Let's Talk About Mold

Before we continue the journaling of our remediation efforts and obstacles, I think it's helpful to talk about mold, mycotoxins, and mold illness. The first night we left the house, I spent *hours* online trying to find reliable information. As the initial weeks progressed, we faced a dizzying array of options, all of which came down to evaluating the scope and impact of our mold situation. It was terribly confusing and stressful. I just wanted concrete information so that we could make the necessary decisions, but it was very hard to come by. It was challenging to string all the pieces together into a coherent plan of action. Maybe by sharing this I can save someone a step.

Years ago, a local acquaintance on a Facebook group lost her house to mold. I remember being surprised at the seemingly extreme measures that her family had to take, and the many health issues she said it was causing for them. This was my first real introduction to the potentially devastating effects of mold. Although my husband (a remodeler by trade) had sometimes encountered mold in water-damaged areas, we didn't really understand how molds could cause significant problems. If it wasn't growing all over the walls, and wasn't the more publicized "black mold", what was the big deal?

Turns out, it can be a VERY BIG deal.

First of all, you have to understand that mold is everywhere. As part of the Fungi kingdom, they produce spores that are found naturally in the environment both indoors and outdoors (See "Sources") Certain molds grow under certain conditions, and there is an extremely wide variety of molds that occur all around us. When met with the right conditions, mold can quickly grow and multiply into a problem. Indoors, it really comes down to five common types that pose major concerns: Penicillium, Cladosporium, Aspergillus, Alternaria, and Stachybotrys chartarum (aka black mold). (See "Sources")

DIY air sampling test plate

(Note: This is NOT the professional testing we had done)

As I researched mold related problems, I kept coming across the term "mycotoxins." People often mistakenly call them "microtoxins". In a sense, it's a fitting term. Mycotoxins are the microscopic toxins that some molds produce, which result in a wide variety of health effects. Moldy feed can make livestock sick, and, as it turns out, moldy air can make people sick. It can make some people very, very sick.

Mold illness, like many other auto-immune type conditions, has its advocates and its critics in the medical community. I am not a doctor, but I can tell you that addressing the mold in our environment significantly increased the health of our family in concrete, objective ways. Take from that what you will. However, I do see why it is a mystifying topic. Even within our own family, responses to the mold in our home varied widely. My husband and one of our daughters had debilitating symptoms. Despite sweeping changes in diet, extensive supplementing and testing, my husband had extreme nerve and joint pain, headaches, and cognitive issues. Especially in the morning, he would wake up in so much pain, rolling out of bed to just stand there for a minute and try to get his screaming nerves to settle enough for him to walk into the other room. My daughter had been experiencing an array of mystery illnesses - sudden, unexplained headaches, chronic fatigue, and significant abdominal pain and leg pain, especially in the evenings at bedtime. She even had a few terrifying instances of losing the use of her legs and/or arms that the ER doctor could not explain.

As serious as their symptoms had become, the rest of us had mild reactions. I was struggling with persistent brain fog, which I thought was due to postpartum hormone issues after a difficult pregnancy and birth. One child was experiencing nearly constant bedwetting and frequent nightmares. Another was also having cognitive function issues. For the previous two years, I felt like I was constantly chasing mystery symptoms. They would come and go initially, but had been increasing in frequency and severity. We had looked into dietary sensitivities and nutritional deficiencies. We began to notice that my husband was in pain and struggling to function the most on weekends. There were other possible explanations for these problems, though, and we didn't suspect mold.

We actually didn't connect the dots until my husband went to a new doctor for a routine physical in July of 2021. As he answered intake questions, the office person immediately raised red flags and asked if he had been evaluated for mold illness. According to the doctor's office, he had all the classic signs. We learned that some people have a genetic factor that limits their ability to detox their own bodies. There is a strong correlation between people suffering from mold illness and susceptibility to other toxin related illnesses and allergies (including Lyme disease and other auto-immune issues). They had him do some blood tests and other diagnostic tests to see if those also pointed to that possibility. When those came back confirming we might be on the right track, the doctor suggested we order a home mold evaluation.

Our professional mold analysis involved air samples and surface sampling. We chose to go with a company that was independent of any remediation work (and therefore had nothing to gain or lose by misrepresenting the scope of our mold issue). They took a control sample of the outdoor air to get a baseline for the natural mold levels in our environment. (Remember, mold spores are found naturally everywhere.) Then they took indoor samples. Ideally, indoor samples should be better than, or at least equal to, the outdoor sample. Ours was much worse. Compared to our outdoor baseline sample of 1,092 spores per cubic meter, our kitchen area tested for Aspergillus / Penicillium-like spores at 16,380 spores per cubic meter. In our back bonus area, the levels showed 4,576 spores per cubic meter. The mold was growing in our crawlspace, which we found had significant moisture and drainage issues. Since the HVAC ducting under the house was also found to be improperly sealed, it was pulling all the mold up into our indoor air.

Despite all of this data, it was hard to evaluate how extreme we needed to be about remediating our personal belongings. Eventually, I came to think of it as a table of factors. How long has the problem been going on? How significant is the problem (localized or throughout the house)? And how sick is it making us? Once I could think about it in those terms, I was able to categorize our options. If the mold was widespread, but hadn't been a problem for long, then we probably could just fog and wipe things down, wash our clothes, and move on. Unfortunately, we struck out on all three counts. It was evident that this was an issue that had been going on for a long time, it was being circulated widely throughout our whole house, and it was causing severe health issues for several members of our family.

This matrix of decision making proved extremely helpful as we navigated the coming months, serving as a sort of touchstone of reality as we faced the daunting task of remediation. More on that to come...

Information on molds taken from:

https://www.epa.gov/mold/mold-course-chapter-1

https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/mold/index.cfmindex.cfm