Mold exposure is no joke. I lived in a rented apartment that was flooded badly during Hurricane Sandy (and I was on the 4th floor!). Within a few days of the storm passing I was emailing my landlord, concerned that he apparently hadn’t begun doing anything to reduce likelihood of mold growth. A few weeks later gives us the go ahead to move back in, and within weeks of that I rapidly began developing symptoms.
Initially looked like severe allergies but then I started coughing up blood, waking up gasping for breath, really bad nausea and other GI issues. I was already pissed off with management at this apartment so we moved out about 4 months after the hurricane. While moving out we found all this black mold hiding behind furniture and in corners. Took pictures and then made a point to do mold air quality test before handing over the keys. Saw my PCP who had been overseeing my care the whole time, probably dozens of visits, and mentioned what I found. He then had zero doubt that the mold was causing everything
He ordered a blood test that shows the immune system’s response to mold and it indicated my body was dealing with quite a bit of it. The air tests showed the presence of 3 types/quantities of toxigenic mold and correlated with blood tests
I think it took nearly two years for me to fully recover after moving out of the apartment. Was at least fortunate that all of that documentation allowed me to get a settlement. I had literally emailed the landlord saying I have asthma and the apartment must be safe for me to move back into. I now do mold air tests before I move anywhere
Oddly the house we are about to move into passed the mold air test and then we found a ton of mold in the insulation once we ripped all the drywall out of what is going to be my bedroom
I read a detailed account from a non-anon former Apple employee (I can get the link to share) who was similarly sick from per the evidence strong chemical fumes they were ejecting from their factories nearby some of the employee housing. No follow up or accountability and several reasons why they were allowed to operate that way perhaps (besides other team dysfunction). Just terrible stuff like this seems to happen regardless of a biz’s rep w general population and dismissed from attention if it ever receives it
NY and Ontario landlords and I’m sure elsewhere have a high tolerance for leaving terrible mold situations in rentals, I know someone who had permanent nerve damage and a condition for life from how the black mold behind her shower that the landlord wouldn’t fix and the state wouldn’t help resolve
I’m sorry I replied on twitter a couple months ago and they’ve deleted the posts. I followed them and could find that way maybe but don’t want to dox them now that they’ve taken it down. They couldn’t find journalist interest and I tried to refer one. I have no affiliation / authority over this second hand info of course.
To clarify, they were not a factory worker, they were corporate (not that it makes it better but it means that exposure to stuff wouldn't have been a part of their employment agreement) and the root cause was that it saved money
What steps did you take to secure your own living area? I've been through a few hurricanes and part of the recovery process is multiple deep cleans and constant inspection of your own living space, placing desiccate bags in every closet to soak up the residual moisture, replacing water damaged furniture, rugs...
The biggest problem with apartments or condos that experience severe water damage is building management or condo associations that don't want to take on the expense of bringing in experts to repeatedly inspect every apartment for this kind of mold growth. As a resident you and your neighbors, landlords... end up with a significant part of the burden of keeping your domiciles mold free.
Wasn’t particularly concerned with cleaning. When we first entered the apartment, pieces of the ceiling had fallen all over the space, probably nearly an inch of water on the ground. Was an absolute mess.
As I said, I was told the apartment was repaired and cleaned and led to believe it was safe to move back in so no I didn’t dedicate the hours to cleaning the place myself. Would have been for naught regardless, as the landlord never brought fans and dehumidifiers in (supposed to be done within 24-48 hours) so allowed moisture to fester for weeks
HERTSMI-2 is the most accurate. Often houses will pass air spore tests but HERTSMI-2 will catch the problem. It isn't necessary to do an ERMI - that tests for ALL molds in your house. You only need to test for Mycotoxin producing molds, which the HERTSMI-2 does.
Only costs $130. Buy the Swiffer kit. Vacuum is not as accurate. Clean the whole house, then wait 2-4 weeks, then use the Swiffer kit to collect dust that has settled in the bedrooms and living room. Don't do kitchen or bathrooms.
Interpreting a HERTSMI-2:
0-8: Excellent
9-10: Good
11-15: Possibly dangerous. Deep clean the whole house, especially locations that are rarely cleaned and have settled dust like the tops of ceiling fans, door frames, blinds, etc. Wait 2-4 weeks and retest. If the score is still 11 or above, you have a significant mold problem that needs to be found and remediated by professionals.
16-50: Dangerous. You have a significant mold problem that needs to be found and remediated by professionals.
I use companies licensed in mold remediation and testing. If you live in a fairly populated area and google “mold air testing in (x city)” you should hopefully find something. It’s strange to me how infrequently these services are utilized. My realtor, who is one of the most experienced in the state even wasn’t sure who to go to for this when I first asked
There's some care to take here, especially depending on state licensing requirements. In some places it's particularly easy or low risk to present fraudulent results or interpretations of results on air tests so they can pitch expensive but unnecessary mitigation. National and regional chains often provide licensing cover for, and set quotas on, operators that enable some of this scamming.
One way to vet a mold tester is to go through a property management or landlords' association, even if you're not either of those things (even if you're a renter!). They often refer or have a list of vetted local contractors publicly available. Nobody likes wasting money on property less than a landlord.
100%. for this reason it can be ideal to go with a company that only does testing, not remediation. In smaller markets, though, you might be forced to go through a company that does remediation as well. Had to do it recently but they were honest and helpful, gave us a clean rating
please don't randomly dose maois because someone on the internet said so. Talk to a doctor.
Also, for whatever its worth house molds (black molds) are not the same as the fungi that infect us (like candida sp.), and if you somehow did get infected with a fungus that usually isn't part of our flora (like aspergillus does), you have a very severe underlying medical condition and need medical attention immediately.
It isn't an maoi unless you take much higher dosages, no different from fearing drowning from drinking water. It acts through hormesis (low dose effect is different from high dose) so by the time it's an MAOI (30mg+), it turns your pee blue and it's used to cure maleria and UTIs.
I don't believe I am infected but mold spores did 'something' and MB helps. I wasn't trying to use it for candida but it was just scraping my tongue as usual and noticing there was nothing there.
I wish there was a good intermediate class of doctor that knew about non patent medicines more besides YouTube. They're not taught "yesterday's" medicine that might have worked better.
If someone doesn't mind the winter air, I also practice the German way of airing my house too, twice a day. It's called lüften.
Most doctors don't believe the people who are saying that for some people to recover from mold illness requires more than just removing oneself from the moldy environs.
If you are one of the approx 16% of the population unable to clear mold toxins from your body, the mold toxins can persist and keep you sick for decades after the end of any exposure to moldy environments.
I see that they're saying 24% of the population, not the 1-in-6 I recall reading from some other source. Also, I seem to have been wrong about the test's needed to be ordered by a doctor (except in Pennsylvania).
If you aren't chronically ill, I don't think you need do anything. There is a blood test for whether you can detox mold toxins, but a doctor would need to order it, and, e.g., Medicare would not pay for it.
Besides what the other person said it's also not as well known and there's no financial incentive for it to be taught to them over patented medicine (at least in the us). I also suggest lüften a common daily German practice of opening the windows twice or more daily.
Or even better, set up a Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV). It’s absolutely insane to me that more people don’t know about them and no building code mandates their installation. It’s not exactly complicated or high tech.
Modern well insulated buildings need active ventilation. Passive just doesn’t cut it anymore.
I installed a HRV system in my (well insulated) house, and I love it - air quality indoors is noticeably improved.
Only downside is that there’s lots of wood burning in my particular (and densely populated) area of Europe, so I was quickly drawn into the rabbit hole of particulate matter sensors and how to automatically shut the ventilation system off when the neighbors turn on their fireplace.
And when it comes to mold, our bathroom used to have black spots on the walls after a while, but with improved ventilation it stays amazingly clean and everything dries much more quickly. Almost no condensation on surfaces like mirrors and walls anymore either.
Initially looked like severe allergies but then I started coughing up blood, waking up gasping for breath, really bad nausea and other GI issues. I was already pissed off with management at this apartment so we moved out about 4 months after the hurricane. While moving out we found all this black mold hiding behind furniture and in corners. Took pictures and then made a point to do mold air quality test before handing over the keys. Saw my PCP who had been overseeing my care the whole time, probably dozens of visits, and mentioned what I found. He then had zero doubt that the mold was causing everything
He ordered a blood test that shows the immune system’s response to mold and it indicated my body was dealing with quite a bit of it. The air tests showed the presence of 3 types/quantities of toxigenic mold and correlated with blood tests
I think it took nearly two years for me to fully recover after moving out of the apartment. Was at least fortunate that all of that documentation allowed me to get a settlement. I had literally emailed the landlord saying I have asthma and the apartment must be safe for me to move back into. I now do mold air tests before I move anywhere
Oddly the house we are about to move into passed the mold air test and then we found a ton of mold in the insulation once we ripped all the drywall out of what is going to be my bedroom