Is Mold a Factor in Your Family’s Fall Illness? What You Need to Know

In the Southern Appalachians and Western North Carolina, mold is a health and wellness issue that’s unfortunately common. When you add desperation to chronic illness, what you often get is a homeowner who’s highly motivated to spend dollars to make the problem go away.

An unbiased, non-sales approach to a home with a suspected mold problem is important, particularly at a time when most people get their information from the internet. What if you pay someone you found on the internet anywhere from $10-40,000 to fix a mold problem? Then, you find the mold has recurred because the underlying issue has not been resolved. You’d probably be upset, to say the least.

Today, with widespread flooding throughout North Carolina due to Hurricane Florence, keeping up conditions of our homes is the front line of defending our healthiness. That means we homeowners need the advantage of experience. This fall, due to the damp weather and the pending cold and flu season, working hard for our clients’ home healthiness seems more important than ever.

Three facts escape the general public when talking about mold. First, if visible mold is present, sampling is usually unnecessary. This is why we begin with a visual inspection of the home, then test only if and when testing is indicated by the conditions present in the home ecosystem. Second, no standards or Threshold Limit Values (TLVs) for airborne concentrations of mold, or mold spores, have been set, by the EPA or any other authority. That’s why it’s important to consult with homeowners about any symptoms they may be experiencing before beginning the visual examination for environmental factors. Third, there exist no EPA regulations or standards for airborne mold contaminants. Therefore, how one feels in the home and the conditions for personal optimal wellness establish the benchmarks to be obtained. There is no external authority for optimum wellness.

None of these facts is comforting to a person who’s combating illness due to poor air quality from mold growth.

When I arrive at someone’s home, it’s usually to figure out what’s causing the healthiness issues in their homes and how to correct them. When warranted, we do mold tests. I use the word “warranted,” because mold tests can tell us just so much and no more. It’s just as important, if not more so, to know where the mold is, to find the stuff the mold is made of, and figure out the best way to solve the problem.

Let’s take a look at some of the terms bandied about in the mold detox world and clarify what is being talked about today.

1. The Shoemaker Protocol

The Shoemaker Protocol, www.survivingmold.com, is named for its creator, Ritchie Shoemaker, M.D., who is becoming well known for his step-by-step methodology for addressing biotoxins which cause illness in his patients. Other doctors can now be certified in his protocol, thus making them “certified mold doctors.” Originally from Charlotte and an alumnus of Duke University, he now lives in Maryland, where he writes and speaks about mold and recovery from mold related illness.

2. The ERMI Test

A common test approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, the ERMI is an Environmental Relative Moldiness Index. You can get an ERMI fact sheet here. In this test, a single mold sample taken in a home is compared to a random sample of 1000 homes across the nation. It can suggest a relative amount of mold in parts-per-million, but doesn’t take into account regional environmental conditions such as those found in the temperate rainforest conditions of western North Carolina.

3. The HERTSMI-2 Test

HERTSMI-2 is an acronym. It stands for Health Effects Roster of Type Specific Formers of Mycotoxins and Inflammagens – 2nd Version.This is a mold test that checks dust samples for the 5 most prevalent types of toxic mold. When the results come back, a scoring system is used to make sense of the findings as they pertain to your home.

As a rule of thumb, one mold test isn’t enough. When relying on testing, multiple tests may have to be taken in different parts of a structure, then repeated after mitigation. In some cases, one mold test prior to mitigation and one afterward to measure improvement in air quality may be advised. After the mold in your home has been abated, you may wish consult a qualified health care professional with a specialty in detoxification from mold-borne illness.

Too often, the factors that lead to mold growth or overgrowth in a home seem to happen in slow motion. Due to busy lifestyles, parents or homeowners may not feel the need to respond until the issues have moved from chronic to acute. If you think you need better understanding, the EPA offers “A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture and Your Home.”

This piece makes a good introduction to my own book, “Mold in the Southern Appalachians,” which is a field guide for homeowners with the unique environmental conditions of this geographical area. You can get your copy here.

Suspect mold is a factor in your family’s fall illnesses? We can help.