Re: Mold exposure -- the car

[Guest guest]

If you are talking about mycotoxins, I dont believe that steam cleaning is going

to do a thing for them. Not in my experience with them anyway.

D

--- In , " cocopollyphenol " <cocopollyphenol@...>

wrote:

>

> Twice in the last month my bf and I have been in very moldy environs (I could

smell it). The first was at a Bed and Breakfast inn that had such a serious mold

problem I was coughing and itching and we left at 2am. We slept in the car that

night and did not wash our clothing and luggage (cotton and nylon duffel and

carry bags)until the following day. No car washes had steamers and I have MCS so

we didn't clean the car. I didn't notice any obvious problem but isn't it likely

the spores (which we both smelled on some of our clothes the next day,

indicating how serious the mold problem had been) would have gotten into the

car?

>

> After being at my friend's moldy health clinic we showered and washed our

clothes. Today he had the car hand steamed as there's a good hand detailing

place here. We also bought a $35 garment steamer to use on trips to spot clean

the car.

>

> Am I worrying too much about this type of thing? We were at the B & B for six

hours and at my friend's clinic for three so that was why I was concerned. It is

unusual I'd have to spend that much time in moldy places.

>

> What do others do? It's a hassle to continually steam the car and with MCS you

can sometimes bring out settled odors and create a new problem.

>

[Guest guest]

No, I'm talking about what is essentially tertiary exposure to spores. You spend

some hours in a moldy environment and wash your clothes and hair. Do you also

steam clean the car you drove in? Mold is everywhere in life so you can't

totally avoid it anyway. We did steam clean the car but even tho the guy knows I

have mcs he shampooed of cleaned the floor mats with a lemony chemical that

smelled. Luckily it was only the mats and we threw them put. Why he did this

when we expressly said only steam nothing else I have no idea. We will steam it

ourselves from now on.

I was essentially asking what you do after a relatively short contamination

episode. I do have mold in my home too and if I move I have to think about what

to bring. I've slowly shifted to glass and metal when possible (desk, container

store drawers) and I'm using plastic filing drawers and poly file folders.

Things that can be wiped down. But I can't throw out paper for projects I'm

working on.

I just wondered how others handle this.

>

> If you are talking about mycotoxins, I dont believe that steam cleaning is

going to do a thing for them. Not in my experience with them anyway.

> D

>

> ---

> >

>

[Guest guest]

regarding papers, I am thinking of scanning documents I need access to,

and storing the paper files somewhere else. But that's work to do...

>No, I'm talking about what is essentially tertiary exposure to spores.

>You spend some hours in a moldy environment and wash your clothes and

>hair. Do you also steam clean the car you drove in? Mold is everywhere

>in life so you can't totally avoid it anyway. We did steam clean the car

>but even tho the guy knows I have mcs he shampooed of cleaned the floor

>mats with a lemony chemical that smelled. Luckily it was only the mats

>and we threw them put. Why he did this when we expressly said only steam

>nothing else I have no idea. We will steam it ourselves from now on.

>

>I was essentially asking what you do after a relatively short

>contamination episode. I do have mold in my home too and if I move I

>have to think about what to bring. I've slowly shifted to glass and

>metal when possible (desk, container store drawers) and I'm using

>plastic filing drawers and poly file folders. Things that can be wiped

>down. But I can't throw out paper for projects I'm working on.

>

>I just wondered how others handle this.

[Guest guest]

--- In , " cocopollyphenol " <cocopollyphenol@...>

wrote:

>

> No, I'm talking about what is essentially tertiary exposure to spores. You

spend some hours in a moldy environment and wash your clothes and hair. Do you

also steam clean the car you drove in? Mold is everywhere in life so you can't

totally avoid it anyway. We did steam clean the car but even tho the guy knows I

have mcs he shampooed of cleaned the floor mats with a lemony chemical that

smelled. Luckily it was only the mats and we threw them put. Why he did this

when we expressly said only steam nothing else I have no idea. We will steam it

ourselves from now on.

>

> I was essentially asking what you do after a relatively short contamination

episode. I do have mold in my home too and if I move I have to think about what

to bring. I've slowly shifted to glass and metal when possible (desk, container

store drawers) and I'm using plastic filing drawers and poly file folders.

Things that can be wiped down. But I can't throw out paper for projects I'm

working on.

>

> I just wondered how others handle this.

Could you tell the difference before vs. after you cleaned it?

This is where the " mold sabbatical " is useful. Once people get their

sensitivity up, it's easy to tell if the car is contaminated to the point where

it's going to bother them. Otherwise they're working blind.

My own thoughts on your question. ( may have different ones since her

reactivity seems to be especially high.)

For people who are really reactive and pursuing really extreme avoidance, it's

possible that the car might be cross-contaminated by that kind of exposure from

hair and clothes. Thus, changing clothes and rinsing hair before getting into

the car might be a good idea.

(Quite frankly though, outdoor mold in many places may be contaminating the car

so much on a continual basis that a few more spores from cross-contamination

wouldn't make much difference. Where do you live?)

If you're not pursuing extreme avoidance and didn't notice a difference after

you did the steam cleaning this time, I wouldn't put a lot of effort into that

kind of cleaning in the future. Your time may be better spent doing other mold

avoidance activities.

Personally, I think that the most important little " bang for my buck " activity

is to hang clothes (at least shirts) and bedding to dry rather than putting it

through the dryer. This goes back to the outdoor mold again (plus very few

buildings a pristine with regard to mold either). The dryer acts as a filter

for the air, meaning that the concentration on the fabrics that go through it is

really high. I'm much more affected by that than I am by cross-contamination as

you describe.

But again, if you're not pursuing extreme avoidance, that may not be worth your

time either.

My own car was really contaminated over the summer, but that was from an

exposure to really bad outdoor mold. I vacuumed it thoroughly, washed the hard

surfaces and cleaned or threw out everything in it. It took several weeks to

totally die down. But this was a REALLY bad contamination and I'm really picky.

For me, the kind of contamination you're describing likely would take a few days

to wholly die down at most, even if I did nothing to clean it. I think

would agree with that, based on his current level of reactivity.

may need to be more careful, perhaps.

Best,

[Guest guest]

Thanks, that's helpful. I'm glad we steam cleaned the car just in case. But

I'm fed up with telling the car detailing guys to only steam and only with water

and being ignored (last time we caught them just as they were about to use toxic

armor all). Anyway I think in the future no matter where if I walk into a mold

infested place I'm walking out.

[Guest guest]

--- In , " cocopollyphenol " <cocopollyphenol@...>

wrote:

>

> Anyway I think in the future no matter where if I walk into a mold infested

place I'm walking out.

Sometimes sleeping in the car can feel like absolute paradise.

Relatively speaking, of course.