Most people don’t realize just how dangerous mold can be if you live in a contaminated home or work in a contaminated building for prolonged periods of time. Elevated levels of mold can cause some health complications that most people aren’t aware of and of course, some home sellers (whose homes for sale are sometimes contaminated) are skeptical. They want proof, when there is quite a lot of evidence that proves that the mycotoxins produced by mold cause diseases in human beings.
The inhalation of a large amount of mold spores can cause significant health problems like allergy symptoms, asthma, colds, coughing incessantly, bleeding in the lungs (particularly in infants or pets), trouble breathing, and even cancer. Problems with the central nervous system of a person are also known to be a problem.
Problems with vision, chronic or excessive fatique, mood swings, hives, headaches, sinus problems, tremors, trouble speaking, vomiting, and vertigo have been known to occur. A recent study even shows that children who are exposed to molds and workers who are exposed to them in working environments are more likely to develop asthma.
A condition that affects the lungs like hypersensitivity pneumonitis is developed by inhaling the mold spores (or anything like dust or other fungus spores) for prolonged periods of time. If the air conditions that cause the condition are not improved significantly or the person is not removed from the situation, the lungs can become irreparably damaged and cannot function. This is one of many serious conditions that can be caused due to prolonged exposure to mold.
Basically, there are more health complications associated with mold than you can shake a stick at and most people don’t realize that there are this many problems associated with mold growing in their homes. They think that it’s not that big of a deal and can afford to put off getting it removed from their homes or that they can’t afford to relocate until it is removed, but the fact is that if you’re a healthy adult, you might be able to hold up for a short period of time in these conditions before it starts to take its toll on you, but your baby, elderly relative living with you, or your pet very well may not. It’s best not to take chances with your or your family’s health. Do whatever is necessary to get out of the mold contaminated home or apartment or have it removed as soon as possible
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New York Sewage Damage Clean-up and other states and cities such as
North Carolina Water and Sewage Extraction companies across the united states.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Mold And Your New Home
Say that you’re having a new home built for you. Imagine your surprise when you discover after it’s done that it’s infested with mold! What a nightmare that would be! Most people don’t think about the possibility of mold actually being built into their homes when the contractor is in the process of building it. How can this happen?
Sometimes building materials that have mold on them are used in the house’s construction and the contractor and/or his supervisors don’t assess the quality of the materials before using them. The best thing you can do to prevent mold from being built into your new home are to inspect the building materials and test them yourself.
Sometimes the materials bought to build your home with are stored outside directly on the ground and in cases where it rains on them and the humidity is high, mold can and will begin to grow on these items, depending on how long they are left there. Both building materials and the entire home itself should be covered with plastic sheeting at the end of each day to make sure the part of the home that is already completed and the materials it is being built with are safe from rain. Until the walls and roof of the house are installed and are completely able to keep out rain and other kinds of precipitation, it should be covered each and every day of the construction.
The home sometimes isn’t tested for mold growth as it should and when it should be, which is during the home’s construction and after it is finished. Although some people choose to do mold testing during and after their new home’s construction on their own (as they should), it is the job of the contractor to make sure the integrity of the structure is not compromised by anything, including mold. You could sue the contractor if you discover the mold contamination after the home is already built, but who wants to build a home for thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars just to find out that you can’t live in it? Nobody I know of.
The modern materials that we use to build homes these days, including drywall and plywood, are things that mold love to eat. Most homes are built recently have some amount of these materials in them, though, and sometimes it can’t be helped unless you want a more expensive alternative.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New York water damage restoration and other states and cities such as
Connecticut mold remediation companies across the united states.
Sometimes building materials that have mold on them are used in the house’s construction and the contractor and/or his supervisors don’t assess the quality of the materials before using them. The best thing you can do to prevent mold from being built into your new home are to inspect the building materials and test them yourself.
Sometimes the materials bought to build your home with are stored outside directly on the ground and in cases where it rains on them and the humidity is high, mold can and will begin to grow on these items, depending on how long they are left there. Both building materials and the entire home itself should be covered with plastic sheeting at the end of each day to make sure the part of the home that is already completed and the materials it is being built with are safe from rain. Until the walls and roof of the house are installed and are completely able to keep out rain and other kinds of precipitation, it should be covered each and every day of the construction.
The home sometimes isn’t tested for mold growth as it should and when it should be, which is during the home’s construction and after it is finished. Although some people choose to do mold testing during and after their new home’s construction on their own (as they should), it is the job of the contractor to make sure the integrity of the structure is not compromised by anything, including mold. You could sue the contractor if you discover the mold contamination after the home is already built, but who wants to build a home for thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars just to find out that you can’t live in it? Nobody I know of.
The modern materials that we use to build homes these days, including drywall and plywood, are things that mold love to eat. Most homes are built recently have some amount of these materials in them, though, and sometimes it can’t be helped unless you want a more expensive alternative.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New York water damage restoration and other states and cities such as
Connecticut mold remediation companies across the united states.
Mold and Your Insurance
Under most home insurance policies, mold is one of the few things (along with rust, rot, and fungi) that are generally uncovered unless it is the result of something that is covered by the home’s insurance policy, such as flood damage and the water caused by a burst pipe. However, mold that has been caused by leaks, condensation, or flooding (in the case where the homeowner does not have flood insurance) is not covered.
Even though mold has been around for thousands of years and will continue to be for thousands more, the amount of mold claims that have been submitted to insurance companies have increased significantly. Insurers are beginning to insert some language into their policies that is very specific as to what is covered and what is not. Some companies may soon decide to offer to cover damages caused by mold and will raise the price of the policy and others may choose to continue to completely exclude mold from the homeowner’s insurance policy. In order to guard against the failings of your homeowner’s insurance, removing mold and preventing it from returning is essential if you wish to retain the value of your home and your health.
Anyone who owns or rents property should be aware that mold should be cleaned up as soon as it is discovered and that mold cannot grow without a decent access to moisture. Repairing water damage, the cause of excess humidity, and other leaks should be done immediately in order to minimize the amount of mold that will grow in that area of the property. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that people take measures to safeguard not only their properties, but also their health by making swift work of the mold growing where they live and/or work and taking appropriate measures to make sure it does not return.
Your home should not be completely air tight and a home that is cannot breathe. Homes that air cannot flow freely through are breeding grounds for mold because the air is allowed to become stagnant. You should have vents installed in the bathrooms, laundry room, and kitchen in your home.
Wood and other cellulose-based debris should not be placed in any crawl spaces or against the side of the home because mold eats these and any other organic-based material.
Carpet shouldn’t be installed anywhere in the home where moisture should be a problem such as the bathroom where toilets or bath tubs can overflow or in the laundry room where the washer could leak out into the floor.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood water damage restoration chicago and
mold remediation companies across the united states.
Even though mold has been around for thousands of years and will continue to be for thousands more, the amount of mold claims that have been submitted to insurance companies have increased significantly. Insurers are beginning to insert some language into their policies that is very specific as to what is covered and what is not. Some companies may soon decide to offer to cover damages caused by mold and will raise the price of the policy and others may choose to continue to completely exclude mold from the homeowner’s insurance policy. In order to guard against the failings of your homeowner’s insurance, removing mold and preventing it from returning is essential if you wish to retain the value of your home and your health.
Anyone who owns or rents property should be aware that mold should be cleaned up as soon as it is discovered and that mold cannot grow without a decent access to moisture. Repairing water damage, the cause of excess humidity, and other leaks should be done immediately in order to minimize the amount of mold that will grow in that area of the property. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that people take measures to safeguard not only their properties, but also their health by making swift work of the mold growing where they live and/or work and taking appropriate measures to make sure it does not return.
Your home should not be completely air tight and a home that is cannot breathe. Homes that air cannot flow freely through are breeding grounds for mold because the air is allowed to become stagnant. You should have vents installed in the bathrooms, laundry room, and kitchen in your home.
Wood and other cellulose-based debris should not be placed in any crawl spaces or against the side of the home because mold eats these and any other organic-based material.
Carpet shouldn’t be installed anywhere in the home where moisture should be a problem such as the bathroom where toilets or bath tubs can overflow or in the laundry room where the washer could leak out into the floor.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood water damage restoration chicago and
mold remediation companies across the united states.
Mold and Your Clothes
If you’re planning on moving out of a house or apartment that’s been infected with mold, decontaminating your clothes before you do is a must. No one should stay in a place where mold exists for very long and cross-contaminating your new living space with the mold that can exist on your personal belongings is likely.
Most items made from cotton and polyester can be freed of the mold, however the older the mold stains are on the clothing, the harder they will be to remove. These stains can be bleached out if it’s white clothing you’re dealing with. If it’s colored fabric, you can use a brush to remove the mold from it and this will help to loosen up the mold growing in the threads. Rub a pre-wash spray into the stain and soak it in water and laundry detergent up to 45 minutes and wash. Don’t use the clothes dryer in your laundry room to dry these items; let them dry naturally outside in the sun. The artificial heat can seat the stain even further into the clothing and as some people may know, the sun is very good at bleaching things, so this could actually help your white clothing. Unless you leave colored clothes in the sun for days, it shouldn’t do any damage.
Sometimes dry cleaning can be effective in killing and removing the mold from your clothes, but it doesn’t always work.
Cleaning mold from upholstery starts almost the same way cleaning clothing does and that’s with a brush. Remove the mold from the upholstery with a brush and if you have a vacuum cleaner that has a brush attachment on it, use that to keep mold spores from taking flight. Washing the item where the mold was present with laundry detergent (test in a small inconspicuous area first to make sure it won’t damage the fabric) and a brush comes next and then take it out into the sun to dry.
Unfortunately, if mold contaminates something made of leather, you’re pretty much out of luck. Leather is discolored easily, especially by mold and since leather is skin that’s been cured and dried over time, it is very porous and mold loves porous surfaces. Even if you do clean the mold off of it, it will still be spotty and discolored in areas.
To keep mold from growing on clothes that you hang in your closet, don’t pack them into the closet so close together. Air circulation is the enemy of mold and your clothes need to be able to breathe. If air can’t get in and out of the closet, mold will grow. If you don’t pack them tightly and they still become moldy, try installing a vent.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Texas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors and
Water Damage Restoration companies across the united states.
Most items made from cotton and polyester can be freed of the mold, however the older the mold stains are on the clothing, the harder they will be to remove. These stains can be bleached out if it’s white clothing you’re dealing with. If it’s colored fabric, you can use a brush to remove the mold from it and this will help to loosen up the mold growing in the threads. Rub a pre-wash spray into the stain and soak it in water and laundry detergent up to 45 minutes and wash. Don’t use the clothes dryer in your laundry room to dry these items; let them dry naturally outside in the sun. The artificial heat can seat the stain even further into the clothing and as some people may know, the sun is very good at bleaching things, so this could actually help your white clothing. Unless you leave colored clothes in the sun for days, it shouldn’t do any damage.
Sometimes dry cleaning can be effective in killing and removing the mold from your clothes, but it doesn’t always work.
Cleaning mold from upholstery starts almost the same way cleaning clothing does and that’s with a brush. Remove the mold from the upholstery with a brush and if you have a vacuum cleaner that has a brush attachment on it, use that to keep mold spores from taking flight. Washing the item where the mold was present with laundry detergent (test in a small inconspicuous area first to make sure it won’t damage the fabric) and a brush comes next and then take it out into the sun to dry.
Unfortunately, if mold contaminates something made of leather, you’re pretty much out of luck. Leather is discolored easily, especially by mold and since leather is skin that’s been cured and dried over time, it is very porous and mold loves porous surfaces. Even if you do clean the mold off of it, it will still be spotty and discolored in areas.
To keep mold from growing on clothes that you hang in your closet, don’t pack them into the closet so close together. Air circulation is the enemy of mold and your clothes need to be able to breathe. If air can’t get in and out of the closet, mold will grow. If you don’t pack them tightly and they still become moldy, try installing a vent.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Texas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors and
Water Damage Restoration companies across the united states.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
What Molded Foods to Discard
Knowing what kind of food in your refrigerator that has become moldy that you should throw away can sometimes be a difficult task, especially if you do not understand what kinds of foods are affected by mold the most severely. If people would keep their refrigerators cleaned out more often, there might be less instances of mold growth in them, but mold growing in the refrigerator on some food every once in a while is fairly unavoidable. Sometimes we leave things in the fridge for too long because we forget they are there or possibly we just put off eating that particular item until it becomes moldy and it is too late to save. So, what kinds of foods can be saved if they become contaminated by mold?
Fruits and vegetables can become moldy if you leave them in the refrigerator long enough and especially if there is a bad one among them that does not get thrown out. Leaving a bad fruit or vegetable near healthy ones will inevitably cause the others to go bad in a relatively short period of time. Most molded fruits and vegetables cannot be saved because these items are porous and generally have a high content of moisture.
Other foods that contain a high moisture content such as jams, jellies, and etcetera should also be thrown out if you find mold growing on them or even just on the inner surface on the lid of the jar. The mold will contaminate the entire jar, because they are not dense foods.
Foods like cakes, cookies, breads, and other baked goods should also be thrown away because of their porous, non-dense nature. We all know that breads can become moldy and most of us throw them away and this logic is usually applied to everything else baked in the oven.
Foods like blocks of cheese and hard salami, however, can usually be saved even if they become contaminated with mold. Simply take a knife and cut around the molded area by about one inch and cut one inch underneath. Throw the molded piece away. Unfortunately, individually sliced cheeses that become moldy cannot be treated in this manner because they are moist enough that the mold “roots” will contaminate the whole slice and even possibly the entire pack. Just throw them away.
Let’s review. Items that contain a lot of moisture such as cream cheese, sour cream, and etcetera should be thrown away. Foods that are also very porous like baked goods should also be thrown out. Dense foods like blocks of cheese and hard salami can be saved.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Connecticut Mold Remediation services and
flood and water damage cleanup companies across the united states.
Fruits and vegetables can become moldy if you leave them in the refrigerator long enough and especially if there is a bad one among them that does not get thrown out. Leaving a bad fruit or vegetable near healthy ones will inevitably cause the others to go bad in a relatively short period of time. Most molded fruits and vegetables cannot be saved because these items are porous and generally have a high content of moisture.
Other foods that contain a high moisture content such as jams, jellies, and etcetera should also be thrown out if you find mold growing on them or even just on the inner surface on the lid of the jar. The mold will contaminate the entire jar, because they are not dense foods.
Foods like cakes, cookies, breads, and other baked goods should also be thrown away because of their porous, non-dense nature. We all know that breads can become moldy and most of us throw them away and this logic is usually applied to everything else baked in the oven.
Foods like blocks of cheese and hard salami, however, can usually be saved even if they become contaminated with mold. Simply take a knife and cut around the molded area by about one inch and cut one inch underneath. Throw the molded piece away. Unfortunately, individually sliced cheeses that become moldy cannot be treated in this manner because they are moist enough that the mold “roots” will contaminate the whole slice and even possibly the entire pack. Just throw them away.
Let’s review. Items that contain a lot of moisture such as cream cheese, sour cream, and etcetera should be thrown away. Foods that are also very porous like baked goods should also be thrown out. Dense foods like blocks of cheese and hard salami can be saved.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Connecticut Mold Remediation services and
flood and water damage cleanup companies across the united states.
Stop Snow Mold From Eating Your Lawn
Most of us enjoy a nice patch of thick green grass under our feet during the spring and summer, but unfortunately for those people who live in areas that get thick blankets of snow, this might actually be something that they take for granted. Mold becomes a problem for some lawns during the winter time and can absolutely wreak havoc on them while that thick and beautiful blanket of snow graces your front yard. By the time it melts, you will be left with dead circular patches of grass all over and not a clue as to how they got there.
Mold is a problem generally when a thick and wet layer of snow falls on your front yard before the ground has had a chance to freeze and render the mold spores and fungus living there dormant. This means that when the blanket of snow is resting on your lawn and insulating it throughout the winter, mold is free to run amok and have a feast on it.
The symptoms of this lawn disease are typically circular patches of dead grass all over the lawn, but if the infection is severe, then you may not even be able to see these as circular patches due to the amount of grass that has been killed.
There are at least two different kinds of snow mold and these are pink and gray. The pink variety of snow mold seems to be the most dangerous of the two, as it is able to reach the roots of the grass and completely kill it. This is caused by the mold Microdochium nivale and can be anywhere from a light pink to a deep salmon-pink type color.
Gray snow mold is, as you would guess, anywhere from gray to white in color, but it is not caused by a specific mold. It is caused by molds in the genus Typhula. These molds do not affect more than the blades of grass and will not kill the grass down at the roots.
Snow mold occurs most often when a blanket of snow falls on a patch of ground that is not frozen and does not melt for an extended period of time. It can also occur, however, when fall leaves are let to cover a patch of grass for a long time. The best thing that you can do to prevent snow mold is to keep mowing your lawn as long as it keeps growing and do not fertilize your lawn less than six weeks before cold weather rolls in.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
damage restoration companies and
mold removal companies across the united states.
Mold is a problem generally when a thick and wet layer of snow falls on your front yard before the ground has had a chance to freeze and render the mold spores and fungus living there dormant. This means that when the blanket of snow is resting on your lawn and insulating it throughout the winter, mold is free to run amok and have a feast on it.
The symptoms of this lawn disease are typically circular patches of dead grass all over the lawn, but if the infection is severe, then you may not even be able to see these as circular patches due to the amount of grass that has been killed.
There are at least two different kinds of snow mold and these are pink and gray. The pink variety of snow mold seems to be the most dangerous of the two, as it is able to reach the roots of the grass and completely kill it. This is caused by the mold Microdochium nivale and can be anywhere from a light pink to a deep salmon-pink type color.
Gray snow mold is, as you would guess, anywhere from gray to white in color, but it is not caused by a specific mold. It is caused by molds in the genus Typhula. These molds do not affect more than the blades of grass and will not kill the grass down at the roots.
Snow mold occurs most often when a blanket of snow falls on a patch of ground that is not frozen and does not melt for an extended period of time. It can also occur, however, when fall leaves are let to cover a patch of grass for a long time. The best thing that you can do to prevent snow mold is to keep mowing your lawn as long as it keeps growing and do not fertilize your lawn less than six weeks before cold weather rolls in.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
damage restoration companies and
mold removal companies across the united states.
Ordinary Water Damage Prevention Tips
The majority of water damage to your home can be avoided if you just take a few simple steps. They are not as hard as you might think and you will be safeguarding the value of your home for years to come. Repairs for water damage do not typically come cheap unless you do it yourself and use less than ideal building materials, so why not do your best to avoid the problem altogether?
You might not be thinking about the structural integrity of your home when the washing machine or the bath tub overflows, but you probably should be. If you are a forgetful person that allows this to happen a lot more than it probably should, you could actually be doing quite a bit of damage to the floor of your home. Overflows like this should be avoided at all costs, but we are all a little forgetful sometimes.
Something that we also do not typically think about most of the time is whether or not the steam that exists in our kitchens and bathrooms actually has anywhere to go while we are bathing or cooking dinner. The sad fact is that if the steam does not have anywhere to go, it will stick to your walls, ceiling, and cabinets and be completely absorbed by them. When drywall absorbs too much water, the paper on the outside of it can start to sag and eventually, the entire board becomes weakened by it. Combine that with the unsightly appearance of water stains and you have a fair sized problem on your hands. The solution is to install a steam vent into both of these rooms near the source of the steam.
Keep your rain gutters cleaned out every fall. The purpose of the gutters is to collect the water that slides off of your roof when it rains, channel it to downspouts, and eventually down to the ground and away from the foundation of the home. Water that settles around the foundation of your home can be a real problem if you let it happen over years of time, because it can cause the home to start sinking into the ground.
Any leaks that you find in your roof need to be fixed as often as necessary, because a roof leak can ruin not only ceiling drywall, but also the fiberglass insulation that you might have in your attic. This insulation becomes completely useless and heavy when it gets wet and can eventually cause the drywall underneath it to collapse.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
water damage restoration companies and
Dallas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors.
You might not be thinking about the structural integrity of your home when the washing machine or the bath tub overflows, but you probably should be. If you are a forgetful person that allows this to happen a lot more than it probably should, you could actually be doing quite a bit of damage to the floor of your home. Overflows like this should be avoided at all costs, but we are all a little forgetful sometimes.
Something that we also do not typically think about most of the time is whether or not the steam that exists in our kitchens and bathrooms actually has anywhere to go while we are bathing or cooking dinner. The sad fact is that if the steam does not have anywhere to go, it will stick to your walls, ceiling, and cabinets and be completely absorbed by them. When drywall absorbs too much water, the paper on the outside of it can start to sag and eventually, the entire board becomes weakened by it. Combine that with the unsightly appearance of water stains and you have a fair sized problem on your hands. The solution is to install a steam vent into both of these rooms near the source of the steam.
Keep your rain gutters cleaned out every fall. The purpose of the gutters is to collect the water that slides off of your roof when it rains, channel it to downspouts, and eventually down to the ground and away from the foundation of the home. Water that settles around the foundation of your home can be a real problem if you let it happen over years of time, because it can cause the home to start sinking into the ground.
Any leaks that you find in your roof need to be fixed as often as necessary, because a roof leak can ruin not only ceiling drywall, but also the fiberglass insulation that you might have in your attic. This insulation becomes completely useless and heavy when it gets wet and can eventually cause the drywall underneath it to collapse.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
water damage restoration companies and
Dallas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors.
Mold Remediation Cleanup Equipment
When you are talking about cleaning up mold and removing it from your home, there are a few different methods that you can use. Depending on the size and type of infection, you might want to use one technique before trying the other, however. Large scale infections can be handled by you if you know what you are doing and have the proper equipment to assist you.
Using a wet vacuum to clean up standing water in your home is a good thing to start with. This is especially important if you suspect Stachybotrys chartarum or Stachybotrys atra have made a home out of an area of your basement a home. Stachy loves standing water and cellulose-based items such as cardboard and paper, so removing standing water from any part of your home is important to keeping this kind of mold from growing. It does not always need standing water in order to grow, but it helps significantly. You should be warned, however, that if an infection already exists, you should probably call a professional to deal with this particular mold because it has been given the deadly label of “toxic”.
A vacuum cleaner equipped with a HEPA filter can assist you when you are performing any invasive procedures on your home to remove the mold infection that exists. This usually means tearing out drywall or other building materials or even just removing contaminated wallpaper. The HEPA filter removes all particles from the air that is being collected by it and releases clean air back into your home. When emptying the vacuum’s receptacle, you do not want to touch any of this material with your bare hands. When dumping it into a garbage bag, be careful to stir up the contents into the air you are breathing as little as possible.
You will also want to have a good respirator if you are planning on doing any remediation on your own. These can be anything from a simple N-95 respirator that you can find in hardware stores all the way to an electric powered air purifying respirator that requires training in order to use it effectively.
You should also wear some breathable, protective clothing made of a material such as TYVEK when doing your own remediation. Anyone that you hire should also be wearing these, as well, as it is a sign of just how professional their company may or may not be.
Jim Corkern is a writer and respected contributor to the Water damage restoration and mold remediation Industry. Visit his sites for more information.
http://www.waterbasementct.info and
http://www.moldrestorationusa.com
Using a wet vacuum to clean up standing water in your home is a good thing to start with. This is especially important if you suspect Stachybotrys chartarum or Stachybotrys atra have made a home out of an area of your basement a home. Stachy loves standing water and cellulose-based items such as cardboard and paper, so removing standing water from any part of your home is important to keeping this kind of mold from growing. It does not always need standing water in order to grow, but it helps significantly. You should be warned, however, that if an infection already exists, you should probably call a professional to deal with this particular mold because it has been given the deadly label of “toxic”.
A vacuum cleaner equipped with a HEPA filter can assist you when you are performing any invasive procedures on your home to remove the mold infection that exists. This usually means tearing out drywall or other building materials or even just removing contaminated wallpaper. The HEPA filter removes all particles from the air that is being collected by it and releases clean air back into your home. When emptying the vacuum’s receptacle, you do not want to touch any of this material with your bare hands. When dumping it into a garbage bag, be careful to stir up the contents into the air you are breathing as little as possible.
You will also want to have a good respirator if you are planning on doing any remediation on your own. These can be anything from a simple N-95 respirator that you can find in hardware stores all the way to an electric powered air purifying respirator that requires training in order to use it effectively.
You should also wear some breathable, protective clothing made of a material such as TYVEK when doing your own remediation. Anyone that you hire should also be wearing these, as well, as it is a sign of just how professional their company may or may not be.
Jim Corkern is a writer and respected contributor to the Water damage restoration and mold remediation Industry. Visit his sites for more information.
http://www.waterbasementct.info and
http://www.moldrestorationusa.com
Mold Related Diseases
Exposure to mold for a long period of time can cause all different kinds of health problems and individual diseases, but some of us do not really understand just how inconvenient and even deadly some of these conditions can be. Whether the disease or condition ends in “osis” or “mycosis” does not really matter as much as the actual symptoms of the disease, which can even lead to death in some cases.
Those who are the most threatened by mold exposure are typically those who have weak constitutions. This can be an infant or a small child, an elderly person with health problems, or someone who has HIV or AIDS. Even perfectly healthy people can succumb to the effects of breathing in mold spores or letting it come into contact with their skin, but it usually takes longer for these individuals to develop symptoms.
The typical symptoms of these diseases can be mild flu or allergy symptoms like coughing, sneezing, or fever or they can be more serious such as coughing up blood, respiratory infections, or yeast infections. The kind of symptoms that surface usually depend upon the exact kind of infection you have developed, but some conditions, such as the presence of aspergilloma (or fungus balls) in the body have no symptoms for quite a while before they are finally detected.
Caused by molds in the genus called Aspergillis, aspergilloma is a fairly serious condition. When called by the common name of “fungus balls”, they not only sound pretty nasty; they actually are. They invade any pre-existing cavities in the organs of your body and those who are at the most risk to develop these are typically those who have had conditions like cancer or tuberculosis. Without any symptoms in the beginning, you probably will not realize that you have aspergilloma living inside you without your doctor performing a chest x-ray or other detection technique.
Penicilliosis is a disease that is native to the region of southeast Asia where the mold that causes it lives and this is referred to as the third most common infection that occurs in patients with HIV and AIDS in the region. Since the mold that causes this, Penicillium marneffei, exists only in this region, cases of this infection are fairly confined to this region of the world. Those with HIV or AIDS, however, who are traveling back and forth to the region should be very cautious because this infection can be fatal.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
mold removal in Atlanta Georgia and
Water Damage Restoration companies.
Those who are the most threatened by mold exposure are typically those who have weak constitutions. This can be an infant or a small child, an elderly person with health problems, or someone who has HIV or AIDS. Even perfectly healthy people can succumb to the effects of breathing in mold spores or letting it come into contact with their skin, but it usually takes longer for these individuals to develop symptoms.
The typical symptoms of these diseases can be mild flu or allergy symptoms like coughing, sneezing, or fever or they can be more serious such as coughing up blood, respiratory infections, or yeast infections. The kind of symptoms that surface usually depend upon the exact kind of infection you have developed, but some conditions, such as the presence of aspergilloma (or fungus balls) in the body have no symptoms for quite a while before they are finally detected.
Caused by molds in the genus called Aspergillis, aspergilloma is a fairly serious condition. When called by the common name of “fungus balls”, they not only sound pretty nasty; they actually are. They invade any pre-existing cavities in the organs of your body and those who are at the most risk to develop these are typically those who have had conditions like cancer or tuberculosis. Without any symptoms in the beginning, you probably will not realize that you have aspergilloma living inside you without your doctor performing a chest x-ray or other detection technique.
Penicilliosis is a disease that is native to the region of southeast Asia where the mold that causes it lives and this is referred to as the third most common infection that occurs in patients with HIV and AIDS in the region. Since the mold that causes this, Penicillium marneffei, exists only in this region, cases of this infection are fairly confined to this region of the world. Those with HIV or AIDS, however, who are traveling back and forth to the region should be very cautious because this infection can be fatal.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
mold removal in Atlanta Georgia and
Water Damage Restoration companies.
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