How Mold Growth Impacts Indoor Air Quality
Mold has been known as a physical growth that you can see on a wall or ceiling, or maybe a normal occurrence in your bathroom; however, mold spores impact indoor air quality. Many homeowners discover through the process of buying their homes and maintaining them that a lot of toxic materials have been used to build homes in the past. So mold is just one of many potential toxic air culprits that can impact your health. Still, just understanding the airborne nature of mold spores is imperative to know for homeowners.
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After working with mold for over 20 years, we have noticed a wide spectrum of negative impacts from mold contamination on those who suffer from respiratory issues, allergies, and asthma. Our team has a great sense of empathy for families dealing with CIRS or other autoimmune compromised health issues and this is why we do the medically sound mold remediation services.
Specific protocols are necessary for proper mold mediation that will actually improve indoor air quality. As discussed, ultrafine particulate matter is another irritant for those experiencing health issues due to indoor air quality. Medically Sound Remediation prioritizes complete removal of all mold, mold particles, and even dead mold spores; but also these ultrafine particles will be removed in the remediation process.
Signs of Poor indoor Air Quality Due to Mold in Your Home
Breathing in fresh air when leaving the house can be quite enjoyable, but when you have mold in the air at home, fresh air will be a relief of a toxic load. When you are dealing with mold exposure from your home, you are getting a toxic dose of mycotoxins daily for as long as you are home. Avoidance of home can be an early sign of compromised indoor air quality.
This exposure can be chronic, or be less obvious resulting in increased allergy symptoms, headaches, eye irritation or fatigue. One of the most common clues to detection of the mold comes from when home occupants leave the home they feel better, especially when they are gone for prolonged amounts of time.
Outside of suddenly discovering a physical mold outbreak in your home, the toxic air can go undetected as the mold smell increases, the sense of smell can be degraded due to the exposure of mycotoxins. If you suspect mold spores in your home’s air, you will need to get testing done. While running to get self-testing kits might seem like the first place to start, we do not recommend this!
The best place to start is the most human approach. You will need to contact an Indoor Environmental Professional (IEP) who is an expert who works to help advocate on your behalf with testing labs, medical professionals, and mold remediation experts to restore your mold contaminated home to livable conditions once again.
IEPs have been through many mold battles, and your symptoms and experience are all clues they use to detect the mold, they interview you and discuss the problems with you on top of the mold testing process. This is all to ensure that the potential for missing some variable is limited. IEPs are a combined role of a detective and an attorney working on your behalf in the battle against mold.
Why Professional Mold Removal is Crucial for Indoor Air Quality
An incomplete mold project is the same as if the project was never done. Mold spores are in the air, and if you only begin the project or do not manage the mold removal process correctly, you could be causing more trouble for your health and your mold problem.
Working with mold is a professional level of expertise, mold is an ultrafine particle and the nano-science needed to understand how these dangerous spores can spread is essential to eradicating the health danger.
If you plan to do mold remediation, make sure to test for progress and verify that mold has actually been removed entirely through professional air and surface swab testing. In addition to the testing, when you hire a professional remediation company, they will work to avoid cross contamination, use protocols to ensure work is done properly, and work to decrease risks of additional health risks from the cleaning process.
The Connection Between Mold and Toxic Airborne Particles
Mold not only affects your home’s structure and appearance but can release harmful substances into the air, creating a toxic indoor environment. When mold spores multiply, they can produce mycotoxins, which are toxic compounds that, once airborne, can be inhaled by anyone in the household. These mycotoxins have been linked to a variety of health problems, particularly respiratory issues, allergic reactions, and in some cases, more serious conditions such as chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS).
Mold spores are incredibly small, some even smaller than dust particles. These ultrafine particles (UFPs) can enter the air and go undetected, making it important to address them in the remediation process.
UFPs are microscopic particles small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and bloodstream, causing long-term health risks. These particles often linger even after the mold is removed if proper remediation processes aren’t followed, which is why addressing both the mold and the contaminated air is essential.
At Orange Restoration, we use advanced equipment and even in-house developed equipment to ensure the air in your home is clean and free of these harmful particles. As mentioned above, mold releases mycotoxins and other harmful ultrafine particles into the air of your home contributing to toxic air environments. Professional grade remediation equipment will be using HEPA filters and specific protocols to avoid these toxic contaminants from escaping their capture.
Our HEPA filtration systems are specifically designed to capture mold spores, mycotoxins, and UFPs from the air, removing 99.97% of particles as small as 0.3 microns. Additionally, our use of negative air machines creates a controlled airflow that prevents mold spores from spreading to other areas of the home during the remediation process.
Improving Indoor Air Quality After Mold Remediation
After finishing the mold remediation process, there should be ventilation improvements where ever necessary. Immediately after, you may want to consider adding in air purifiers, dehumidifiers and adequate ventilation for the extra dry out.
We suggest you work to properly maintain your home’s humidity, apply prevention tactics wherever possible, and conduct at least annual inspections to make sure mold does not reoccur. Immediately after a mold contamination and remediation process, you might want to schedule more inspections to make sure that mold sources are completely remediated.
How Mold Prevention Boosts Long-Term Indoor Air Quality
Preventing mold from returning is key to maintaining a healthy and breathable environment in your home. Since mold thrives in damp conditions, moisture control is the most effective way to stop mold regrowth and preserve indoor air quality. Whether it’s sealing leaks, ensuring proper ventilation, or controlling humidity levels, taking proactive steps to keep moisture at bay is essential for keeping your home mold-free.
For homeowners, this means regularly checking areas prone to moisture buildup, such as basements, bathrooms, and kitchens. Fixing leaks quickly, installing dehumidifiers in high-humidity areas, and making sure windows and exhaust fans are working properly can make a big difference.
Keeping humidity levels below 60% is an ideal benchmark to prevent the conditions that allow mold to grow. The increased annual inspection might be a good help for conducting these check-ups on maintenance. With these preventative measures, we help ensure your home remains a healthy, mold-free environment for years to come.
Medically Certified Mold Removal for Healthier Homes
Remember, our focus is on your family restoring your home to the state before this mold contamination. So, while we recommend mold remediation, we highly recommend the involvement of an IEP and working with a professional remediation company with CIRSx Medically Sound Remediation training.
Mold particles, dead mold spores and mold fragments can only be fully removed with special medically sound remediation protocols. Your home will be much healthier when you fully remove all mold and mold particles with Medically Sound Mold remediation.