Guest guest Posted December 30, 2007 Report Share Posted December 30, 2007 you can take 2 inch clear tape and srick it to the cisable mold and srick it to the inside of a clear ziplock bag and send it to a lab to be tested, costs $40 or 50 bucks, may be cheaper now. contact a environment testing co. and they wull give you info. > > Hi, > > I am living in a house in Massachusetts. There is visible black colored mold spots on a part of > a wall in the living room and on two walls in the bathroom. I want to find out if these are > toxigenic types of mold. > > Does anybody have any recommendations for do it yourself home mold test? I was particulary > interested in the tape lift kind. > > I would appreciate any feedback as I have been exposed to toxic mold in the past and want to > make sure that I am not re-exposing myself. > > Thanks! > > Mandy. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 31, 2007 Report Share Posted December 31, 2007 > > Hi, > > I am living in a house in Massachusetts. There is visible black colored mold spots on a part of > a wall in the living room and on two walls in the bathroom. I want to find out if these are > toxigenic types of mold. > > Does anybody have any recommendations for do it yourself home mold test? I was particulary > interested in the tape lift kind. > > I would appreciate any feedback as I have been exposed to toxic mold in the past and want to > make sure that I am not re-exposing myself. > > Thanks! > > Mandy. > Mandy the test will give identify the genus of the mold , which would let you know if its stachybotrys or aspergillus etc.; however, it won't tell you if there are any mycotoxins being produced. Why not start with determining where the moisture is coming from that is allowing the mold to grow? hawaiimold.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 31, 2007 Report Share Posted December 31, 2007 Haley hope you don't mind I snipped your email and added it here! Ed - That may be slightly misleading (although I'm not sure) with regard to Stachy - I think you have to have it go to someplace that does viable testing, which I'm doubting most home tape lift test kits go to... I'm pretty sure Stachy has to be grown out for about a month to show up. That's just working backwards from what we've done, I'm no expert. Happy New Year. ~Haley Hi Haley, Okay tape-lift analysis is generally done using Phase Contrast Microscopy (PCM), and hopefully by an MLAP lab certified by the AIHA PCM will allow the analyst to determine the Genus/Genera but not the species. So an analyst could determine if the sample contains Stachybotrys; however there are some 40+ speciies of Stachy. When discussing stachy or " TOXIC BLACK MOLD " (generally all in caps and said with an implied DUN DUN sound) they are referring to Stachybotrys chartarum , which can be toxigenic I guess my point is even if you do speciate, without some other testing you haven't determined if you have mycotoxins present; merely the potential for mycotoxins. Even more so if you determine you do have stachy, then then its an indicator of a moderate to severe water intrusion, that managed not to dry over a pretty long period. The other molds that probably developped during that period may be impacting your health more so than any theoretical mycotoxins I think there are circumstances where speciation is useful, I am just not convinced it is needed in every sampling event. Furthermore I don't think sampling is needed in most mold investigations or responses (thats probably a topic unto itself though). Aloha, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 31, 2007 Report Share Posted December 31, 2007 Mandy, Check out www.imslaboratory.com They have instructions for doing tape lift sampling & chain of custody info. Hope this helps! Hugs, Cheryl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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