As we all know, indoor air quality is very important for our health - we spend a lot of time indoors, and home is supposed to be a safe place to be. That's why indoor mold can be a greater health risk today.
The problem is that when buildings are made to be energy efficient, less air flows in and out of the building. This makes your home cheaper and easier to heat and cool, but indoor pollutants, like mold, tend to stick around because they have nowhere else to go.
Believe it or not, the majority of health effects that can be traced to mold stem directly from mold allergies or from asthma. Some people are just sensitive to mold without having allergies, but their reactions tend to be more mild.
Mold causes many respiratory symptoms, just like seasonal pollen allergies. If mold triggers asthma, it can also cause the airway to constrict, making breathing difficult. Common allergic reactions to mold include:
If these symptoms sound familiar, you're right! These are common respiratory symptoms that also occur with viruses like a cold, but in this case they won't go away in a couple of weeks, not unless the mold is taken care of.
If you are not sure if chronic respiratory illness is due to mold, please see your family doctor or arrange for allergy testing.
There are literally hundreds of different strains of mold in the world. A very small percentage of these can let out mycotoxins. Whether or not the mold in your home is a "toxic" mold, should not determine what you do for mold. The Center for Disease Control is very specific in their recommendations - there is no safe mold, and all mold infestations should be taken care of as soon as possible.
Allergies are usually addressed in two different ways - by treating the allergy, either through symptom control or through allergy treatment like allergy shots, and by removing the source of the allergy as much as possible.
Professional mold remediation is an important part of the recovery from mold symptoms and health effects. Mold remediation targets the mold at its source, taking care of the water problem that started the mold growing.
If you are concerned about the effects mold has had on your health or on the health of a loved one, please see a doctor as soon as you can. Then call FDP Mold Remediation. We'll take it from there.
