Moldy house

[Guest guest]

My post:

Oh, boy, am I confused! I have been doing web research for a few hours, and

came across this egroup. so I hope someone can give

me some suggestions. I have various allergies, including mold. My hubby

did not have allergies until the last few years. Occasionally,

his eye would swell up, for no apparent reason, and he would get swelling in

his finger joints. And, when I say " eye swelling, " I mean

*severe*! It looks like he lost a fight with Mike Tyson. Anyways, he has

been to various allergists, etc., and after gobs of tests, he

wasdiagonosed as otentially having lupus. (I guess that lupus is difficult

to diagnose....) So, we have been instructed to kind of wait

and see if other symptoms present themselves.

OK, here comes my question. I realize that there is mold just about

everywhere. I imagine it is somewhat like dust: just because you

dust today, does not mean that there is no more dust in the room, nor does

it mean that there will be no more dust tomorrow. But---if

you went into a room, looked at a table and it was coated with white, you'd

say, " Wow! That's dusty! " I know that there are currently

no guidelines as to how much mold is too much. Since that is the case, how

can one make a decision about how much mold is

unaccpetable?

We are relocating due to a job change. We have bid on a house that we like,

and had home inspections performed, including mold

sampling from the basement. Our results: cladosporium: 9,555 spores per

square meter; penicillium aspargillus (my apologies if

I'm misspelling these), 1,176; aureobasidium, 21; drechslera-bipolaris

group, 21; arthrinium, 14; stachybotrys, 5,145; chaetomium 14;

pithomyces 7. Is that a very high number for the stachybotrys (5145

spores/cubic meter)?

Is this typical of basements? Would I find this anywhere I went, or are

these numbers alarming? It's one thing if you own a home, and

hten discover there is a mold problem. But, would you buy this house with

the above-mentioned mold levels? Do most houses have

similar levels?

Thanks,

dsal

Dr. Klein said:

If these are air samples then the stachybotrys count seemes very high.

Stachy has a very heavy spore. It would be unusual to find a high count in a

clean, mold free, enviornment. However, the indoor count should be compared

with outdoor sample counts for all of the molds found including the Stachy.

If I were considering the house, based upon your information, I'd look

elsewhere.

Gandee said:

I need to add to this. My first symptoms of mold toxicity was severe eye

swelling. They both turned black around the outside. The pain of pressure in

the eye itself was unbearable. There is a name for this condition however,

all of my data on this subject was destroyed. I never did get appropriate

treatment for eyes. My diagnosis later was fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue

syndrom. After three years and being away from mold, my eyes are almost back

to normal. There is scar tissue after this. Staying away from these molds is

the only answer. Good luck and God bless.

Thank you for your comments/suggestions. I think I know what you are

getting at, but I want to be super clear. Do you think I should completely

forget about this house, or encourage the owners to remediate and then have

a mold test done? (We can always just forget this house and begin a house

search again, since our contract states that we have the right to refuse to

close the deal if the inspections turn out unfavorable....)

We really liked this house, however I do have misgivings on it now.

Plus, I don't want to sound like a worry-wart, but even if we do have the

mold cleaned up, will I always be imagining that mold spores are lurking

around the basement, just waiting to spring up? (Guess that is a rhetorical

question.)

dsal