Mold Can Damage Your Health
After a major leak or flood, the air in your home may have developed a musty or stale smell. If so it is likely that it contains millions of mold spores. This being the case, then the health of your family is at risk from infection or disease caused by mold. Generally, those most susceptible to this risk are people with existing respiratory problems like asthma or those with a suppressed immune system. While this is true of most molds, the real potential killer is Stachybotrys chartarum.
The way in which the Stachybotrys mold is an especially dangerous health risk, is in the fact that it produces poisonous compounds known as mycotoxins. What these mycotoxins are will be depends on the material that the fungi are feeding upon. The ideal food source for this mold is high in cellulose and low in nitrogen, this, unfortunately, matches the most common suburban American house building and decorating materials, Sheetrock, fiberboard, wallpaper and carpets. Add to this the perfect growing conditions of warm, high humidity air, and you’ve got yourself a thriving Stachybotrys colony.
These conditions match exactly the climate of the southern states, especially along the Gulf coast, which are also the most likely to get hit by storm surges and water encroachment caused by hurricane winds. Mold damage and the residual danger associated with mold, is one reason that so many homes were abandoned in the wake of the destruction caused by Katrina. Trying to find qualified mold remediation services can also take time and become quite costly resulting in even more homeowner despair. But, before everybody north of Louisiana gives a huge sigh of relief, that is simply an extreme example. Basically mold will grow anywhere and the only real way to combat it is by having good ventilation and humidity reduction systems in place.
A case in point is Ergot poisoning. The Ergot mold has been put forward as a cause of the initial eight cases of delirium and other odd illnesses that set in motion the Salem witch trials. Ergot poisoning has a similar effect to LSD, which is a hallucinogenic, leading to the speculation that the afflicted were under a spell. These cases began in January of 1692, which in Massachusetts was neither warm nor humid. However, Rye grain, upon which Ergot will grow, was stored in barrels, often in cellars. These damp conditions could cause the Rye to begin to ferment, which, in turn, produces heat and so the right conditions for the mold to grow and spread are born.




