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What
Property Owners & Employers Need To Know About Mold
MESA, ARIZONA. Nov. 23, 2011. Real estate property owners and company owners and managers
need to know understand these top dozen mold characteristics to get rid
of, and to prevent, mold growth in owner occupied properties, rental
properties, and business properties, according Phillip Fry, Certified
Environmental Hygienist and author of the book Mold Health Guide.
1. Mold
is a very large group of microscopic-sized fungi that eat
plants, animals, or products made from dead plants and animals.
2. 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, all of which are very ideal food for mold to eat.
3. Mold grows from
naked-to-the-eye individual mold spores into visible mold growth 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.
4. Mold colonies reproduce by throwing mold
spores (seeds) into both indoor and outdoor air. Building occupants and
visitors can suffer health problems if there are elevated levels of mold
spores indoors.
5. The most dangerous indoor molds are
Alternaria,
Aspergillus,
Chaetomium,
Cladosporium,
Fusarium,
Mucor,
Penicillium, and
Stachybotrys.
Mold testing and
mold laboratory analysis are required to identify and quantify
specific
mold species.
6. Mold 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.
7. There no absolute levels of safe or unsafe mold infestation
inside a home or other building. Because of the huge discrepancies person
to person in mold sensitivity, what might be a harmless amount of mold
exposure to one occupant can be devastating health-wise to another person.
8. Indoor mold infestation is elevated and dangerous health-wise if indoor
mold samples show higher mold counts and more mold species indoors than an
outdoor mold control test.
9. 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, and usually does, begin.
10. 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.
11.
Mold growth is often the result of a structural or construction
defect, or of maintenance neglect, that allows moisture to enter the
building.
12. 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 and removing the mold with
boric acid formula or
Tim-Bor.
For more information about
mold, visit---
http://www.moldinspector.com
http://www.certifiedmoldinspectors.com
http://www.mold.ph
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