Nine ways to reduce mold in your home

Neutralizing the mold spore is the key since it is the mold spore that actually causes the health and odor problems associated with mold. Ozone generators are often touted as the answer to dealing with these spores. However, because ozone itself can be a lung irritant, there’s a great deal of controversy as to whether or not consumers should use these products. For more information about ozone generators, visit the EPA website at www.epa.gov and do a search for the word "ozone." Meanwhile, here are a few hints on other ways to tackle the mold problem.

1. Use undiluted bleach to clean surfaces where mold is found.

2. Fix all sources of leaks. Remember, mold thrives in damp conditions.

3. Install air conditioning in your home (dry air is lethal to mold).

4. Check houseplant soil to avoid dampness. Mold loves moist soil.

5. Keep firewood outside.

6. Pay special attention to the basement, which is the part of your home where mold is most likely to be a problem. Keep it as dry as possible.

7. Clean the shower floor frequently to ensure that mold does not accumulate.

8. Clean the bottom of your refrigerator, and underneath it.

California law is finally catching up with one of the most deadly household hazards

BY DANIEL BLACKBURN

A series of mysterious maladies plagued Sue Targlia, making it increasingly difficult for her to take a deep breath. Her cold- and flu-like symptoms steadily worsened; fatigue numbed her daily routine.

"I’ve always been a person to be up at the crack of dawn," Targlia said.

The Morro Bay woman didn’t know it at the time, but the longer she rested in bed, the sicker she was getting. She would learn only later that the architect of her illness lurked mere inches away, hiding beneath the pictures on her bedroom wall and behind the oak dresser – and growing more potent with each passing hour.

Her bouts with the pernicious ailment became more frequent, until one day she ended up in a San Luis Obispo hospital’s emergency room.

"I spun out," she recalled. "I guess you’d call it vertigo. I just fell over."

Targlia was lucky in several ways.

First, a physician with a specialty in allergies was assisting in the ER when Targlia arrived.

"He suggested we try treating it as an allergy, rather than a viral or bacterial infection," said Targlia.

Then the physician asked about her living environment. Targlia mentioned a roof leak in the Morro Bay apartment building in which she had lived for five years, a problem that had since been rectified.

Bingo! The physician told her to search her residence, and described what she should seek.

You’re looking for the deadly mold, he said.

She found it, and soon moved out of the apartment. Her recovery was almost immediate.

However, she added, "My doctor told me that once a person has a lowered immune system and damaged lungs, they are more susceptible to allergies and chronic lung problems."

At least she didn’t have a mold-infested house to sell.

Closer than you think

Most home construction defects wreak havoc in expensive, irritating, distracting ways. Leaks, for example, can create serious problems, but also have finite limitations.

A leak is not directly a potential killer.

Construction defects such as roof leaks can create a peripheral hazard, however, that often remains unseen and undetected until late in the game, and is extremely dangerous.

Take a deep breath and say "Stachybotrys" (stack-ee-bo-tris).

Common household mold, because of its disease-promoting and health-threatening capabilities, is just beginning to assume its rightful place of shared responsibility in courts all over the land. Yet at present, there are absolutely no federal and remarkably few state statutes either defining mold and its resultant myriad of problems, or attempting to establish mitigation of the often terrible aftermath.

There may be people who believe mold to be one problem far removed from their sphere of daily concerns. Those people are wrong. Airborne mold is part of every interior home environment and probably, according to Mayo Clinic research, plays not just a part in, but causes, nearly every single case of sinitus.

Sinitus bouts are usually brief, unexplained cases of the coughing-sniffling-sneezing-aching-can’t sleep syndrome that amazingly disappears once the victim gets away from the house. Along with this quickie cold-like affliction, more serious complications can occur, such as asthma, allergies, emphysema and other serious, recurring sinus and bronchial infections.

That Mayo Clinic study demonstrated conclusively that children in homes with high levels of mold show persistent, cold-like symptoms – at a rate of 300 percent higher than average.

Mold thrives in dark and damp conditions, regardless of how warm or cold the temperature. Most types of mold that are commonly found in indoor environments can result in aggravation of these respiratory conditions.

A word of warning: When you find mold in your own home, and you will, do not under any circumstances notify your insurance carrier – no matter how extensive, or how bad the resultant damage. You probably won’t recover damages, and your homeowners’ policy likely will be canceled. Mold is not yet on the list of substandard housing criteria.

The solution? Rectify the problem yourself. And be prepared to disclose the mold’s existence to future buyers. Homeowners will find that most existing law favors incoming buyers, while offering minimum avenues of recourse for current occupants.

Don’t believe for a moment that the brand-new house you plan to buy won’t be plagued by mold. The sad truth is, mold can appear virtually overnight in the right fetid conditions, and from then on, it’s a problem. Homeowners have absolutely no redress from governmental agencies because there is no standardized enforcement procedure.

Nor is there any regulation pertaining to the licensing or certification of people who present themselves as "mold experts." In the complete absence of governmental licensing or certification, anyone can claim to be an "industrial hygienist." Industry "certification" is completely voluntary.

As a result, most homeowner-related mold mitigation today occurs as litigation. In these terms, mold has become the contemporary asbestos.

Pioneering lawsuits stressed personal injury, but more recently construction defects and insurance litigation have entered the equation.

Welcome to an entirely new frontier.

Barrister interest

Faced with stubborn opposition from many insurers, homeowners with mold problems are turning more frequently to the courts for relief.

San Luis Obispo lawyer James McKiernan, who litigated the county’s first sexual harassment case more than a decade ago, said mold as an issue of law is at an embryonic stage.

"This kind of litigation is very fact-intensive, requiring scientific expert testimony, and as a result is extremely costly," said McKiernan. "Also, the likelihood of an adequate or fair settlement is many years down the road."

But the issue is coming of age.

"This new tort ‘spore wars,’ as some lawyers call it, hasn’t aged enough within judicial culture for attorneys on both sides and the court to get a handle on the issues," McKiernan added. "This makes it difficult to get fair and swift resolution."

Roy Ogden, a San Luis Obispo attorney representing several local clients in current mold litigation, said people slowly are becoming aware of the potential dangers.

"It’s taken a couple of years for people in this county to realize how insidious and injurious to health mold can be," Ogden said.

He sees public exposure as an eventual solution.

"I think we will see more and more cases involving mold as people become more educated about it. When people make the largest investment of their lives – in their home – they have a right to expect certain things. If education doesn’t eventually eradicate this mold problem, it may help diminish it," Ogden said.

The lawyer noted that most cases he’s heard about locally "seem to originate in the North County."

But the problem is nationwide. According to the National Law Review, "Costly experts must usually be hired to establish the presence of toxic mold and to link mold exposure to a plaintiff’s symptoms. Many of these experts, trained in asbestos and lead cleanup, are shifting to mold as the number of buildings contaminated by lead and asbestos decreases. Mold cases can be complicated legally as well."

Evidence everywhere

While medical, governmental and legal solutions are pending, examples of human tragedy mount.

A three-bedroom ranch style house was the culmination of lifelong dreams of Steve and Karen Porath of Foresthill, a foothill community 40 miles northeast of Sacramento.

The Poraths didn’t know when they took possession of the property that the breathtaking view would become more literal than figurative. In 1999, the couple submitted a bid of $120,000 on the U.S. Veterans Affairs repossession, and then happily forked over a down payment of $30,000 on the house and the 5-plus acre parcel upon which it was built.

Two years later, on Valentine’s Day 2001, the Porath family sat on a hill near their home and watched as flames consumed the structure and everything inside. Next to them stood the local fire chief, whose department was conducting an authorized practice burn on the house and who now watched his volunteer recruits spray water here and there.

Some of what burned that chilly February morning was toxic mold – Stachybotrys – heavy concentrations of which the family had been constantly exposed to since taking possession of the residence. The couple alleged in papers filed in a Northern California court that they and their two young children suffered respiratory problems, nose bleeds, rashes and other illnesses caused by the mold. Porath, a 34-year-old construction worker, now has trouble climbing stairs, and experiences burning in his lungs when exerting himself. His wife, Karen, has failing vision and chronic throat problems. Son Blake is afflicted by breathing problems, stomach pains and rashes.

The couple’s first son, Mitchell, was born two weeks after the couple moved into the house. Two days after they brought the baby home from the hospital, the Poraths said the child "started thrashing and curling up with stomach pains. He vomited every day."

Mitchell’s condition gradually worsened and at one time he was vomiting more than 50 times a day. He cried incessantly at night. Numerous visits to doctors and emergency rooms failed to produce a solution.

It was a full year later that one doctor suggested that allergies or molds might be the cause of Mitchell’s ongoing problems.

The Poraths arranged for an engineering firm to conduct tests of the home, and a week later they heard the unthinkable. Engineers had found strains of the mold Stachybotrys. The solution? The Porath family was told to vacate the premises immediately. Everything – including clothes and furniture – was to be left behind, untouched ever again. The house was quickly condemned.

Having already spent more than $200,000 to pay for medical bills and sundry technical investigations, the Poraths found themselves deeply in debt and not prepared to hear the next news. They had the choice of spending an additional $75,000 to attempt mold eradication, or burn the house down.

Their homeowners insurance policy – like almost every such policy in force today – didn’t specifically cover mold. The Poraths now live in a mobile home while trying to recover from physical and economic devastation.

The same month that the Poraths torched their home, an Oregon couple, Mark and Mary Jane O’Hara, did the same. The O’Haras claim they suffered from severe respiratory and other health problems, a result of a faulty remodeling project. Defense lawyers countered that burning the house was just a stunt designed to woo jurors. The O’Hara case was settled for an undisclosed amount just before it went to trial.

Molds uncovered

Household molds are comprised of microscopic yeasts and mold species. They cause health problems, particularly respiratory problems, by releasing sub-microscopic spores into the air. These in turn carry mycotoxins, which cause the spore to be allergenic and toxic. These airborne spores consume life-giving nutrients from organic materials readily found in any home – wood, paper, dust, food, almost anything.

Sandy McNeel, a research scientist with the Environmental Health Investigations Branch of the California Department of Health Services, described in recent legislative testimony the place of molds in life’s scheme.

"Molds, along with yeasts and mushrooms, are part of the fungal kingdom and are found everywhere on earth. Experts estimate that there’s somewhere between 70,000 and 100,000 different types or species of molds.

"One of the difficulties in dealing with this problem is that mold is not a single entity like environmental lead or radon. Molds and other fungi are necessary for recycling organic material needed for the growth of both animals and plants. Molds, or the chemicals they produce, are used to produce consumer items such as cheese, wine and salami, as well as drugs like penicillin and some of the newer antibiotics. Molds are very adaptable and some mold species can grow on everything in our homes, including fabric, carpets, leather, wood, sheetrock and insulation."

Tiny particulated mold spores can remain airborne until they enter the respiratory system through inhalation. The mycotoxin carried by the spore then triggers toxic and allergic reactions inside the airways and through the respiratory system.

While many molds can readily make people sick, only one can kill. The so-called "deadly mold," Stachybotrys, causes bleeding in the internal walls of the lungs. Infants and pregnant women are most at risk. Once in the lungs, the spores weaken blood vessels, causing the lungs to bleed. Poisoning symptoms include coughing up blood and frequent nosebleeds.

Most often found in wet areas, such as places affected by leaking water pipes, or within or on walls exposed to excessive moisture, Stachybotrys mold is wet, black, and slimy. It smears when touched.

Certain indications of mold presence signal potential health problems. Members of your household, or occupants of your building, may suddenly become ill with respiratory-related sicknesses or conditions with unusually high frequency. Increased asthma and allergy attacks may occur. A musty smell will be noted.

Dr. James Craner, a Nevada board certified physician specializing in occupational and environmental medicine and internal medicine, noted recently that contemporary building materials contribute greatly to the growing mold problem.

"These are materials that get wet," he said, pointing in particular to the common product known as sheetrock, or gypsum board. "This has a cardboard backing that is the ideal nutrient medium for the growth of certain types of fungi associated with health problems.

"Prior to the 1960s, these products were not in commercial use. Buildings were made out of masonry, stone, plaster and lath. Those buildings leaked, but water did not leak onto materials that caused this problem."

Pending groundswell?

Testifying before a state Senate committee last year, well-known lawyer Erin Brockovich told of her experiences with the dangerous mold.

"It was very difficult for me to even accept or understand what molds were, where they were, why I was sick," Brockovich told the legislative panel at hearings convened to examine solutions to the problem.

"It wasn’t tangible to me. I couldn’t see the spores. They were in the attic. They were in my air conditioning returns. They were in my walls. They were hidden. I had no idea anything was there, let alone trying to start and begin to understand that these molds were blowing in my air that I was breathing that was making me so sick."

Brokovich’s comments helped pave the way to landmark legislation. On New Years Day, a new law began requiring

real estate sellers and prospective landlords to disclose the presence of mold in California homes and buildings to prospective buyers and prospective tenants. A property seller’s transfer disclosure statement – a requirement in real estate transactions since 1985 – will now include mold.

Also, the California State Department of Toxic Substance Control will include a chapter on toxic mold in its Environmental Hazards Handbook, a document provided to all buyers and sellers of homes.

Local government agencies will handle enforcement of mold standards and preparation of mold disclosure statements.

Despite the relative dearth of public policy and law regarding mold, some important cases heard across the land during the past several years are beginning to articulate responsibility in the issue.

– A Florida county sued the architect and builders of its $13-million courthouse, claiming construction defects made 15 workers ill. A state court jury awarded the county $11.5 million in 1996, which, combining attorneys’ fees and settlements with some of the defendants, exceeded the building’s cost;

– The Delaware Supreme Court in May reaffirmed an award of $1.04 million to two women whose landlord failed to fix leaks and mold problems in their apartments, resulting in asthma attacks and other health problems;

– A Texas homeowner settled a mold-related bad-faith lawsuit against his insurer, during trial, for $1.5 million;

– A homeowners group in California settled for $1.3 million a packet of mold claims against builders and contractors;

– A federal jury in California awarded $18 million – all but $500,000 of that amount in punitive damages – to a homeowner against Allstate Insurance Company after it declined coverage for mold damage. The trial judge reduced the award to $3 million; the case is on appeal. Æ

Daniel Blackburn is mold-free.