Toxigenic means that an irritant or allergen or other biological material can or may become toxic to all humans or mammals, some humans or mammals and then only some of the time. Mold is considered toxigenic. Mold produces some times, under some conditions mycotoxins. It’s the mycotoxins that have the ability to produce an allergic or worse reaction in human or mammals. OK. So what does this have to do with me? Mycotoxins may cause health effects.
Mold destroys buildings. If you own the building, water damage repair can become extremely expensive. If you are a landlord, moving your tenants to temporary quarters and repairing or replacing their damages contents can become very expensive; coupled with building repairs. If you are a homeowner, repairing wood rot on your foundation is much less exciting than going to Hawaii for a month. Surely for both landlord and homeowner, ignorance is not bliss – it’s just more money to fix when it becomes “unavoidable”. Think of a dentist – go once every six months or so and things are usually fine; ignore it and after several years, things can become painful and expensive. Water damage and mold are the same way.
People who live or work in damp indoor air spaces may become hypersensitive to mold. Depending on your own personal DNA, you may sneeze a lot, your nose may run or drip, you may get a rash, your eyes may burn. You may have none of these, or any other, symptoms for months or years and then develop them.
There are lots of folks out there selling “magic” cures for mold; everything from bleach/Clorox (urban myth – doesn’t work) to some really toxic stuff that is fogged into your living or working area. The plan that works 100% of the time is this: find and fix all water leaks; remove all mold/discolored/water damaged building materials going two feet past any discoloration; HEPA vacuum and wipe down all surfaces; professional testing to confirm mold spores are within an acceptable range; and then rebuild. The “cheap” can become very expensive.
