Mold Inspection and Testing

Inspection and testing of mold is a common procedure adopted while buying new homes. Any property with a mold growth in it is considered unsuitable by new buyers unless and until remedial measures are employed. It is wise to carry out mold detection from time to time. This can be done especially after water collection has taken place in the house due to reasons such as floods, the rainy season or leakage.

Mold inspection can be done by a layman if it is not very invasive in its growth. A simple method to check mold growth is to rely on visual sense. A thorough investigation of damp areas in the kitchens and bathrooms, crawlspaces and attics can be done. If there is any suspicious growth, then a tape sample can be taken and sent to a microbial lab for inspection. Molds do not have strong odors; however, they do emanate a certain musty odor that can be detected. Though mold detection is not that difficult, it should be borne in mind that molds can travel through the air and therefore one must be suitably protected when carrying out mold detection.

For larger estates, it is better to go for a professional mold testing. Mold-testing agencies advertise their services extensively. Mold inspectors are equipped with microscopes, tapes to take samples, cameras to photograph mold growths, and protective gear. Mold inspectors go to great lengths to determine the amount and quality of moisture, heat and air in various nooks and crannies of the house. Their reports are extensive and provide accurate detailed information of mold growths in the house.

However, professional mold-testing agencies do not undertake mold removal unless contracted for the purpose. Mold inspectors may only check for mold presence and give a quotation for the removal of the fungus. But the usual pattern is to check mold growth, and if present, to contact the same agency for its removal. When an agency is contracted for mold removal on a large scale, they may concede their charges for the investigation of mold growth. Anyway, the charges for mold investigation are not very high and can be easily afforded by people buying new homes.



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Mold

Molds are fungal growths that reproduce asexually by means of spore formation. Their basic body consists of a threadlike growth called the mycelium, which sends out branches called hyphae. It is in the tips of these hyphae that spores are formed.

Molds are saprophytic in nature ? i.e., they depend on dead and decaying organic matter for their nutrition. They are found growing on rotting fruits and vegetables, on decomposing bread and biscuits, and on damp walls and ground. Mushrooms and bracket fungi are close relatives of molds; they all belong to the plant group of fungi.

The interrelation of molds with mankind has been closely studied. Molds are perennially found in all human habitats, which include homes, offices, schools, etc. Their favorite places of growth are kitchens, leaky ceilings, bathrooms and toilets. Molds can be both harmless and harmful. In fact, the lifesaving drug penicillin is made from the mold Penicillium notatum. Molds also find many functions in the food and beverage manufacture industry. Cheese, black tea and sausages are some foods that are made using molds. A typical type of mold, Neurospora crassa, is used for botanical study in laboratories.

However, the harm done by molds vastly outnumbers their benefits. Several strains of molds, such as Aspergillus and Stachybotrys chartarum, are toxic. Toxic molds release poisonous secondary metabolites in the air, called mycotoxins. Mycotoxins can severely and adversely affect human health. Some disorders produced by toxic molds are asthma attacks, allergies, chronic bronchitis, heart seizures, lupus, fibromyalgia and even cancer. Molds also interfere with the mental development of children and may lead to amnesia in adults.

Concern about the rampant growth of molds is widely increasing in the wake of the hurricane disasters. Since molds propagate rapidly in damp conditions, several homes are infested with mold. Authorities are undertaking serious remedial measures. Air testing is being done to check the spread of the fungus. One of the treatment measures involves treating mold strains with bleach, as molds die in contact with chlorine. Treatment with ammonia has also proved to be beneficial.

However, mold prevention first begins at home. Molds thrive in humid conditions. Hence, the disposal of any accumulated water is the preliminary step. All leakages must be mended and water must not be allowed to clog anywhere. Molds have a typical musty odor. If this odor is detected, there must be an immediate and thorough investigation of the source.


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The Serious Dangers of Mold and Mildew in Your House

Two years of severe hurricane hits along the Gulf Coast and heavy rains and flooding this spring in the Northeast are providing a nationwide breeding ground for indoor mold and mildew growth (some deadly) now that summer heat is here. What is the solution?

The subject is surrounded by controversy. The Centers for Disease Control, Institute of Medicine, as well as scientists and doctors at Harvard University, Mayo Clinic, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and several State Health Agencies have all looked at the problem. There have been several studies conducted by medical researchers over the past few years looking for any linkages between various respiratory and physical ailments and deaths and the presence of molds in our living space. While some say there is a linkage, others say the facts don?t support that.

Here are the facts. Mold is everywhere; inside and outside. Some molds are good (penicillin), some are very toxic and emit gases that can be inhaled (Stachybotrys ?black mold?). Although some people apparently aren?t bothered by mold, all varieties have the potential to cause illness. Mold reproduces by generating spores that are released into the air, where they land on moist surfaces. They can grow on any organic surface such as wallpaper, ceiling tiles, carpeting, wallboard and wood. They thrive in dark, warm, moist locations, like under carpets, inside walls and ceilings. They will also contaminate items that come in contact with those surfaces.

Mold can trigger allergic reactions and asthma attacks in many. Complaints of flu-like symptoms, chronic fatigue syndrome, memory impairment, migraines, sick building syndrome, dizziness and nosebleeds are common. These are the mild symptoms. Many researchers claim that mold can attack several main body systems, including the brain, central nervous and immune systems and have been the direct cause of some deaths. Regardless of where you stand on this issue, who wants to smell mold/mildew and inhale spores from household fungus? They can lodge in your lungs (remember dark, warm and moist). Asthmatics, infants and individuals suffering immune system deficiencies are particularly susceptible.

So, what should you do if you think that your home might have a mold/mildew problem? Here?s a suggested 5 step process:

? Mold Inspection- retain a qualified, certified mold inspection firm to evaluate your home and determine cause of mold and severity of infestation.

? Isolation of the Area- if there is a mold problem, you will want to isolate the area carefully to prevent carryover into non infested areas during clean up.

? Clean Up/Remediation- care should be taken to not stir up the mold; if it is severe, or in the walls, a specialized remediation firm (in space suits) may have to be used and materials removed in hazardous waste containers.

? Repair of the Cause- if there is structural damage or leaky plumbing causing a moisture problem, fix it.

? Maintenance/Prevention- an ongoing program to ensure no recurrence of the cause and use of proven purification technology to maintain a clean environment and kill mold growth.

On this last point, emphasis is placed on use of technology that has a proven track record of mold abatement. HEPA filters and electrostatic filters that are called purifiers are not effective on mold/mildew. There is, however, affordable, proprietary and safe technology currently available that has a demonstrated ability to sanitize surfaces from a variety of microbials and to stop mold/mildew growth. This effective technology has become widely accepted since it?s use by the government during the 9/11 Pentagon cleanup, is currently in use in several government facilities and is available to the general public through an authorized dealer network. For more information visit www.freshair2u.info

Bruce Bley is founder of BCB Associates, a marketing and environmental consulting firm that deals with issues pertaining to family health and wellness and provides leadership training to affiliates. He has a B.S. Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University and MBA from University of Hartford.

Mold And It's Effects

Perhaps you may have found the dreaded mold lurking in your dwelling recently. Perhaps you even had to recondition it up. To be sure, it's ugly, inconvenient, possibly destructive and possibly a hazard to good health.

Unfortunately, mold can form anywhere circumstances exist to foster its advance. It regularly evolves in cool damp places. Usually in locations where temperatures range between 40 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, with a relative humidity level of 70% or higher. Though it is possible for certain molds to grow in lower humidity levels, they are not a common occurrence and rarely a concern over the more common types of mold. Read more about your home and other home care issues at http://www.fhhome.com

Typical spaces in a domicile where mold tends to take hold are zones such as bathrooms, basements, ceiling tiles, paneling, refrigerators, air circumstanceers, humidifiers and dehumidifiers, trash cans, heating ducts, windowsills, carpeting and other enclosures where wetness may be captured.

Mold appears in different ways, each with varying levels of risk to health. In low levels mold is pretty much harmless, but in greater levels the person who comes in contact may suffer allergic symptoms from the spores, as well as more harmful effects.

There are two forms of mold called Stachybotrys and Memnoniella which are considered toxic and can have a no-nonsense effect on a persons health. Smaller symptoms of exposure to these toxic molds may include a rash, flu-like symptoms, diarrhea, respiratory difficulties, eye irritations, difficulty breathing, sinus inflammation, headaches, fatigue and sore throat.

More austere symptoms of exposure to toxic mold may include ear inflammation, nose bleeds, bleeding of the lungs, memory loss and arthralgia (joint pain).

Exposure to any type of mold can always have the possibility of bringing on negative health effects, so it is wise to remove mold when it is found and to foster contingencys, which can help minimize the chances of mold appearing again in the future.

First of all, if you find mold in your domicile, purify it right away. For mold advancing on solid material like metal, basic soap and detergent should do the trick. Be sure to dry them immediately afterward. For materials more porous, where mold has sunk in, such as mattresses or other furnishings, the material should be replaced, as it is impossible to remove mold completely from these materials.

To prevent mold from forming in the future, check for any and all sources of wetness. In bathrooms check for leaky faucets or pipes which are no-nonsense culprits for fostering the incidents for mold raiseth. Once you have finished, lower the humidity level of your dwelling to between 30 and 60%. Since most mold advances in circumstances of 70% relative humidity of higher, keeping humidity low in your home will greatly reduce the risk of mold forming again in the future.

The steps set forth above are very urgent to follow, especially for those who may suffer from allergies. An ounce of deterrence now could save you inconvenience, discomfort, as well as funds in the years ahead.

Yvonne Volante, the author, has had extensive experience with mold and writes for moldcasr.com, which is the premier mold resource on the internet. You can see all of the articles over at http://www.moldcasr.com

Make Your Own Sweets With a Candy Mold!

Candy molds make candy making easy! With only a few basic tools, you can make candy that looks professional and exquisite, as if they came from any of the finest specialty shops.

For chocolate lovers, you can find a chocolate candy mold of practically any design. You can make chocolate hearts, chocolate eggs even chocolate Christmas trees! Holidays and special occasions are only the beginning. Think of the gift baskets you could give to friends! Who wouldnt be pleased to receive a basket of beautiful fine chocolates!

Nothing is more delightful than a clever sucker. All you need is a hard candy mold and a little time in the kitchen, and its easy to make a batch of creative sweets. These are especially popular with the children.

With candy molds, you can make treats for any occasion, at a fraction of the cost of buying them from the store, and have a lot of fun doing it! It's amazing how satisfying it is to see the work of your own hands turn out so beautifully.

Candy molds are great to use when you need to make specially designed treats for a wedding or other special occasion. Chocolate party favors are always a hit, especially if theyre made with a favorite candy mold designed to accentuate your parties theme.

Mike Yeager

http://www.a1-candy-4u.com/

Mmm Mmm - Gotta Love That Pie Mold

Pie mold. No, it's not the fuzzy stuff you find a week after Aunt Loretta sends you home with left-overs. Campers know what I'm talking about. Pie molds were all the rage in the Seventies--and they're still popular today. One of my favorite childhood memories is sitting around the campfire as a kid, feeling the warmth on my face, watching the flames dance, listening to the hiss and pop of burning wood, and smelling the acrid aroma that will linger in your clothes until their next washing. In this memory, I'm holding the wooden grips of a pie mold, keeping its cooking surface just above the hot coals on the fire's edge.

The Pie Mold was our campfire cooker, and a slick one at that. On the business end, two metal plates came together, sandwiching a creation of bread and toppings. Stick it in the fire a minute or two, pull it out, open it up, and wah-lah: You had a golden-brown pie filled with pizza fixings or cherry sauce or bacon and eggs or whatever else got your stomach growling and your mouth watering. It may not have been the healthiest of meals, but remember this is camping we're talking about. Save your salads and yogurt for home. When you're out in the woods, you gotta live a little.

There was a time I had forgotten this memory. High School and College have a tendency to erase some of your past, and for me the pie mold became a victim of that fate. I met a girl. We graduated from College, married, started a family--you know the drill. At some point in this process, I discovered something amazing: My wife's father makes pie molds. I'm not kidding. Talk about an uncanny way of reviving a childhood memory. Soon after I made this discovery, he told me the story.

Back in 1962, pie molds were around, but they were made of cast iron. The iron took forever to reach cooking temperature and it distributed heat unevenly. So instead of a golden-brown pie, you ended up with burnt crust and a lukewarm center. He had the idea that heavy-duty aluminum would work better. It would heat quickly, it would heat evenly, and it was light weight to boot. Not being a man to sit on the sidelines while another takes action, he called a foundry, invested in a pattern, and the Minute Pie Mold Company was born. As it turns out, he was right about the aluminum. The Minute Pie Mold outperformed the old cast-iron model in every way, and sales climbed as campers started using them.

Upon hearing his story, I called my parents, eager to see if the pie mold of my memory was a Minute Pie Mold. How cool would that be?

Well, I'm sorry to say my parents couldn't remember. It seems their divorce had put a damper on camping memories, and since a drop-down-drag-out custody battle over gear wasn't in the cards, that old pie mold was lost to the ages. But to this day, I firmly believe it was a Minute Pie Mold. Don't try to convince me otherwise.

So what's my point? Well, I'm not after free advertising for the Minute Pie Mold Company (although I'm sure you'd put a smile on an old man's face if you surf over to www.minutepiemold.com and take a peek at what I'm talking about) and I'm not trying to convince you that providence led me from an old campfire cooker to its creator's daughter.

What it does boil down to is this: Memories. If I hadn't married the daughter of a pie mold maker, I might have forgetten those campfire memories altogether. But I did marry the daughter of a pie mold maker. I do remember the campfire memories, and I did something about them. We have a campfire ring in the backyard and a whole set of Minute Pie Molds thanks to a generous family discount. Most important of all, the kids whoop and holler when we light a fire and break out the molds. They love pie mold nights. They're forming their own campfire memories, ones they will someday share with their children.

What childhood memories have you forgotten? Don't answer now. You can't. Afterall, they're forgotten. But if you slow down and pay attention, something will come back to you. And when it does, don't ignore it. Let it come back. Hold on to it. Remember it. Then take the time to share it with your children.
 

Ten Mold Facts for Homeowners, Landlords, Tenants, and Employers

Homeowners, landlords, tenants, and employers should use these ten mold facts to cope with mold in homes, apartments, and workplaces, advises Phillip Fry, Certified Mold Inspector and author of the book Do-It-Best-Yourself Mold Prevention, Inspection, Testing, and Remediation.

1. Airborne mold spores are everywhere both indoors and outdoors. Resident and employee health is at serious risk if there are elevated levels of mold spores indoors, as compared to an outdoor mold control test.

2. The most dangerous indoor molds are Alternaria, Aspergillus, Chaetomium, Cladosporium, Fusarium, Mucor, Penicillium, and Stachybotrys. Laboratory analysis is required to identify specific mold species.

3. Molds spores can cause serious health problems even if the spores are dead or dormant (inactive while waiting for more moisture to resume growth). Even the smell of dead or dormant mold can make some mold-sensitive persons ill.

4. It is impossible to get rid of all mold spores indoors. Some mold spores will always be present in house dust and floating in the air.

5. The mold spores will not grow into mold colonies if there is insufficient moisture. Indoor mold growth can and should be prevented or controlled by controlling moisture indoors. If organic materials are wet for more than 24 hours, mold growth can begin.

6. Mold grows by eating and destroying organic building materials and other cellulose-based materials such as carpeting, upholstery, and clothing. The longer that mold grows, the more mold damage to the building.

7. Cellulose is the main substance in the cell walls of plants (and thus of wood), and it is used in the manufacture of many organic building materials such as drywall, plasterboard, plywood substitutes, and ceiling tiles.

8. Mold can grow hidden and undetected inside wall and ceiling cavities; beneath wallpaper, paneling, and carpeting; and inside heating and cooling equipment and ducts, attics, crawl spaces, and basements.

9. Mold growth is often the result of a structural or construction defect, or of maintenance neglect, that allows moisture to enter the building.

10. The owner or employer must first fix the water problem (roof leak, plumbing leak, high indoor humidity) that enables the mold to grow. Effective mold remediation requires killing the mold with an EPA-registered fungicide, removing it, and treating the cleaned area with an EPA-registered preventive fungicidal coating.

For more information about mold, visit---

http://www.moldinspector.com
http://www.certifiedmoldinspectors.com
http://www.mold.ph
http://www.moldmart.net
http://www.envirosurf.com
Phillip Fry, Certified Mold Inspector and Certified Mold Remediator, and author of 3 mold books including Do-It-Best-Yourself Mold Prevention, Inspection, Testing, and Remediation
Erasing the Stigma of "Mental Illness"Debra S. GorinAs a physician specializing in psychiatry, I know that many emotional conditions such as depression and anxiety disorders are true medical illnesses with a biologic (physical) origin. Psychiatry has become more and more "biological" in its diagnosis and treatment approaches during recent years, but a very significant stigma still exists against those who are seeing a therapist. This has become increasingly difficult to understand, but it is a social stigma that is so very important to eliminate.

Why does an embarrassment or stigma still exist associated with those who are seeking psychiatric treatment? Why do people wait so long before come for help - to the point of becoming nearly non-functional with their families, children and work environment?

First, many people have a picture in their mind of movies in which psychiatrists are ineffective listeners of problems of patients who are lying on psychoanalytic couches. It is important to remember that psychoanalysis preceded our modern treatment approaches which now have a much higher success rate. We currently have many safe and effective medications, which when used with or without psychotherapy, help many people fully recover.

Another reason for the stigma is in the use of the term "mental illness". The field of psychiatry has undergone many changes in the past twenty years. Research into the functioning of the brain and nervous system has led to the concept of a "chemical imbalance" as the cause of illnesses such as Major Depression and Panic Attacks. In addition, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, a condition portrayed so well by Jack Nicholson in the 1997 movie As Good As It Gets, is also caused by a chemical imbalance. Medications were used to help treat the "Obsessive Compulsive" character being played by Nicholson. Many psychiatric illnesses are not "mental" or "emotional, but are now understood to be "neurochemical illnesses".

Many people are told, "You can do this on your own, be strong, as if a person can easily will themselves out of depression or anxiety. Can someone "Be Strong" and make their diabetes or bronchitis just go away? These types of suggestions only result in a delay in seeking treatment or feelings of failure in the individual who finally does seek help. The stigma of psychiatric treatment also leads many people to seek help at the health food store, or other types of self-diagnosis and self-medications.

Men in particular have to overcome an additional obstacle. It may seem "Un-Macho Like" to seek professional psychiatric help when one fails to understand or see their condition as an illness, and instead view it as a weakness in their character. Thus, injury to a man's ego often contributes to their long delays in seeking treatment.

My hope is that the shame and secrecy associated with obtaining professional psychiatric help will gradually diminish and eventually cease to exist. If we understand how the social stigma was established in the first place - the media lack of medical knowledge, societies' understanding or ignorance, etc., then we should realize there is no need to "stay in the closet." Let's wipe out the term "mental illness" and view many of these conditions as "neurochemical illness, with the same non-prejudicial attitude as we do toward diseases such as diabetes or hypertension.

Debra S. Gorin, M.D. received her medical degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She has been in private practice as a Psychiatrist for the past sixteen years in the Fort Lauderdale area. Dr. Gorin treats all types of stress-related, emotional and psychiatric problems of children, adolescents, and adults. She is also a trained hypnotherapist. Visit her website (http://www.doctorgorin.com) to view her growing library of psychiatric and health-related articles. Dr. Gorin's weblog can be viewed at http://debragorinmd.blogspot.comShe can be contacted at couchdoctor415@yahoo.com