While there are a large number of commercial chemicals that are on the market and advertised to kill mold, there are not too many options for those of us who are interested in “going green”. Many people are jumping onto the going green band wagon recently, exchanging the chemical cleaners and pesticide treated foods for something more natural and un-tampered with. There are natural ways to kill mold, though, that will not harm human beings, even if they are few and far between. You can find these in health food stores or even just your local grocery store, but be prepared to pay more than you would for the chemical alternatives.
The first one is the least expensive of the three ways, but you may not be pleased with the way your house smells immediately after you treat it. This calls for distilled white vinegar for a number of reasons. It is colorless and will not stain anything that you put it on and it will kill somewhere around 82 percent of molds that can live in your house. Even though it does not kill all kinds of mold, it will kill most that grows indoors. Pour the vinegar into a spray bottle, spray it on the mold and do not rinse. The smell will go away in a while and the mold should be dead.
Another way that you can kill mold is to use tea tree oil. This is a little bit expensive, but if you are bent on going green, this is one of the only 3 known ways to go. It will kill more types of mold than vinegar and leaves no odor. Take about two teaspoons of tea tree oil and mix it with two cups of water. Put this in a spray bottle, mix the two by shaking it up, and spray areas of mold with it. Again, do not rinse. This has an indefinite shelf life.
Grapefruit seed extract works in a similar way and you need to mix around 20 drops of this with two cups of water in the same way that you mixed up the tea tree oil. Spray it on molded areas and like the other two methods, do not rinse it off.
None of these methods should pose any health threat to you or the people in your home, unless you or they have an allergy to one of these items
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Texas Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Getting Ready For Hurricane Season
Nobody wants to have to prepare for a hurricane, but if you choose to live in an area where they are common, then it is probably something that you will have to deal with at least once every year or two. The preparation is not too difficult, but depending on the category of the storm, you may be stuck in your home longer than you want to be if you chose to stay in it instead of evacuate along with everyone else.
You should start with making sure that you have an ample water supply and build it according to how many people will be staying with you at the time of the storm. Each person should have one gallon of water for them to use for at least a week or longer, depending on how long you expect the storm to last. Saving water is pretty easy, since you can rinse out milk jugs and use them. If you do not have any milk jugs saved for this event, then purchasing bottled water at the grocery store is probably going to be your only option, but they may not have enough to meet your current needs. After the storm starts and you are confined to your home, however, you should never trust the water that comes out of your faucet, since it could be contaminated with sea water, bacteria, debris from the storm, or sewage.
You can purify your water out of the tap by boiling it if you need to, but try to avoid this unless you just run completely out of water from your supply. You can also purchase water purification tablets from outdoor supply stores or any other store that sells hiking or camping supplies. Campers and hikers take these with them when they are going to an area where their water supply is not guaranteed to last them their whole trip.
You should also have a good supply of food that does not require refrigeration, since the power could go out at any given time. Even though water is most important here, you do not want to run out of food, either.
Boarding up your windows and doors is also standard procedure for hurricane preparation. Try to keep as much water as possible from getting inside the house to reduce the amount of water damage done to the property.
Keep a hand crank radio. As long as you can crank the handle, it will create its own electricity so you can listen to the local radio stations to keep track of how far the storm has progressed.
Getting Ready For Hurricane Season
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Texas Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
You should start with making sure that you have an ample water supply and build it according to how many people will be staying with you at the time of the storm. Each person should have one gallon of water for them to use for at least a week or longer, depending on how long you expect the storm to last. Saving water is pretty easy, since you can rinse out milk jugs and use them. If you do not have any milk jugs saved for this event, then purchasing bottled water at the grocery store is probably going to be your only option, but they may not have enough to meet your current needs. After the storm starts and you are confined to your home, however, you should never trust the water that comes out of your faucet, since it could be contaminated with sea water, bacteria, debris from the storm, or sewage.
You can purify your water out of the tap by boiling it if you need to, but try to avoid this unless you just run completely out of water from your supply. You can also purchase water purification tablets from outdoor supply stores or any other store that sells hiking or camping supplies. Campers and hikers take these with them when they are going to an area where their water supply is not guaranteed to last them their whole trip.
You should also have a good supply of food that does not require refrigeration, since the power could go out at any given time. Even though water is most important here, you do not want to run out of food, either.
Boarding up your windows and doors is also standard procedure for hurricane preparation. Try to keep as much water as possible from getting inside the house to reduce the amount of water damage done to the property.
Keep a hand crank radio. As long as you can crank the handle, it will create its own electricity so you can listen to the local radio stations to keep track of how far the storm has progressed.
Getting Ready For Hurricane Season
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Texas Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
Contractors
When it comes to remodeling or building a home, many homeowners (or potential homeowners) will often go into the process with the misconception that hiring a contractor is the simplest of tasks, and can be done by anyone. However, hiring a contractor is one of the most, if not the most important tasks to accomplish when constructing or remodeling a home. It is probably a very bad idea to choose the first contractor you see in the phone book or see on TV. Instead, you should ask around and get references from various people you know who have hired contractors before so you can choose one that knows what he or she is doing.
The first thing you should do is to find around three contractors that you think may be best suited for the job. As previously stated, it is a very good idea to ask around, specifically relatives and friends and neighbors who have hired contractors for information on the contractors they have used and find out the praise and criticisms of each one. You should find out whether or not the contractors did a good job with the handling of specific jobs. Some of the most important jobs to ask about are dealing with water damage, any mold growth, or possibly fire damage. Water damage from a bad plumbing job is one of the most serious problems and causes of mold damage. Mold damage can be one thing that can kill the building of your home.
It is a very good idea that you show the building plans to the three contractors you have narrowed your search down to. This way you can help you get the individual perspective you like best. This can also help you evaluate each individual idea.
One of the most important things to do is do find out whether or not there are any lawsuits being filed against the potential contractors that they may be trying to hide. The contractor that you choose should either supply you with or should tell you where to obtain copies of all insurance policies for your own records. And speaking of insurance, it is important that you make sure that the contractor you choose has insurance.
It is very important that you outline everything that you expect the contractor to do during the job in the contract that you have them sign. It should include information such as the starting date, and end date. It’s also a good idea to offer a bonus for early, but careful, completion of the job as an incentive.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Texas Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
The first thing you should do is to find around three contractors that you think may be best suited for the job. As previously stated, it is a very good idea to ask around, specifically relatives and friends and neighbors who have hired contractors for information on the contractors they have used and find out the praise and criticisms of each one. You should find out whether or not the contractors did a good job with the handling of specific jobs. Some of the most important jobs to ask about are dealing with water damage, any mold growth, or possibly fire damage. Water damage from a bad plumbing job is one of the most serious problems and causes of mold damage. Mold damage can be one thing that can kill the building of your home.
It is a very good idea that you show the building plans to the three contractors you have narrowed your search down to. This way you can help you get the individual perspective you like best. This can also help you evaluate each individual idea.
One of the most important things to do is do find out whether or not there are any lawsuits being filed against the potential contractors that they may be trying to hide. The contractor that you choose should either supply you with or should tell you where to obtain copies of all insurance policies for your own records. And speaking of insurance, it is important that you make sure that the contractor you choose has insurance.
It is very important that you outline everything that you expect the contractor to do during the job in the contract that you have them sign. It should include information such as the starting date, and end date. It’s also a good idea to offer a bonus for early, but careful, completion of the job as an incentive.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Texas Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
Cell Phone Water Stickers
Cell phones have become a part of our everyday lives and there are not too many people these days who do not have one at their disposal almost 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Whether you have one or not, though, you probably understand that letting these crucial items come into contact with water is not a good idea, but what some people do not understand is that their phone’s warranty does not cover this kind of damage.
In recent years, there have been a number of cell phone manufacturers putting water damage stickers inside the phones to determine whether a phone has been in contact with water. This solves the problem of people making false claims to the manufacturer and getting a free phone supposedly due to a defect in the phone itself, but for the honest consumer, this can be a problem for those who live in areas that are subject to high amounts of humidity. It has been discovered that humidity alone can set these stickers off. A powdered dye is placed underneath the sticker and when it gets wet, it changes the sticker’s color from white to red. This makes it easy for a technician to reject a warranty claim on the grounds of water damage, even if no other signs of water damage are available.
If you are confident in your ability to take apart electronics and put them back together, you should be able to locate these stickers inside your phone and cover them with a piece of satin-backed scotch tape. You would want to do this if you have very humid summers where you live and you do not want to have to purchase a new phone if it stops working for some un-water related reason. The first sticker should be located near the battery pack, but the second one is deeper inside the phone and probably located on the circuit board itself.
If you do drop your cell phone in water, get it out immediately and remove the battery. If it is attached to the AC adapter and plugged into the wall, unplug the adapter FIRST and do not put your hand in the water. Remove the battery, SIM card (if your phone has one), and dry the exterior off as quickly as you can. To get the inside of the phone dried as quickly as possible, put it in a bowl of uncooked rice at least overnight. Do not try to power on the phone until you are absolutely certain the inside is dry. Electricity running through the item while it is wet will be what does the damage, not the water itself.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New York Basement Water extraction and other states and cities such as
new york city mold remediation companies across the united states.
In recent years, there have been a number of cell phone manufacturers putting water damage stickers inside the phones to determine whether a phone has been in contact with water. This solves the problem of people making false claims to the manufacturer and getting a free phone supposedly due to a defect in the phone itself, but for the honest consumer, this can be a problem for those who live in areas that are subject to high amounts of humidity. It has been discovered that humidity alone can set these stickers off. A powdered dye is placed underneath the sticker and when it gets wet, it changes the sticker’s color from white to red. This makes it easy for a technician to reject a warranty claim on the grounds of water damage, even if no other signs of water damage are available.
If you are confident in your ability to take apart electronics and put them back together, you should be able to locate these stickers inside your phone and cover them with a piece of satin-backed scotch tape. You would want to do this if you have very humid summers where you live and you do not want to have to purchase a new phone if it stops working for some un-water related reason. The first sticker should be located near the battery pack, but the second one is deeper inside the phone and probably located on the circuit board itself.
If you do drop your cell phone in water, get it out immediately and remove the battery. If it is attached to the AC adapter and plugged into the wall, unplug the adapter FIRST and do not put your hand in the water. Remove the battery, SIM card (if your phone has one), and dry the exterior off as quickly as you can. To get the inside of the phone dried as quickly as possible, put it in a bowl of uncooked rice at least overnight. Do not try to power on the phone until you are absolutely certain the inside is dry. Electricity running through the item while it is wet will be what does the damage, not the water itself.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
New York Basement Water extraction and other states and cities such as
new york city mold remediation companies across the united states.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Keeping Mold Off Of Your Things
Mold grows everywhere, but sometimes we humans give it a little help by some of the habits we exhibit in our daily lives. We do not always know when mold is present, though, or what may cause mold to grow or what prevents it from growing. There are a few different things that you can do in order to keep mold off of your stuff and out of your house, but you will not be able to get rid of all mold from your living environment. It is in the air we breathe and on the ground we walk on; only when it starts to grow in colonies can we see it with the naked eye. While you cannot completely get rid of it, you can help prevent it from growing in colonies on your personal belongings.
Any fruit and vegetables in your kitchen should be checked for mold every day or so and anything that is showing spots of mold should have the mold either cut out of it or simply thrown away. Do not allow mold-contaminated fruits or vegetables to stay in your refrigerator or next to anything else.
If you have a baby or babysit one on a regular basis, odds are good that you have some baby bottles in your kitchen. They are made of odd shapes these days and sometimes you cannot get them completely dry and this includes some toddler “sippy” cups that have hollow handles that allow liquid from juice or milk inside. If they are not cleaned properly and dried thoroughly, mold can grow in them. The solution? After washing them and drying them, put them in your freezer until you need them again. Mold does not like to grow in cold temperatures and if the bottle has been washed immediately before being put in the freezer, it should be sterile.
Also, any wet clothing should never be thrown onto carpet and left there or even really on any floor. Once they stay there for over 24 hours, mold can start to grow on these and if the wet item is at the bottom of a dirty laundry basket or even worse, on the bottom of the floor of a closet underneath dry dirty clothes, it can contaminate everything else that it touches. The best way to deal with wet clothing from a swimming pool or from being outside in the snow is to wash it as soon as possible and do not put it in the same basket with dry clothes.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Texas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors and
Water Damage Restoration companies across the united states. (1)
Any fruit and vegetables in your kitchen should be checked for mold every day or so and anything that is showing spots of mold should have the mold either cut out of it or simply thrown away. Do not allow mold-contaminated fruits or vegetables to stay in your refrigerator or next to anything else.
If you have a baby or babysit one on a regular basis, odds are good that you have some baby bottles in your kitchen. They are made of odd shapes these days and sometimes you cannot get them completely dry and this includes some toddler “sippy” cups that have hollow handles that allow liquid from juice or milk inside. If they are not cleaned properly and dried thoroughly, mold can grow in them. The solution? After washing them and drying them, put them in your freezer until you need them again. Mold does not like to grow in cold temperatures and if the bottle has been washed immediately before being put in the freezer, it should be sterile.
Also, any wet clothing should never be thrown onto carpet and left there or even really on any floor. Once they stay there for over 24 hours, mold can start to grow on these and if the wet item is at the bottom of a dirty laundry basket or even worse, on the bottom of the floor of a closet underneath dry dirty clothes, it can contaminate everything else that it touches. The best way to deal with wet clothing from a swimming pool or from being outside in the snow is to wash it as soon as possible and do not put it in the same basket with dry clothes.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Texas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors and
Water Damage Restoration companies across the united states. (1)
Important Information About Mold And Home Canning
Canning vegetables and fruits is a popular summertime activity for a lot of people, especially women in rural areas that have too much of one thing or the other grown in their gardens for their families to eat or for them to give away. Whether it is jams, jellies, marmalades, pickles, soups, or almost anything else, if it can be canned, someone is probably doing it during the harvest season.
A similar process is used in the commercial canning industry, but the boon of doing your own canning from home is that you know exactly what is going into the jar you are putting your food in. You have complete control over everything that goes inside and your exposure to pesticides and chemicals used on the foods in a canning factory is limited to what you use to protect your own garden from bugs and rodents.
Home canning also uses techniques that are tried and true to preserve food and prevent them from being contaminated by mold, yeast, and bacterias. Botulism and other diseases are caused by these contaminants and the canning techniques used to help prevent them are still in widespread use today. What can you do to help prevent your home canned goods from spoiling after you can them..? And how do you know if they’re spoiled after they’ve been on the shelf for a while..?
If you are a canner and have had some problems with spoiled or mold-contaminated jars in the past, then there are a few different things that could be causing your foods to spoil.
The first thing that you need to do is make sure that your fruits or vegetables (or whatever you are canning) is thoroughly washed and of good quality. They also usually require peeling if you want a quicker processing time.
If the food is packed too tight in the jars, then the temperature in the center of the jar does not get high enough for a long enough time to allow for the complete sterilization of what is inside. Pack food loosely in jars and use the time, pressure, and temperature required by the recipe.
Put the lids on the jars after filling them and immediately begin processing the food before any microorganisms can start to grow. Once mold spores get into the jars, you’ll have problems later on because a lot of times high temperatures simply do not kill mold spores, just like cold temperatures don’t tend to. Use sterile equipment and jars.
Lastly, if you find mold growing in one of your jars after you open it, the best thing to do is toss it. Soft foods will become completely contaminated by mold, unlike hard blocks of cheese and other dense foods.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Texas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors and
Water Damage Restoration companies across the united states. (1)
A similar process is used in the commercial canning industry, but the boon of doing your own canning from home is that you know exactly what is going into the jar you are putting your food in. You have complete control over everything that goes inside and your exposure to pesticides and chemicals used on the foods in a canning factory is limited to what you use to protect your own garden from bugs and rodents.
Home canning also uses techniques that are tried and true to preserve food and prevent them from being contaminated by mold, yeast, and bacterias. Botulism and other diseases are caused by these contaminants and the canning techniques used to help prevent them are still in widespread use today. What can you do to help prevent your home canned goods from spoiling after you can them..? And how do you know if they’re spoiled after they’ve been on the shelf for a while..?
If you are a canner and have had some problems with spoiled or mold-contaminated jars in the past, then there are a few different things that could be causing your foods to spoil.
The first thing that you need to do is make sure that your fruits or vegetables (or whatever you are canning) is thoroughly washed and of good quality. They also usually require peeling if you want a quicker processing time.
If the food is packed too tight in the jars, then the temperature in the center of the jar does not get high enough for a long enough time to allow for the complete sterilization of what is inside. Pack food loosely in jars and use the time, pressure, and temperature required by the recipe.
Put the lids on the jars after filling them and immediately begin processing the food before any microorganisms can start to grow. Once mold spores get into the jars, you’ll have problems later on because a lot of times high temperatures simply do not kill mold spores, just like cold temperatures don’t tend to. Use sterile equipment and jars.
Lastly, if you find mold growing in one of your jars after you open it, the best thing to do is toss it. Soft foods will become completely contaminated by mold, unlike hard blocks of cheese and other dense foods.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Texas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors and
Water Damage Restoration companies across the united states. (1)
Hidden Water Damage Can Creep Into The Most Common Areas Of Your Home
The bathroom and the kitchen are the two rooms of our homes that, when remodeled, can add the most significant amount of value to it. They are the two centers of our houses, whether we realize it or not. A good house is usually inspected by a few different factors and these two are generally the focal points of many home buyers. Home buyers want to know if a property has a good kitchen and if it has a good bathroom. Depending on what they see, it can make or break a sale.
Unsightly water damage can usually be prevented to either area of the home unless it is caused by mother nature, such as flood or hurricane damage. What can you do to prevent water damage to the two most important rooms of your home..? Similar things can be done in each room to help keep the value of your home from going down.
Taking a bath or boiling water on the stove gives off steam, but there is not always a way for the steam to get out of the room if there is no vent installed. There should be a vent with a fan in each bathroom of the house and the kitchen, as well, to keep the steam from being absorbed by the walls. Drywall that has been damaged in this way usually starts to sag after a while because it has absorbed so much water and not only this, but mold will start to grow on walls that catch steam like this, as well. This is the perfect environment for mold to grow in.
Any plumbing in your bathroom or kitchen needs to be checked on a regular basis for cracks or weak spots in its connections. Anything in your house that uses water coming from the water system in your home needs to be checked on regularly to make sure the chance of a leak sneaking up on you is minimal. Some leaks can sneak up on you while you are away from home or asleep at night, but a lot of time it is caused by just not keeping an eye on worn hoses or damaged pipes.
Sometimes a water heater is located in a pantry or in an area near the kitchen, so keeping a check on this is a good idea, too. The water heater should be set inside of a drain pan that is connected to the water system of your home so that if it does leak, any water is directed down into the septic tank or the sewer.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Miami Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors and
Orlando water Damage companies.
Unsightly water damage can usually be prevented to either area of the home unless it is caused by mother nature, such as flood or hurricane damage. What can you do to prevent water damage to the two most important rooms of your home..? Similar things can be done in each room to help keep the value of your home from going down.
Taking a bath or boiling water on the stove gives off steam, but there is not always a way for the steam to get out of the room if there is no vent installed. There should be a vent with a fan in each bathroom of the house and the kitchen, as well, to keep the steam from being absorbed by the walls. Drywall that has been damaged in this way usually starts to sag after a while because it has absorbed so much water and not only this, but mold will start to grow on walls that catch steam like this, as well. This is the perfect environment for mold to grow in.
Any plumbing in your bathroom or kitchen needs to be checked on a regular basis for cracks or weak spots in its connections. Anything in your house that uses water coming from the water system in your home needs to be checked on regularly to make sure the chance of a leak sneaking up on you is minimal. Some leaks can sneak up on you while you are away from home or asleep at night, but a lot of time it is caused by just not keeping an eye on worn hoses or damaged pipes.
Sometimes a water heater is located in a pantry or in an area near the kitchen, so keeping a check on this is a good idea, too. The water heater should be set inside of a drain pan that is connected to the water system of your home so that if it does leak, any water is directed down into the septic tank or the sewer.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Miami Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors and
Orlando water Damage companies.
What Mold Has Done For Us
Mold can cause all kinds of negative health effects to us and it has done this for thousands of years, but what about all the good things that we have gotten from the presence of mold? We have been using mold to make different foods and medicines for years, but these days on the news most of what we hear about mold is negative. Perhaps we do not hear about the benefits of this organism so much because they have become such a part of our daily lives.
There are a lot of different foods that have been produced using mold for many years and the most famous seems to be cheese. Blue cheese was accidentally invented a long time ago when mold had contaminated a block of cheese that had been left sitting out to age. Most people either love or hate this cheese because of its salty taste and crumbly texture and because of the blue veins of mold that run throughout the block. It has also become very popular as an ingredient for salad dressing. Since it was first invented, experiments have been done to culture just the right mold to make the cheese taste just right. Gorgonzola and Roquefort cheeses are also produced using molds. These three cheeses are often called the “kings” of cheeses.
The mold Aspergillus oryzae is used in Japan to make the alcoholic beverage called sake. Sake is an acquired taste for those who are used to other European liquors, because sake is made with rice. The mold used to ferment the rice is referred to in Japanese as “koji” and the development of this mold has been almost perfected over the years, even though there are different ways to culture it. This mold begins to break down the rice and produce the sugar that the yeast used to ferment the rice needs in order to keep growing. The process of growing the mold can be extremely effected by temperatures, the type of rice that is used, and the kind of water, among other factors.
One of the most famous uses of mold was the invention of Penicillin by Alexander Fleming back in the first half of the 1900’s. This has been used since then to help in the fight against bacterial infections, even though it has been discovered that some people are allergic to the medicine and cannot receive it due to their skin breaking out or in rare cases, hospitalization or even death.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
water damage restoration companies and
Dallas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors.
There are a lot of different foods that have been produced using mold for many years and the most famous seems to be cheese. Blue cheese was accidentally invented a long time ago when mold had contaminated a block of cheese that had been left sitting out to age. Most people either love or hate this cheese because of its salty taste and crumbly texture and because of the blue veins of mold that run throughout the block. It has also become very popular as an ingredient for salad dressing. Since it was first invented, experiments have been done to culture just the right mold to make the cheese taste just right. Gorgonzola and Roquefort cheeses are also produced using molds. These three cheeses are often called the “kings” of cheeses.
The mold Aspergillus oryzae is used in Japan to make the alcoholic beverage called sake. Sake is an acquired taste for those who are used to other European liquors, because sake is made with rice. The mold used to ferment the rice is referred to in Japanese as “koji” and the development of this mold has been almost perfected over the years, even though there are different ways to culture it. This mold begins to break down the rice and produce the sugar that the yeast used to ferment the rice needs in order to keep growing. The process of growing the mold can be extremely effected by temperatures, the type of rice that is used, and the kind of water, among other factors.
One of the most famous uses of mold was the invention of Penicillin by Alexander Fleming back in the first half of the 1900’s. This has been used since then to help in the fight against bacterial infections, even though it has been discovered that some people are allergic to the medicine and cannot receive it due to their skin breaking out or in rare cases, hospitalization or even death.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
water damage restoration companies and
Dallas Residential Water Damage Restoration Contractors.
Three Types of Mold
Even though mold has been around almost since the beginning of life on this planet, we have only just begun to understand the true hazards of mold and started to classify it into different groups depending on what it does to us and to other organisms on the planet. Depending on the effect that mold has on the health of human beings, hazardous molds are put into three categories: toxic, pathogenic, and allergenic.
The least serious of these seems to be the allergenic, as they only tend to either cause allergies or aggravate the allergies a person already has. Asthma and other respiratory diseases and disorders can also be aggravated by the presence of mold in a home or in a business. Anti-histamines can be taken to help with the symptoms, but these do not tend to do a lot of good. Getting rid of the infection is generally the best way to deal with these symptoms and prevent them from coming back. As with any mold, the people most at risk to show symptoms are young children, pets, and the elderly, although those who are pregnant and especially those with HIV or AIDS can also be effected.
Pathogenic molds are not as common as toxic or allergenic molds, but these can be the most dangerous threats to anyone who has HIV, AIDS, or another type of immunodeficiency. Anyone that has just had surgery of any kind should also be wary of getting around any kind of mold, even if it is just the mold spore count on the news that is high for the day.
Toxic molds are molds such as Stachybotrys atra that produce mycotoxins and while these kinds of molds are not as common living in our homes as others, they can cause significant damage to our health and can even cause death in the most extreme cases. Penicilliosis is an opportunistic infection mostly affecting HIV patients and even though this disease is endemic to Southeast Asia, anyone with an immunodeficiency traveling to or from that area is at risk for infection.
The bottom line is that no matter what kind of mold you have in your home or your business, it is a serious health threat to you, your family, your pets, or your workers. If you can see mold growing anywhere in your home or you are experiencing strange symptoms, purchase some do-it-yourself mold testing kits.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Emergency Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
The least serious of these seems to be the allergenic, as they only tend to either cause allergies or aggravate the allergies a person already has. Asthma and other respiratory diseases and disorders can also be aggravated by the presence of mold in a home or in a business. Anti-histamines can be taken to help with the symptoms, but these do not tend to do a lot of good. Getting rid of the infection is generally the best way to deal with these symptoms and prevent them from coming back. As with any mold, the people most at risk to show symptoms are young children, pets, and the elderly, although those who are pregnant and especially those with HIV or AIDS can also be effected.
Pathogenic molds are not as common as toxic or allergenic molds, but these can be the most dangerous threats to anyone who has HIV, AIDS, or another type of immunodeficiency. Anyone that has just had surgery of any kind should also be wary of getting around any kind of mold, even if it is just the mold spore count on the news that is high for the day.
Toxic molds are molds such as Stachybotrys atra that produce mycotoxins and while these kinds of molds are not as common living in our homes as others, they can cause significant damage to our health and can even cause death in the most extreme cases. Penicilliosis is an opportunistic infection mostly affecting HIV patients and even though this disease is endemic to Southeast Asia, anyone with an immunodeficiency traveling to or from that area is at risk for infection.
The bottom line is that no matter what kind of mold you have in your home or your business, it is a serious health threat to you, your family, your pets, or your workers. If you can see mold growing anywhere in your home or you are experiencing strange symptoms, purchase some do-it-yourself mold testing kits.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Emergency Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
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