What Are The Symptoms Of Black Mold Sickness?

Black mold is commonly found in houses and workplaces, and it can lead to a variety of health problems. You may be suffering from black mold sickness and not even be aware of it.

Black mold is most commonly found in bathrooms and kitchens. However, it flourishes in practically every part of the house. You can find black mold in closets, basements, trash cans, refrigerators, inside pillows, under carpets, inside walls, and many other places throughout the house.

Black mold is also found outside. Airborne mold outside is a major cause of allergic reactions.

Because mold is found virtually everywhere, a variety of common symptoms may be traceable to exposure to black mold.

A common symptom of black mold allergy is nasal congestion. Like dust, black mold’s spores can become airborne and may be ingested into the lungs. If you suffer form chronic nasal congestion or runny nose, you maybe suffering from black mold allergy.

For example, certain rooms or parts of your house may cause you to suddenly become congested. This may be because there is mold in the room. Mold can find its way into spaces under rugs, in crawlspaces, around tiles and in old furniture.

Black mold is found most often in humid parts of the house. This means primarily the kitchen and bathroom. If you have black mold growing on your shower tiles or in parts of the kitchen that are often wet like the drying rack for dishes, this could trigger an allergic reaction.

Another common symptom of black mold related sickness is headaches and fatigue. Some mold allergy sufferers report getting headaches or feeling unnaturally tired when they are exposed to black mold.

A persistent cough may be the result of black mold allergy. If you suffer for a cough for a long period of time and do not exhibit any other cold symptoms, this may because of black mold growing in your house.

Black mold allergy symptoms may resemble those of hay fever. These include sneezing, red or irritated eyes, runny nose and rashes on the skin. In severe cases, you may suffer a fever. Some people who suffer from black mold allergies experience shortness of breath and wheezing.

If you have a fever or suffer from chronic sinus problems, black mold will cause you particular trouble. If you have asthma, it can lead to asthma attacks and poses a serious health risk. In this case, you should make sure your home is as mold-free as possible.

For those who suffer from sinusitis, exposure to black mold will most likely irritate your sinuses. You may have increased sinus headaches and nasal decongestion as a result of exposure.

Black mold is not terribly dangerous, and it is impossible to completely stay away from it. Still, most people have an allergic reaction when exposed to it. It is often difficult to trace your symptoms to black mold, but if you keep your home as nearly mold-free as possible, it will greatly reduce the symptoms of black mold sickness.

Tips On Cleaning Up Mold In Construction

The best way to deal with mold clean up in construction is to not have any mold in the first place. It’s an old cliché, but prevention is the cure. If you keep in mind that water leads to mold, and use common sense, you can build a home that is not conducive to mold.

But, when there’s already a mold problem, we have to deal with it and it is not a fun situation. During construction, the clean up of mold is important and there are a few guidelines that should be followed.

Before you start your mold clean up, make sure you are not running an air conditioner or heater. You want to contain the mold as much as possible. While you are cleaning or moving moldy materials around, you must be careful that the mold spores don’t fly all over the house and end up starting a mold infestation somewhere else.

The best way to clean up mold is simple soap and water. This means lots and lots of scrubbing, but it’s the best way to get rid of the mold. A little bleach will help as well, but you should be careful with it. It can irritate any part of your body that comes into contact with it. For this reason, many people warn against using bleach.

If the soap and water does not remove the mold from the material, such as certain types of wood, the area will have to be removed. If it is this bad, you actually will have to cut out the part of the wall or wood that is moldy.

If you have to remove the moldy area, first tape it up with plastic tape. This will keep the mold from spreading. During removal, mold spores can become airborne and find a new home on a nearby surface. Cover the area as thoroughly as possible with plastic tape and then do your cutting.

If the wood is rotten, remove it. It is easy for mold to grown on rotted wood or wood that is water damaged, so it is best to remove the entire rotted area.

After you have cut out the moldy area, it is important to put all the pieces into a plastic bag. You don’t want to be carrying moldy material through the rest of the house where, again, the mold spores can be airborne and end up all over the place.

Sometimes, after you have cleaned up the mold with soap and water, the area of the wood will still be dark or discolored. This is a natural after-effect of the mold and there is nothing that can be done about it. If it really bothers you, you can repaint the wood, but this may be the beginning of a whole new project, as you will have to repaint everything!

If the room where you have mold is large (more than 10 square feet), you should cover the moldy area with plastic. This is just another precaution against letting the mold get everywhere. In the same way that you would be careful to contain dust, you want to make sure that mold stays under plastic as much as possible.

And, of course, wear a good mask and gloves. Cover your body as much as possible, since most people suffer slightly from mold allergies. The actual health risk is pretty low, but you don’t want to spend the next few days sneezing, wheezing, coughing and blowing your nose.

How You Can Tell You Have A Health Problem From Mold

Is your health problem from mold or from something else? It can be hard to tell if persistent health problems are mold related or not. Mold can grow just about anywhere, and the symptoms often resemble those of the common cold or other allergies.

My Mold Story

A few years ago, my wife suffered from what seemed to be persistent sinusitis. She had never had sinus trouble before, but suddenly, she constantly had a stuffy nose, sneezing and bad headaches.

I didn’t know much about mold at that time, or I would have recognized the warning signs. Her sinus trouble seemed to clear up when she left the house. It only bothered her at home and sometimes in certain other buildings.

We went to the doctor, who misdiagnosed it as sinusitis and prescribed a bunch of medicine that didn’t work. The symptoms got worse, until she started sometimes having trouble breathing.

We started to notice that her cold symptoms intensified in the bathroom. This tipped me off that it was something environmental. It turns out, we had mold growing on some of the ceiling tiles in the bathroom of our old house.

If you suffer a health problem from mold, a doctor may not be able to recognize the symptoms as mold allergy. About 1 in 5 people suffer from some form of allergy to common household mold.

If the mold growing in your home is toxic, it could cause permanent damage to your body. Toxic mold spores kill cells, and can damage not only your respiratory system, but your digestive system, skin and brain.

Do You Have A Health Problem From Mold?

Here are a few ways to tell you if you suffer a health problem from mold:

-In the same way as my wife and I, if certain parts of your house seem to trigger allergic reactions, that’s a sign that there’s an environmental cause.

-You live in a warm, humid environment and there are parts of your house which are humid or have water damage.

-Your allergic reactions seem to intensify instead of get better with the doctor’s antibiotics. Not all doctors have experience with mold, so it may be hard for them to recognize the symptoms.

What To Do About It

Many people have health problems from mold, so it is important to take care of it. Try to keep your home mold free by getting plenty of air circulation. Be careful of things that have not been properly dried.

Mold likes to grow in hard to reach places, like under carpets and behind things. Regularly check these places for mold.

If you have a mold problem, take care of it right away. Scrub those areas hard with borax or a store bought mold cleaner. If the problem is very severe, or if you can not handle the job by yourself, you might want to consider hiring a professional.

Get rid of the mold before it becomes a problem for you and your family.