5 THINGS TO KNOW ... about mold

[Guest guest]

September 23, 2007

5 THINGS TO KNOW ... about mold

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/health/chi-5thingssep23,1,44062\

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Between this summer's heavy rains and allergies being at their peak, the current

environment has put mold on our minds. Some of us actually can see it in our

homes in the form of dark spots on the floor or spores on the ceiling. Others

simply suspect it's there, perhaps due to a musty smell or damp carpet. Larry

Schwarz has mold on the mind as well. As founder of Buffalo Grove's Safestart

Environmental and one of only four certified Indoor Environmental Consultants in

Illinois, he's been getting call after call from Chicago area homeowners who

either suspect they have mold in their home or know they have mold and want his

help in getting it out. We cornered Schwarz to learn all we could about this

funky fungus.

-- Shaila Wunderlich, swunderlich@... 1. It's only natural. Mold, a

member of the kingdom fungi, is " nature's recycler, " Schwarz says. " Its sole

purpose in life is to eat what's dead and assist in its decomposition. " In the

outdoor environment, mold is more helpful than harmful. It's only indoors, where

its hemmed-in confines make its presence denser, that mold becomes toxic to our

lungs.

2. Forget mold-free. " I have to do a lot of explaining to people who come to me

asking for a 100-percent mold-free home, " Schwarz says. Being a naturally

occurring presence in the environment, it's nearly impossible to rid your home

completely of mold. The goal should be to keep it from reaching levels that are

toxic to your health or destructive to your home. " If the family's general

health is good, if there is good ventilation in the home, and if there isn't any

water seepage in the house, then you're probably OK, " he says.

3. People make the best detectors. Rely on your senses of sight, smell and

well-being to detect mold in your house. Schwarz poses these questions as

benchmarks:

* Do you see dark spots on the ceiling?

* Is there a musty, earthy, damp smell in the house?

* Are you frequently wheezing, experiencing unusual headaches, fatigue, ringing

in the ears or swelling of the tongue?

If some of these symptoms exist but you don't see dark spots on your ceilings or

floors, inspect less visible spots such as crawl spaces, attics and the area

around your sump pump. If you still see nothing, you may need a professional.

4. You have the power to prevent. " People can stop 80 [percent] to 90 percent of

mold from ever growing in the home by eradicating its source, which is mainly

water, " Schwarz says. " Make sure your gutters are pitched away from the house,

clean out and cover window wells, and pitch downspouts 4 to 6 feet away from the

house. " Schwarz's company offers free tips, podcasts and example photos on its

Web site, safestartmold.com.

5. Leave the ridding to the pros. Once the presence of mold is confirmed, it

likely will take the big guns to get it out. " You can try to kill it with a

bleach solution, " Schwarz says. " But rarely will it kill the spores, and bleach

can be very toxic in its own right. " Environmental professionals such as

Schwarz's company rely on a variety of measures to get rid of mold, from

removing the portion of the home where the mold is growing to a multi-step

process called encapsulation, which involves confining and " locking down " the

infected area so that even though the mold is still present, its toxic fumes are

no longer airborne.