Black Mold and being sick...

Hi Freya! My family and I were exposed to black mold in a house we were living in several years ago and didnt realize it was even there. It likewise was painted over by a landlord whom was aware that it was there and didnt feel sharing that info was important. When my grandaughter was born and shortly after coming home developed severe asthma and my then 5 year old also had suddenly developed asthma and I was hospitalized twice during 5 months for bronchitis we began looking for a reason and lo and behold we found it!

I have no idea as to whether or not it can cause increases in pain levels but it can and does cause some major respitory problems.

Your local health department can assist you in your search for knowledge as well as the building and code inspectors in your town and FEMA has a hotline that has a wealth of knowledgeable folks that can answer any questions you may have. I do want to add when you alert these folks about your building and if they come out and test the mold and find it to be one of the harmful ones they will evacuate the building and sometimes depending on the test results immediately so be prepared to have some place to go before you make the call.

If you just want info the internet is a wealth of info and you should be able to find what you need doing a google search.

Luck to you!

Thank you NVR, That is great info. I'm pretty sure the headaches and itching are from the mold and sometimes I do feel like I cant breath. I sleep near the bathroom because of my condition.

We have decided to have someon come out and test for it and see how far it's gone.
Who knows what is in this house. It's gorgeous and a shame no one took care of it when they found it and just painted over it. The man who built it is probably rolling over in his grave.
If it's gone as far as being in the walls...we'll it would just be too much for anyone who doesnt have a few million laying around to fix.

I'm sorry NVR that your family was exposed to the bad black mold. I'm glad you did discover it although they tried to cover it up. I know how angry you must have been when you found out someone risked your health like that. The people that own the house are denying it's here. But we know they know.

Thanks again that's great info!

Feya

Yeah don't they have regulations on that kind of thing? I mean it's known to cause serious harm and health issues... what's the deal with your property management?

That is scary stuff!

  We defenitly could move if need be. It's not the preferred situation.  But of course if it is the dangerous kind of mold, we wouldnt want to be here anyway. Your then actually paying to get ill! And moving would then be worth all the money in the bank.

   I think were going to wait and see if it is the dangerous kind. It's going to be done very soon as our neighbors are trying to buy the house and the owner wants to get rid of it asap...gee wonder why??

We couldnt move for a few weeks to a month anyway because my hubby doesnt get vacation time in the way most people do. And being sick I certainly cant do it by myself.

 My main concern in that my neighbor is due any day and they are of course taking the baby back home. A few people have had babies while living here.

 I defenitly want to turn off the AC after reading your reply Margoth but in New York right now its so incredibly hot and my medication makes me feel very ill if my body gets over heated.

Thank you everyone for your replies. I'll keep everyone up to date. It makes me so sick to  think my husbamd and I are breathing spores into our lungs which are flowing through our blood stream. If this rash is from the mold than I guess it's aleady in my system.

Thanks Again!

Freya

 

STOP them from bringing that baby there and it has been questioned in past study whether it could directly related to SIDS! Have them contact the Red Cross as Chutz said or even call FEMA like I said. Better to be safe then risk the baby by any means.

If you can prove they meaning the landlord knew and were trying to pass a cover-up then they have to legally back with money your moving expenses as well as can be help liable for your health costs associated with the mold and the best way to find this out? Run down the previous tenants that lived there as they would know whether it was growing there when they lived there and that they may have even gone so far as telling the landord in my case that is exactly why they moved and he was cited and told to clean it up and even gave them the bill that he paid someone to do it all which was faked by a relative of his. If they knew it was there and painted over it without having anyone investigate what kinds of mold it was they can be held responsible and should be. It is very expensive to get rid of and some cases far more to treat then to demolish and rebuild depending on whether it is in the walls or not.

First and foremost try to talk to your neighbors about the baby and even alert the health department about the baby being brought home soon.

Good luck

PAlady it was in a study I read a few years back along with the pesticide most of the exterminators use that has no smell? They came out with about 12 or 15 years ago and therefore alot of folks living in apartment communities didnt know when the management had had the exterminator there while they were away during the day and how there was a high incident of babies under the age of 6 weeks that had died of SIDS in apartment living and they were trying to find a common denominator and this was the only one they could find. They then required the management or the exterminator to notify the tenents before spraying so they could make arrangements if they had a child under that age limit as well as birds and such to go elsewhere for 12 hours and to air out before staying there.

They could never prove what actually was in it and if anything was causing it but it was too close for comfort and the numbers were far to high to ignore I would think. I know I wouldnt risk it but you would be surprised how many folks did and do. My Brother worked for a local exterminator for awhile during his college years and they always asked folks with newborns to leave the premises and stay away for a bit and he said you would be stunned by those who didnt adhere to the request.

The same article also said the numbers of households bearing some types of molds had higher then norm incidents of sids as well but again they couldnt make a direct link as these post mortems in those babies never show anything out of the norm in lab ranges.

Anyway I would want someone to alert me for sure as it wouldnt be worth the risk in any way.

Hoping they get it cleaned up and make the landlord own up to his responsibility in it if he did cover it up. I cant imagine someone painting over it without even cleaning it up first but hey its all about a dollar to some of them.

Exactly Bonnie! That is how it works and we did the same thing and I guess the reason so many folks cant figure out what is going on with them. I would be sick forever and then when I got out of the house for a few days I would have almost a immediate recovery. They hospitalized my grandaughter twice and both times by the time she was in there and they started to run test she was fine. When I think back now what could have happened to her I just cringe.

From everything I read it isnt something that happens overnight Freya and it might take years for you to become so sick to the point of no return but the damage to your lungs would already be done. So moving is a thing to work on and make sure you get plenty of fresh air if at all possible. The folks coming to assist you with the type will be able to tell you more and not all mold is bad of course and certainly not all of it can be fatal but all of it can and does cause respitory problems in folks who have a mold allergy anyway.

Babies I guess have more problems since their lung developement is not great for awhile as well as their small surface area of their bodies and how fast the mold can invade,some it takes years to grow.

Good luck to you all and as for the moving expenses those usually are covered under FEMA or the Red Cross and they will both send you immediatly to a motel until other arrangements can be made. The local building inspectors are the only ones that usually dont have funds at hand to be much help but will still post a notice to vacate.

Thanks for the suggestion..I knew mold grows in dark damp places but didnt even consider that.
Because I am afraid of the dark(sad isnt it) I keep the bathroom light on all night and there is an inside "window" facing an outside room that gets alot of light during the day. Maybe keeping the outside rooms cool with the AC and constant light has helped in the mold not growing back through the paint?
But no we have absolutly no means for ventelation in the bathroom other than leaving the door open when the shower is running, which we never do. It's too small to put a fan into but we can get a small fan which is another thing I didnt even think of...I love this forum. Everyone is so knowlegable:)

Guess I wont know for a few days yet. But at least there is one positive thing coming from being afraid of the dark(gosh, everytime I put that in balck and white I feel so silly)

Freya

In my experience with mold, the only solution (other than moving!) is controlling humidity and cleaning up the mold as best you can. The only thing that allows severe mold infestations to grow is an ongoing high humidity problem (and other moisture sources, even if the air in the building isn't itself severely humid...surfaces or contained spaces like the insides of walls that are constantly moist are sufficient). Initial reduction of humidity will in fact cause a temporary increase in spore release, but in the long run it will prevent those spores from becoming active fungi.

If you must continue to live in the space -- honestly, the best solution is to move to a healthier environment, like I did with my family when we made the mistake of trusting a large apartment complex mgmt co. to maintain a healthy environment (in a Disabled-specific apartment, knowing full well that I have a highly reactive auto-immune disease which makes me sicker when I'm exposed to even slight immune insults like infections or allergens, no less!)--then my suggestion is to do what you can to mitigate your exposure (respirator masks can at least cut down the spore counts you're breathing in, for example, and try to spend as much time out of the home as possible) while that initial spore release spike passes, and get the humidity down in the building to no more than 30%.

Long term, as long as you keep it below 50% that should be sufficient to prevent a major problem, but since the general air number can be much lower than the humidity in places like underneath your carpets, inside your walls, under your bathroom sink, behind your kitchen cabinets, etc....the lower the better, within reason with regards to your comfort (humidity below 35% tends to be quite uncomfortable, causing skin irritation/peeling, cracked lips, and so on).

Keeping the place clean will give the spores less places to take root and material to feed on, but if your moisture problem is out of hand, no amount of mitigation will prevent it from colonizing virtually every surface. I should know....we lost almost everything we owned, even ostensibly non-porous items like solid plastic, rubber, and stained/sealed/painted wood, to that awful stuff in the apartment.

Thankfully, our financial situation improved somewhat when I got my SSDI settlement and my wife began working again, so now we have our own home and I monitor the humidity here with great care.

 Dear Exit Wound,

      This "Topic" was originally started in June 2008.

  

 dani

 

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