You can't image that one day your lovely mold can turn into a health threater. How does it occuring? Why does they become your health enimy? Go ahead, you can prevent your health from the hidden risk.
That early sign of trouble was a bad omen of things to come. When fans and dehumidifiers didn’t take care of all of the moisture in the house, the family began to pry off the trim on a wall. Behind it was something no homeowner wants to see: black mold.
An excavator discovered the drain from the gutters was the source of the moisture, and the Isaacsons fixed that problem. But they still needed to repair the pervasive damage to the basement. After all, nothing less than the family’s health was at stake.
Mold can grow outside and indoors, often in places people don’t think to look for it. Outside, it can be found in wet leaves in the fall, in gardening soil and in mulch. When it is relatively dry outside, it may be drifting in the air as mold spores.
Indoors, even people who seem to have clean homes can have problems with mold. It often is found in showers and other parts of the bathroom, in houseplants and on window sills, as well as anywhere affected by burst pipes or other deluges of water.
There are seven things you should know about mold and allergies:
People with sensitivities or allergies to mold should limit camping and walks through tall plant growth, limit their exposure to disturbed plant materials, seal off moisture sources and use dehumidifiers indoors, beware of cool-mist vaporizers that can harbor mold if not cleaned daily, and remove visible mold by scouring with a bleach solution.
Mold allergies can trigger a person’s asthma, as well as causing symptoms such as sneezing, or a stuffy or runny nose.
Signs of a mold problem in the house include: moisture or water damage such as leaks, stains, discoloration on the walls; growths that are black, yellow or other colors and have a texture like leather, cotton or velvet; and musty or earthy odors.
While some mold is visible, mold growths also can hide under flooring, behind furniture or inside of walls.
There are more than 100,000 types of mold. Varieties of black mold can be particularly harmful to one’s health.
When mold is growing on porous materials such as drywall, plaster, paneling, ceiling tiles or carpet, completely remove the material, bag it and discard it. Non-porous materials, such as metal and glass, do not need to be discarded.
If you have allergies, asthma or emphysema, check with your doctor before cleaning an area that has mold, or have someone else do the cleanup.
