Guest guest Posted May 6, 2003 Report Share Posted May 6, 2003 Quoting jazzyfamily <jazzyfamily@...>: > Home Depot has a mold test for $10.00. Just follow the directions. Then send the test to the lab with $30.00 and they will send you the results within two weeks. My advice is to buy two kits. One for the air conditioning ducts in your home and the other for visual mold you see on the walls or for the air circulating in your home. I did this at my work place and received the results in 10 days. The descriptions of the mold and their health effects are very detailed in the lab results. You can't go wrong by testing what you are breathing. If you feel you have respiratory problems due to mold inhalation, see a pulmonologist. They are great at detecting asthma or other related problems due to mold exposure. Need any other assistance feel free to e-mail me at: nolans@... > My name is Cristine > > > I've just joined to educate myself regarding the mold issue, I > > believe my home needs to be tested for mold. I've become > > increasingly sick over the last year with no explanation. I know > > there are many websites and tests available regarding mold, could you > > give me some advice in regards to the tests that are out there and if > > a home test is adequate for now? > > > > > > > > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 7, 2003 Report Share Posted May 7, 2003 I saw a pulminologist and he was sure of mold exposure untill he heard I got ot from a government building on a shipyard. He wanted nothing to do with me then. I wish the family the best of luck. I have been fighting and looking for right doctor for a year now. God Bless, Janet Subj: Re: [] mold tests Date: 5/6/03 6:52:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time From: nolans@... Reply-to: Sent from the Internet (Details) Quoting jazzyfamily <jazzyfamily@...>: > Home Depot has a mold test for $10.00. Just follow the directions. Then send the test to the lab with $30.00 and they will send you the results within two weeks. My advice is to buy two kits. One for the air conditioning ducts in your home and the other for visual mold you see on the walls or for the air circulating in your home. I did this at my work place and received the results in 10 days. The descriptions of the mold and their health effects are very detailed in the lab results. You can't go wrong by testing what you are breathing. If you feel you have respiratory problems due to mold inhalation, see a pulmonologist. They are great at detecting asthma or other related problems due to mold exposure. Need any other assistance feel free to e-mail me at: nolans@... > My name is Cristine > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 7, 2003 Report Share Posted May 7, 2003 What State do you live in? Maybe someone knows of a doctor in your area? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 7, 2003 Report Share Posted May 7, 2003 I live in Maine...... Janet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 7, 2003 Report Share Posted May 7, 2003 Most homes have some mold spores and test positive. More important is " do you have active mold growth now? " . Get a good relative humidity meter (hygrometer) and monitor the %Relative Humidity(%RH). Good digital meter are available at Wal-mart and Radio Schack for $15- $20. A home with carpeting on concrete should be less than 50%RH. Otherwise no higher than 60%RH. If your home is high humidity when its dry outside, check for water leaks. Roof, windows, slab, basement and plumbing are sources for moisture. You may need dehumidification during the rainy times of the year to deal with the excess moisture in the air. If the > I've just joined to educate myself regarding the mold issue, I > believe my home needs to be tested for mold. I've become > increasingly sick over the last year with no explanation. I know > there are many websites and tests available regarding mold, could you > give me some advice in regards to the tests that are out there and if > a home test is adequate for now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted May 8, 2003 Report Share Posted May 8, 2003 Grasshopper, your reply is an excellent one. The only upgrade I would suggest would be the interior humidity. I really would like to see the interior of a home or office no higher than 50 - 52% for any type of construction. 60% is just too borderline to be safe. I did a test in San Francisco last week in an air-tight condo. Water was standing on the sill from condensation. The sills are wiped dry daily. The humidity measured averaged 63% or above. It felt like a Sahna bath. The owners said it had been that way since the condo was new - 4 years. The sheetrock was saturated. A lot of remediation and restoration in the immediate future. Insurance won't touch it and there is a new born baby inside. So common place. We must get building code changes to improve our health. Ron Dierlam Advanced Environmental Management, Inc. ----- Original Message ----- From: grasshoppers53527 Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 8:37 AM Subject: [] Re: mold tests Most homes have some mold spores and test positive. More important is "do you have active mold growth now?". Get a good relative humidity meter (hygrometer) and monitor the %Relative Humidity(%RH). Good digital meter are available at Wal-mart and Radio Schack for $15-$20. A home with carpeting on concrete should be less than 50%RH. Otherwise no higher than 60%RH. If your home is high humidity when its dry outside, check for water leaks. Roof, windows, slab, basement and plumbing are sources for moisture. You may need dehumidification during the rainy times of the year to deal with the excess moisture in the air. If the > I've just joined to educate myself regarding the mold issue, I > believe my home needs to be tested for mold. I've become > increasingly sick over the last year with no explanation. I know > there are many websites and tests available regarding mold, could you > give me some advice in regards to the tests that are out there and if > a home test is adequate for now?FAIR USE NOTICE:This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 1, 2004 Report Share Posted February 1, 2004 Mark, NO testing of any kind can answer the question of what is harmful and what is safe -- for you. Or for anyone. If that were possible then the experts would have already established exposure levels for specific molds -- like they have for specific chemicals, for example. But it is even less likely they will ever succeed for total molds just like they have no standards for total chemicals. Even then, those levels would be applicable to " most " of the population as determined by statistical calculation under specific conditions -- NOT to any specific individual -- YOU -- under all conditions. Testing is but one of many tools in the took kit necessary to make any kind of determination. On a scale of 1 to 10 of accuracy and reliability, home test kits are near the bottom. The type of testing that is at the very bottom are the tests conducted with professional equipment by the untrained and inexperienced. What is even worse is the interpretation of the data by someone with inadequate, inappropriate training and experience -- and with no information of where it was taken, how it was analyzed and why. Even with professional testing by experienced experts, I find a building history, event history, inspection, moisture measurement, moisture " footprint, " water marks, visible mold, odors, occupant susceptibility, etc more descriptive and predictive than testing. Mold data interpreted within the context of that information is the only mold data that has any meaning. Without a context the data is only numbers. What does the number " 2 " mean? It depends on the context. Does it apply to mold or fish or calories or money? Two dollars or two bank accounts? With no context there is no meaning other than that derived from the mystical practice of " numerology. " That is why I haven't suggested you send me the lab data. I have no way of interpreting it. Recently, for example, someone took two indoor air samples, one outdoor air sample and two surface samples in a house with a water pipe that broke. (The water had been turned off for the several weeks since the leak). The conclusion was that the mold near the water heater was slightly higher than outside but had not spread to the rest of the house. The facts were, there were leaks at the other end of the house unknown by the tester because they didn't do a building history, inspection or interview of the owner. Furthermore, a pressure test of the plumbing system revealed leaks throughout. Where was the mold? To start with, the mold was in every location that had a leak -- despite the mold test results. You need MUCH more than mold testing. It is true that some molds prefer more moisture than others, but once it is present it stays until removed. And, as I'm sure you are aware by now, killing it isn't sufficient. It must be removed. Carefully so as to avoid cross-contamination of previously unaffected areas. The available water doesn't determine which ones are more toxic than others. There are many other environmental conditions that influence that as the researchers are just beginning to discover. I believe this is why the higher outdoor molds aren't usually as much of a problem as indoor molds of the same type. Indoors and outdoors are substantially different environments. Be careful of the word " normal. " Just because it's " normal " doesn't mean it's safe. Killer radiation at ground-zero of an atomic bomb blast is " normal " but don't count on me being there for the " normal " experience. In fact, " normal dampness mold " is exactly what I would be concerned with. As for whether or not the seller is getting ripped off, that is the wrong question. I wouldn't be concerned about that, except in a moral sense, because I wouldn't depend on the seller to fix the house at any cost. Rather, buy the house " as is " so you can determine for yourself what needs to be done and then you can control how it is done. (With a price adjustment, of course). I would never advise anyone to buy a house like you describe and let someone else conduct the assessment, remediation and post-remediation verification. They have no idea what I need or want even if they attempted to find out. They have no vested interest in anything other than doing it their way. Would you let them decide what color to paint the kitchen? How to decorate the formal dining room? Whether to put the jacuzzi outside or inside in the bedroom or in the middle of the living-room? Better yet, would you hire their attorney to recover your damages from the mold remediator? No, you would hire your own. In other words, if you don't feel like you have the expertise, time, money and confidence to risk buying the house " as is " so you can control the job site, don't buy the house. Carl Grimes Healthy Habitats LLC --------------- > Thank you for your advice on " buying a home with mold " these test kits > that are on the market do they distiguish between toxic mold and > normal dampness mold. I am assuming after reading on the internet that > normal mold is smelly but not harmfull? am i right? and that this > toxic mold is the true issue. > > The owner of the property has had " mold Experts " come in and estimate > the damage at to repair at 65K. Would they have done some type of test > to determine this and would I be reading the tests be able to > determine the issue especialy if i gave the test results to another > testing company? > > Sorry for all the questions but I would like to understand the > process as well as i can to make sure this woman is not just getting > ripped off by a Scam artist....... > > Thanks > > Mark > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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