Mold a Scam?

The March 2007 issue of Reader's Digest includes unscrupulous mold investigation/remediation as one of the five biggest home repair rip-offs. I'd like to address some of the points made in this short article.

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The first paragraph talks about con artists, especially on the Internet, who play up fears of mold in order to sell hundreds of dollars worth of mold tests. Then they refer the buyer to a mold remediation company that they are "in cahoots with."

Here's the skinny on these points:

Test kits for mold often aren't accurate. That is, mold could be an issue even if the test shows nothing. This is why I prefer to work with tape tests, not gravity plate air tests. If the tape is positive for mold, you know what surface the mold is growing on. If an air test is positive for mold, you might not have any idea what surfaces the mold is growing on.

Further, if the gravity plate air test is negative for mold, don't trust it, because these gravity plate tests are not known for their accuracy.
Some unscrupulous mold investigators frighten people even if one colony of mold grows. I had a woman call me who thought she had to have her whole house remediated because one colony of Aspergillus grew in a gravity plate. The investigator frightened her with tales of health effects from Aspergillus.

I told this woman that one colony could grow anywhere, and the investigator was either ignorant or a scam artist. I also explained that the gravity plate testing method itself was suspect, because Penicillium and Aspergillus spores are too light to settle down in an hour, so they can be missed. She might have just wasted her money.

Here are two of my concerns when it comes to industry practices with mold inspection/remediation:

Although some states are considering legislation to outlaw this practice, many companies offer both inspection and remediation services. Just look in your Yellow Pages under "Mold."

This is a conflict of interest that is not permitted in the asbestos and lead industries. The mold inspector should be independent of the mold remediator. How else can the homeowners be sure the inspector is their advocate and not loyal instead to the remediation firm?
Post-remediation testing typically consists of a visual check to make sure everything looks clean and taking a few air samples to confirm that the air is relatively clean of mold spores, or at least contains a lower number of spores of the same species as those in outside air.

If large commercial air scrubbers (air purifiers) have just been turned off, the air should be clean -- at least temporarily. In other words, the air tests may be testing how effective the air scrubbers are, not necessarily whether the mold is gone or not.

I'll do air sampling, but I also want to check surfaces with tape to assure that a good cleaning job has been done and that all sources of mold have been eliminated.

The article continues with "The Reality." The writer suggests that healthy people usually have nothing to worry about with mold. Oh really? You don't have to worry, until it's too late and symptoms have started. All the national guidelines agree that mold should not be growing anywhere in your house. There's so much we don't know about mold and its health effects that taking a conservative approach and eliminating mold make more sense to me.

How much of a poison is safe? As we say in my line of work, "The only safe number is zero."

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The article continues, "The CDC doesn't even recommend testing mold, because if it's a problem to the occupants, it should be removed no matter what kind it is." This sounds good, unless you know that a lot of mold is invisible. How can you remove something that's invisible if you do not know where it is - or even if it's there?

As I mentioned elsewhere, research may eventually establish that the biggest concern with mold is that it suppresses the immune system. Those "healthy people" who live with mold might end up with apparently unrelated illnesses down the road because their immune systems have been damaged by the chronic mold exposure.

The article goes on to say how a homeowner can clean a small area of a nonporous surface with soap and water, followed by wiping with a 10% bleach solution. I'm thinking, "What is an example of a nonporous surface that gets moldy? Perhaps the rubber insulation around a refrigerator door." Just cleaning with soap and water would be fine for that -- or maybe using a Borax solution (1 cup per gallon of water).

Chlorinated bleach -- other than not belonging in a healthy home -- is mediocre at cleaning or killing mold, in my experience. Borax works much better, because of the abrasive action. You don't have to kill the mold; just get rid of it. And if you can't tolerate Borax, use a mild detergent or hydrogen peroxide. Use hydrogen peroxide in the laundry, too, in place of chlorinated bleach.

As an aside, it's not growth on the non-porous surfaces that is the typical concern with mold. It's the semi-porous and the porous surfaces that give the problems, and the article says nothing about them.

Lastly, the author repeats the "low humidity" mantra to control mold. That is, "If the humidity is kept low, mold won't grow." Here are two fallacies with that:

There is no guarantee that the humidity will absolutely always be low. After cleaning mold off the semi-porous surface (such as wood or oriented strand board), buried hyphae (roots) remain. These roots will re-grow if the humidity increases and maybe even if it doesn't increase.

To me, it makes sense to put an encapsulant on the surface to prevent re-growth. Whitewash (Internet search for "recipe plus whitewash") could be a least-toxic, effective lime-based encapsulant to prevent mold re-growth.

For those who want an EPA-registered product, look at Caliwel, which is whitewash with a binder to make its effectiveness last longer. For information, go to www.alistagen.com. If you are a contractor, call the company at 1-305-936-8691 to request a contractor's discount.

I have seen Caliwel kill mold on contact under the microscope. And, while lime is officially a "pesticide," because it kills pests, it is not a chemical pesticide that is going to off-gas toxic fumes for a prolonged period of time.
When moisture is migrating into wood or into a wall cavity, say through the foundation wall, you could control the relative humidity forever, and mold will still grow because of dampness penetrating through the foundation wall. Concrete is not waterproof, even if it has a coating of Thoroseal or Drylock.

I've seen basements with lots of mold where dehumidifiers have been run for 20 years.

Lastly, the author refers readers to sources of good, free information -- www.cdc.gov and www.epa.gov. I agree and refer to pieces from the EPA website elsewhere.

Note: My response to the Reader's Digest article was printed in the July 2007 issue of Our Toxic Times, www.ciin.org, although I want to add one anecdote here:

My mother's friend, who lived in a finished basement room, ended up with a fungal lung infection. At the doctor's direction, she had the room checked for mold, and the suspect mold was indeed found behind the finished walls. Does a story like this get my attention for preventive testing? You bet, Reader's Digest. You bet.

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Updated 3-25-09