die or dry up is evidenced by homes that are constantly problematic for homeowners. Additionally, we see homeowners move from their homes to escape the mold, only to carry a good portion of the mold and mold toxins with them on their belongings. This quickly adds to the mold load cycle in the new home. It is not uncommon for a doctor to recommend to the patient that they essentially need to move away and leave all their belongings behind. This is called “walk out naked” in the mold industry. This can be found in many mold toxicity books and courses. Mold spores do adhere to objects . Interestingly, an article from the National Geographic titled “ Egypts, King Tut's Curse” tells of the attendees at the opening of the Pharaohs tomb becoming sick and one died. It was originally believed that there was some supernatural curse in play. Only recently it was discovered that ancient mummies do indeed carry mold including at least two dangerous species of Aspergillus; both of which cause allergic reactions ranging from congestion to bleeding in the lungs.
The bottom line is that mold gets worse within a home every day, and the mold load in everyone’s home will be higher next week than it is today. It will be higher next year than it is this year. The changes in the building industry the past 50 years have made this a reality.
With this background, you can see that a leak or flood is not necessarily the genesis of the mold issue, and in fact, the mold associated with the leak or flood is often, simply a manifestation of an already elevated mold loadwithin the home. Additionally, to think that any company can come into a home that has elevated mold, and pick just one spot within the home to treat, and contain that area just flies in the face of common sense. For example, let’s assume a basement is flooded and a wall or two becomes wet and moldy. A traditional and quite senseless approach is to contain said wall or room, with plastic and duct tape, dry out the room, remove damaged portions, rebuild, and run air scrubbers within the plastic and the duct tape. Then they may or may not do an air quality test within the plastic. I submit that this test does not determine the health of the home, but only tests the effectiveness of the air scrubbers within the plastic.
A number of questions come to mind with this approach.
1. Who instructed ALL of the mold within the home to all go to the wet wall in the basement?
2. Who told the mold on the wall in the basement to stay there until the disaster company can put plastic and duct tape around the room?
3. Who tells the mold that is on the employee of the disaster company, to jump off of his clothes only when he or she is within the contained area so that the rest of the home is not cross-contaminated?
Clearly this is all ridiculous, however; the point is that the mold was likely already elevated within the home before the flood and only got worse with the flood. To treat only the wet and moldy area, then test within a contained area and report that the home is now safe is not only disingenuous, but it is DANGEROUS. The homeowners trust that the remediation company is being honest, and their home is now mold free. This “report” is then presented to their healthcare provider, and mold is “ruled out” as the potential toxin making them sick. This false report, causes the homeowner and the healthcare provider to look elsewhere and delays or completely eliminates the opportunity for the patient to recover.
The entire home needs to be addressed to bring it to safe levels and surfaces should be treated within the home to make them a very inhospitable place for mold in the future.
Our commitment is to work with you to return your home to a healthy state.
All Clear Mold & Pathogen Solution's 2 step dry fog system addresses the health of the entire home without introducing your family to further poisons, heavy metals, phenols, and the like. We give your family a fresh start to a healthy home.
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