The presence of mold, or even the suspicion of mold in your residential or commercial property can be a frightening prospect. It’s widely known that exposure to mold, even minimally, can affect the health of everyone exposed. For those of us who are immunocompromised, mold exposure can be a life sentence. For those of us who are healthy, it could be the tipping point of sending us into illness. With so many types of mold, how are you to tell if what you smell or see is harmful?
Of course, visually identifying mold growth or detecting a smell or exhibiting allergic or mold-related symptoms are all strong clues to the presence of a problem. Removal by professionally trained technicians is essential. In fact if mold is visible, testing isn’t even recommended by the CDC and EPA as all forms of mold can be harmful to your health depending on certain biological factors that are somewhat unique individual to individual.
“Any visible mold should be removed, no matter what its color or species,” says Tina Reponen, PhD, professor of environmental health at the University of Cincinnati. “In a healthy building, you don’t have visible mold.”