A lot of people, including insurance companies, would like you to think that mold isn’t as dangerous to your health as all the media hype would have you believe, but actually mold is just as harmful as people say that it is. Mold has been around longer than human beings have, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t cause us problems both medically and financially. If anyone tries to tell you that mold isn’t going to cause any damage to your health, you might want to tell them some of the things that mold has been known to do.
Mold has been known to cause an excess amount of fatigue, sinusitis, allergy symptoms, and damaged vision. The allergy symptoms are one of the most common results and it can occur either in the form of a runny nose, sneezing, watery eyes, or even skin rashes that are unsightly and tend to be very itchy. If you do not experience any of these symptoms while you are outside of your home, it might be mold or something else in your living environment that is causing you to have these reactions. Either way, you should probably see a doctor as soon as you are able to determine that something in your home is causing you to have these symptoms.
It has been known to kill our pets and cause lung bleeding, especially in infants. Elderly people, particularly those in poor health or with any respiratory problems, are at risk for the health effects of mold. Anyone who is HIV-positive, have AIDS, or those who are in the process of recovering from surgery are also at a high risk for mold-related infections and health complications.
Some of the most dangerous infections in the world are caused by mold and in the region of Southeast Asia, this includes a condition that affects mostly HIV-positive and AIDS patients called penicilliosis. It is caused by a mold in the genus penicillium, a genus which is most famous for including the species of mold responsible for the “miracle drug” penicillin that was invented back in the 1940’s.
There are actually a lot of things that you can do to make your home and workplace mold-free. Taping a do-it-yourself home mold test to the grill of one of your air conditioning vents is a good idea; it will test to see if your air conditioner is responsible for spreading the mold around your house. Putting tests in other rooms after you’ve stirred up the air for a few minutes with a house fan is also a good way to test for mold. If you see mold growing visibly on your wall, use rubber gloves and scrape a small bit off onto the test and send it to a mold laboratory.
Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of
Emergency Water Damage Restoration and
Houston Water Damage Restoration Which are Certified IICRC Water damage and mold remediation contractors.
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