Menace of mold: Indoor-air experts urge caution, not panic about common fungus

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Menace of mold: Indoor-air experts urge caution, not panic about common

fungus

By Neil Santaniello

Staff Writer

Posted July 7 2002

It began in October with a troubling scent that permeated Leah Mikulski's

Boynton Beach garage and powder room. It was unmistakable to her and

household visitors: mold.

After months of tests by a parade of people, an indoor air company finally

traced the microbial growth to a leaky air conditioner. But Mikulski, who

has asthma, abandoned her home six months into her first pregnancy, moving

in with her parents in Delray Beach.

" I would sit in a chair and cry my eyes out, because I couldn't pick out

baby furniture, " recalled Mikulski, a medical assistant. " I couldn't set up

my nursery. "

Mold is an old, familiar house guest, from the blotches on damp bread to the

dark streaks in the shower stall to the crud clinging to air conditioner

coils. But it's also the latest home-environment scare, in the wake of

asbestos and radon gas. It is a proven allergen, aggravator of asthma and,

sometimes, a toxic presence, the Environmental Protection Agency says.

Mikulski is not the only South Florida person driven from their home by that

microbial malady. Two families bailed out of the upscale Saturnia

development west of Boca Raton earlier this year after connecting family

illnesses to toxic mold blamed on faulty bathroom plumbing in one home and

on an air-conditioner leak in the other.

Perhaps you don't know for sure whether you have a mold home health

hazard -- buildups of, say stachybotrys or aspergillus, mold types deemed

especially harmful. How do you find out?

Do you hunt for a problem yourself, mount a search for something that grows

not only in the open, on baseboards and under windows, but out of sight,

behind walls and wallpaper, under carpeting?

Or do you automatically bring in a professional, a " mold school " graduate

who can ferret out harmful mold and remove it safely?

The EPA, public health officials and mold businesses advise doing a visual

search first instead of automatically hiring a professional.

If you need help knowing where to look, heed this tip: Follow the water.

Like seeds, airborne spores that sprout into patches of mold need moisture

to grow, moisture that could come from a leaky roof, air handler, washing

machine or other source. Look around for telltale stains and discolorations

that could flag water damage.

" It's really a logical progression, " said O'Donnell, owner of an

indoor air quality company called Enviro Team in Pompano Beach. " It's not as

mysterious as you think when you first look into this. You're looking for

moisture. "

Using your eyes won't always be conclusive though.

" Looking around the house, that's not covering everything you need to

cover, " said Gelfand, a Boca Raton attorney working nine household

mold litigation cases. " If you don't have visible mold you may still have a

mold problem. "

Stubborn odors and allergies, and sicknesses doctor visits won't cure, may

signal a hidden problem. At that point it could be the time bring in outside

help, to hire a " mold school " graduate, someone specifically trained to do

mold investigation and removal, health officials say.

This is where the hunt for mold really gets sticky.

In South Florida, mold detection alone can cost as little as $200 and as

much as $1,000 or more for a house call. Inspection and cleanup services are

offered too by a cornucopia of businesses: duct cleaners, flood damage

companies, environmental services firms, home inspectors and building

contractors and building-sciences companies. Mold specialists might examine

walls, map moisture, put out petri dishes or press strips of tape against

surfaces, sending whatever they find to a laboratory for analysis.

In the absence of federal standards for mold and airborne spores, and

professional consensus on how much mold is too much, the usefulness of mold

testing to point out a problem is disputed.

" There's nothing that everybody's agreed to " as a yardstick to measure mold

danger, said Gilley, an indoor air-quality administrator for the

Florida Department of Health.

Warns the Minnesota Health Department: " Investigate -- don't test. Mold

testing is of limited value and should be discouraged in most cases. "

The agency ticks off its reasons: Testing may not detect all the kinds of

mold lurking in a building; results only crudely estimate the amount of mold

present; criteria for interpreting test findings are arbitrary and that

" test results are not predictive of health risks. "

Bob Varela, a who runs the Deerfield Beach office of Texas-based outfit

called Enviro-Mold, a mold removal business, said: " I personally believe no

mold should be in an indoor environment. "

A bill recently filed by U.S. Rep. Conyers Jr., D-Mich., aims to clear

up some of the mold murk. Called the Toxic Mold Safety and Protection Act,

it requires the EPA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to

set " guidelines " for mold inspection, testing and removal, and standards for

industry certification.

Some people turn to inexpensive, do-it-yourself home mold testing kits sold

on the Web and in hardware stores.

Weston-based Professional Laboratories markets one on the Internet for

$9.95, the PRO-LAB Professional Mold & Mildew Test Kit, said company CEO

E. McDonnell.

Some kits have drawn criticism for their reliance in part on petri dishes or

settle plates, small plastic plates filled with a gel-like substance called

agar. Spores drop out of the air onto that mold food and grow into colonies

laboratories can identify and count.

" All it tells me is that spores are floating through the air, " said Glenn

Fellman, executive director of the Indoor Air Quality Association in

land, a professional society, of settle-plate tests. " It is not really

an effective way to assess microbial contamination in the home. "

Norman Sage, a member of the Florida Association of Building Inspectors and

American Society of Home Inspectors, scoffs at the settle plates, calling

them money-making gimmickry.

" The consumer is not being told " about their limitations, said Sage, of

Residential Inspections in Coral Springs.

McDonnell defends them as a screening tool, a " quick picture " of mold

concentrations that is a lot cheaper than hiring a professional tester to

walk through your door. " We get a lot of testimonials from customers

thanking us for developing this kind of product, " he said.

There are more accurate ways to sample the air, some mold experts say.

Mikulski, who had to vacate her townhome, said air tests done in her home

found nearly " triple " the number of mold spores inside vs. outside. That to

her was proof beyond her nose, she said.

The indoor-outdoor comparison is a " rule of thumb " for air sampling, a way

to measure good vs. bad air quality, Gilley said.

For those wishing to hire experts to do their mold assessment, zero in on

someone with a history of mold work, and trained or certified by a credible

association, suggests the IAQA's Fellman. His association sponsors classes

for mold professionals that have trained about 1,000 people as " certified

indoor environmentalists, " he said.

The EPA suggests checking to see if mold investigators are following

protocols endorsed by the American Conference of Government Industrial

Hygienists or other professional groups. The EPA offers advice at

www.epa.gov/iaq/molds/moldguide.html.

Fellman also recommends steering clear of companies that do both mold

investigation and cleanup work because that poses a conflict of interest.

Neil Santaniello can be reached at nsantaniello@... or

561-243-6625.

Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel