mold-symptom.com

Toxic mold. Ed McMahon claimed it made his family ill and caused his sheepdog to develop respiratory problems and die after the den of his Beverly Hills, Calif., mansion flooded.

Kerry and Rachelle Sherman, of St. George, say they lived with toxic mold in their rental home for a year until their two daughters' continued health problems, which they blame on the mold, forced them out.

When they first learned of the mold, "I figured at the very worst it could be making our allergies worse," Rachelle Sherman said. The mold spread through several rooms, and eight months after moving in, the children became sick; the 1-year-old was treated for pneumonia.

When the illness and incessant coughing continued into May despite antibiotics and breathing treatments, the family moved into a relative's home, minus any possessions that couldn't be cleaned. The children recovered within a week. Their cough syrup intake declined from three times a night to three times a week, Sherman said.

"That's when it hit me: That place is making us sick and I'm not going back." She and her husband are building a new home with no carpeting; floors will be tile or acid-stained concrete.

"It doesn't get better with antibiotics, it doesn't get better with nasal decongestants," said John P. Ball, an attorney at the Salt Lake City firm of Parsons, Behle & Latimer, which recently launched a toxic mold litigation group. "The medicine is to leave the environment or clean it up."

Stachybotrus charum, aspergillus and penicillium fall under the "toxic mold" heading and the three typically are found any time there is water damage, said Eugene C. Cole of Brigham Young University's Department of Health Science. Cole has directed studies for the federal Environmental Protection Agency on indoor air quality issues and is a technical consultant to the World Health Organization.

"Toxic mold isn't toxic in the sense that we think of chemical poisoning," he says. While there is no medical or clinical evidence linking the blackish green mold to health ailments, people can develop a sensitivity or allergy to those specific molds over time. Mold growth affects air quality in a home and can trigger health problems for people with asthma.

Toxic mold can develop even in the desert in the middle of a five-year drought.

"Sometimes in a drought people use their sprinklers more. Sprinklers are one of the worst problems with mold because people have them next to their houses," Ball says. If sprinklers are placed improperly, the water can drain into the house's foundation and lead to mold.

He blames what he calls "shoddy construction." Construction shortcuts, heavy use of sheetrock instead of plaster, and improperly applied stucco contribute to the problem, he says, adding that some of the worst cases are in new homes and in "counties where growth is highest and home building is at its strongest."

"The way we build houses is significantly different in the past 20 to 30 years than the way we [built them] before. If mold could build a house it wanted to live in, it'd use sheetrock. It's very porous; water gets in there and serves as a beautiful germination point for mold," he says. "If there's a construction defect, oftentimes that is the underlying cause of how you get water intrusion and how you get mold."

Michael Duke of Utah Disaster Kleenup in Draper, which has started handling toxic mold in the past five years, concurs that homes are different today.

"We used to have one bathroom, now we have three," he said. Plus, homes are more airtight "so they have less of a capacity to dry."

BYU's Cole says building owners and managers, renters and homeowners need to be proactive. Look for sources of water damage and intrusion, check under the sink, look in the attic for roof leaks, inspect areas that smell musty. An obvious water problem, such as an overflowing tub that saturates the ceiling of the apartment below, should be handled as quickly as possible-preferably within 24 hours, Cole says.

"If it's significant, if they've [property owners] been on vacation and find that someone's left the sink running for two days, they need a professional and they need a professional fast," he said, pointing out that mold is insidious and can grow under electrical outlets, in wall cavities, baseboards and duct work.

It also can get into other porous material such as carpeting, furniture and clothing, leading to potentially thousands of dollars in damage, according to Ball.

No state has licensure requirements for people who handle water damage restoration work, Cole said, so property owners should use companies and individuals that follow the industry standard. He recommends hiring someone who is a member of the nonprofit Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification or the Association of Specialists in Cleaning and Restoration, and always get references.

A company with expertise in water damage restoration finds the source of the water, prevents further water intrusion, dries out the affected area and restores building materials, such as replacing drywall, Cole says.

The cost can add up.

"If we're dealing with a shower or something like that [cleanup costs] could be $1,500 to $2,000; it could be as low as $500," Duke said. "Generally, you're going to see a couple of rooms [costing] $2,500 to $3,000. It's generally small areas that you're dealing with, like a shower."

In a typical scenario involving several rooms, cleanup can take a week and a half to 14 days from the time mold is identified, samples taken and results received, the area is cleaned and the tester returns to check that the mold has been eradicated, Duke said.

"In larger situations, especially where people have health complaints, we prefer to have independent testing done."

Litigation, primarily over associated health issues, triggered the exclusion of mold coverage from insurance policies across the country in the past two years, said Brad Tibbitts, director of the property casualty division for the Utah Department of Insurance. He says insurers are starting to offer buy-back provisions, which he likens to purchasing extra coverage for jewelry beyond what the homeowner's policy covers.

Depending on the insurer, that buy-back in Utah is anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000 in coverage, he says.

However, air samples and spore count tests alone can cost $1,000 to $2,000 to determine the seriousness of the problem, says Ball, and then there is the cost of cleanup and replacing possessions.

Once the immediate problem is handled, the underlying cause has to be addressed, Ball says.
"Mold is there for a reason, whether it's the sprinkler, whether it's the stucco, whether it's the leaking pipe. Generally it's not that hard to find. Oftentimes we know where a pipe is leaking before we even have a mold problem," he says. "Addressing the underlying problem," such as reconfiguring the sprinkler system or changing the sprinkler head, "is the critical aspect to make sure it doesn't happen again."

The key is to treat any water damage quickly.

"If you let it stay or linger, you're going to grow mold," Duke points out.