mold-symptom.com

When Michael Rowzee was called to clean an Orem home this week, he found about 30 square feet of greenish-black toxic mold caked in its basement walls that could have been there for at least a year.
 
Commonly known as Stachybotrys chartarum -- a greenish-black fungus usually found on materials that are chronically moist or damaged by leaks or flooding -- the mold was able to grow on the walls of the basement laundry room because of a bathroom leak, said Rowzee, owner of Certified Decontamination, a Salt Lake City-based mold clean-up company.
 
Water leakage or moisture accumulation resulting from shoddy construction by contractors or modifications by homeowners and the use of porous building materials, such as Sheetrock, are among reasons cited by attorneys and remediation companies for rising incidence of mold cases in desert climates like Utah.
 
"Toxic mold isn't just a factor of outside air. It can grow if there's moisture trapped inside a drywall or the foundations of houses and buildings or if there's water leakage and a lack of ventilation, which allows mold to grow," said John Ball, an attorney with Parsons, Behle & Latimer in Salt Lake City specializing in mold litigation.
 
Mold emerged as a health risk in homes and the workplace in the mid-1990s. Some people can become physically ill from toxic mold exposure, while others experience little or no reaction.
 
Not all molds give off the toxins that cause illness, and only a microbiologist can tell the difference.
It also takes experts to get rid of mold, and in many cases, personal items such as clothing and furniture must be destroyed, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Ga.
IHI Environmental of Salt Lake City, one of the leading industrial hygienists in the western United States, reported a jump in the number of mold reports and tests in Utah to 98 in 2002 compared with just four in 2000.
 
"That's because of increased public awareness of the issue," said Rush Bowers, an IHI manager. "In 2001, we had 57 cases in Utah, of which four were in Utah County. In 2002, we had 98 cases in Utah, of which five were in Utah County. So far in 2003, we have 69 cases, of which three are in Utah County."
 
The booming home-building industry in Utah also adds to these incidences locally.
 
"Newer homes tend to be more vulnerable to toxic mold because of the speed at which they are built today. When developments come up so quickly, some builders may take shortcuts and fail to put in sprinkler systems or stucco properly," Ball said.
 
"Certain types of stuccos, or the exterior surfacing that gives a rough finish to the outside of the home, that aren't put up properly can provide conditions for mold to grow. There could be air pockets between the stucco and exterior wall which allows moisture from rain to accumulate," he said.
 
Most builders use gypsum wallboard or Sheetrock for interior walls, Ball said. When Sheetrock becomes wet, it becomes fertile ground for mold growth. But homeowners are sometimes to blame for the problem, Rowzee said.
 
"Most of the cases I've seen occur because homeowners made modifications like adding a roof or installing an extra shower but not putting in vents," he said. "The most common mistake is most people tend to route their water lines for the swamp cooler from a faucet inside the house instead of routing it from a faucet outdoors."
 
But capping a proliferation of mold-related cases for now is a lack of substantive medical reports or tests establishing a causal link between these molds and certain types of illnesses, said Loretta Worters, vice president of communications with the Insurance Information Institute in New York. The Institute represents more than 300 property and casualty insurance companies nationwide.
 
"Lawyers see mold as an opportunity to make money, especially when you have million-dollar jury awards issued to homeowners," she said. Worters referred to a $32 million jury award issued last year to Melinda Ballard, an Austin, Texas, woman, who had sued her insurance company because black mold proliferated in her 22-room mansion in Texas after her bathroom leaked, and the company allegedly delayed her request for repairs.
 
Because of the growing numbers of mold lawsuits nationwide and hefty jury awards to homeowners like the Ballards, many insurance companies have placed coverage limits in homeowners' insurance policies for water-related and mold-related damages, Worters said.
 
"Many insurers have started inserting clarifying language in homeowners' policies. Most major insurers have some form of restrictions on writing water and mold damage policies," she said.
 
 "Some may decide to cover all mold claims and price their policies accordingly. Others may exclude mold but offer endorsements, which allow homeowners to add mold coverage to the policy for a higher price."
 
Nationally, toxic mold claims averaged about $34,000 in 2001, compared with $13,000 in 2000. The insurance industry sustained about $3 billion in mold-insured losses in 2002, almost twice that in 2001, the Insurance Institute reported.
 
But current mold coverage isn't adequate, Ball argued.
 
"Some insurance companies are limiting the amount of mold coverage to only $5,000. But to remediate, it could cost between $10,000 to $100,000," he said.
 
But the challenge of litigating mold cases hasn't deterred the law firm of Parsons Behle & Latimer in Salt Lake City from launching a toxic mold litigation group offering legal services to businesses and individuals in Utah whose properties are damaged by toxic mold.
 
Founded in 1882, Parsons, one of Utah's largest law firms with 120 attorneys, has created a group of lawyers and paralegals who will assist clients with claims ranging from personal injury torts, property damages and remediation costs to breach of implied warranties and constructive eviction.

"Medical research in this area is in its infancy stage, and we believe there'll be more evidence found linking these health problems to living in mold-infested environments," Ball said.
 
Ball's law firm is taking on valid toxic mold cases on a contingency basis because most of his clients are apartment renters who may not have the financial resources to bring a lawsuit.
 
"We're doing this because there's enough of a mold-related problem in Utah, and people do need legal assistance. Some of the renters would rather break their lease, lose their rent deposits and move out rather than fight the case," he said.
 
The firm is planning to bring mold-related lawsuits against several contractors, landlords and property management firms in Utah, Ball said.
 
But Brad Stibbitts of the Utah State Insurance Department warned of possible increases in homeowners' insurance rates should mold-related lawsuits proliferate in the state.
 
Stucco contractors in Utah are now finding it harder to find general liability insurance coverage -- much less at affordable rates -- because of the rising incidence of mold-related claims, said Stibbitts, a director of the property and casualty insurance division.
 
"We've received calls from some local insurance companies in Utah that have pulled away from insuring certain categories of work like plumbing and stucco because of lawsuits that have generated huge judgments in other states," he said.
 
Complicating matters for insurers is a lack of federal or state legislation on what constitutes mold contamination and how clean-up procedures and remediation inspectors should be regulated.
 
"There are regulations for the clean-up of asbestos and lead-based paint problems, but there's none for mold because it's an emerging issue," Stibbitts said. "Once more states start regulating the mold issue, that may control the number of such lawsuits."