Just like April showers bring May flowers, summer floods brings fall mold. So it is not surprising that the areas of Omaha that flooded this summer are now working at building an unhealthy crop of mold. Normally mold can be associated with a water leak, but any rogue water, including flood water, could be a cause. Hopefully if your house was seriously flooded, you discarded all of those soggy goods that could not be cleaned, and cleaned everything that could be.

So if mold is appearing in your basements, bathrooms, under carpeting, behind drywall, and where ever bathrooms are vented to, like attic spaces, dry it up and clean it up and you’ll be fine. All those damp warm spaces in your house are a perfect environment for mold to get a foothold. Keep that air conditioning running, and run that dehumidifier, and that will help you control the problem. Otherwise that mold will be feasting on the cellulose in your house, and might cause an annoyance or even a health issue down the road.

If you’re in California and suffering from mold, you might want to give us a call and see about getting an assessment from Byebyemold.

Yes, mold has invaded the ultimate sanctum.

The Library.

St. Albans High School Library has visible mold eating the books. 10,060 of them. Apparently while the kids were away, the books had a moist and humid summer.

A maintenance crew has come in to clean the books and work on the ventilation. They are, ironically to say the least, replacing the fresh air “dampers.” The remediation crew will be putting air scrubbers in the hallway and taking measures that the mold stirred by the cleanup will have minimum effect on the rest of the building.

If you’re in California, you might want to give us a call and see about getting an assessment from Byebyemold.

Mold requires its own special ecosystem with three elements: moisture, food and warmth. Mold finds this special ecosystem not only where you can see it in your bathroom, but inside your walls, in your attic, and in your crawlspace. Neither private nor public facilities are immune if all three factors are available, but the infestation may vary according to season–and the intensity also may vary contingent on the degree of all three factors.

Mold is one of those pesky things–like rats and cockroaches which are comfortable where humans are comfortable. Your warm and moist habitat is ideal for mold–but mold will also eat your house-the cellulose in your house is mold’s favorite food source, cellulose: cellulose drywall, carpets and dander.

So when you send in the technicians of ByeBye Mold, their state-of-the-art inspection of the property using infrared cameras to detect mold colonies not yet visible to the naked eye is just the beginning.

Sampling is done throughout the property; and air quality readings detect airborne mold. Labs take the samples for analysis and the results provide a clear understanding of the level and type of mold. Findings help determine the defense–how mold will be removed and what measures must be taken to prevent future infestation. Technicians will be able to interpret the results and go over them with the homeowner to consider the next steps.

The risks associated with having mold in a home vary according to the time of year and the individual involved. Of course the prudent course is to eliminate molds from the living environment.

Mold spores exist both inside and outside. There are those who have little reaction from mold exposure, and there are those who have asthma, stuffy or runny noses, eye irritation, fever, wheezing, lung inflammation, and skin rash. In fact, allergic reactions range from mild to life-threatening. Those with pre-existing conditions like allergy, lung issues or immune-system dysfunction tend to have more dramatic negative physical responses to mold.

While the cause and effect seem clear, there is litigation going on in the court system to determine whether or not there is adequate proof that exposure to indoor mold can cause respiratory allergies.

A new study of children’s susceptibility to interior wetness and mold by the American Journal of Epidemiology suggests that children living in damp, water- damaged houses may develop nasal allergies and moist, moldy settings in the house are related an increased danger of children’s nasal allergies.

Generally it makes sense to eliminate the mold as it does affect the home environment. Plus such conditions (i.e. humidity) are also amenable to fungi and dust mites.

Download the pdf report to the California legislature on implementation of the toxic mold protection act of 2001.

If you’re sensitive to mold and pollen, you can keep track of the state of the air with a visit or subscription to http://pollen.com or http://weather.com. Weather.com even provides a list of all the local grasses that are making you sneeze; and if you have a problem with ozone and particulates, the weather.com website even forecasts ozone and particulates. You can sign up with both sites to track your allergies, or just keep informed.

Click to find your forecast AT POLLEN.COM

Click to find your forecast AT WEATHER.COM

Anyone looking for a home on the coast should certainly have a mold inspection prior to purchase. If there is mold found, there is probably a water problem lurking somewhere. Anything from an actual roof or plumbing leak, to trapped humidity can be indicative of a more aggressive problem that a new homeowner would not wish to be stuck with some time down the road. If mold is found, then in addition to elimination of the mold, whatever underlying water problem exists must also be handled if the new homeowner wants to avoid a repeat of the same problem some years down the road.

Call Bye Bye Mold

There’s an old saying “Don’t let the fox guard the henhouse.” It comes from an even older Latin saying, “Ovem lupo commitere.” There should be an Aesop’s fable covering this, but there’s not, so I’m making one up.

Once upon a time, a farmer had made friends with the fox who came daily to look at the henhouse. The day came when the farmer set the friendly fox to guard the chicken house. Of course, chicks and chickens came up missing–because, after all, a fox is a fox is a fox.

(Well, Aesop, I’m not.)

But it makes the point–do not assign a job to someone who can exploit it for their own ends. It is setting the scene for failure.

This is why ByeBye Mold asks “How can a company that tests for mold also do the remediation without a conflict of interest?” The answer is they can’t.

ByeBye Mold tests for mold, but does not do the remediation. Byebye Mold has no vested interest in whether or not your property tests negative or positive for mold.

The irresistable face of the fox is brought to you by the magic of Microsoft clip art

Catastrophic Brain Injury From Mold
While the victim’s (Steve White) injury was significant and traumatic, the jury decided that in this case there was no credible evidence to support his claim of “Allergic Fungal Sinusitis.”

Lawyers need not despair for the category of mold/environmental case law , however, because contributing to the loss of this particular case was testimony of the victim’s former girlfriend who referred to the victim’s eviction from a former apartment after he created a dangerous condition from mold from his own fish tank.

Timeline
First came the victim’s toxic mold exposure from his apartment in the Simi Valley apartment complex, then he contracted allergic fungal sinusitis from which he developed a brain abscess, leading to permanent neurological damage. On January 9, 2005, the victim had emergency surgery to treat his condition and the law suit was filed on June 30.

Catastrophic injury from alleged mold exposure is difficult to prove. The problem is in proving causation between mold and illness. There is no one disease exclusively linked to mold, and mold exposure symptoms tend to occur only in its presence and tend to disappear at the end of exposure, although it sometimes incurs lasting effects.

If this is your situation too, and you’re in California, you might want to give us a call and see about getting an assessment from Byebyemold.

In an article, the mold problem in the Buffalo Police precinct was debunked.

They say “Black mold was found on the walls in the building, but not in air samples” and that …” that air quality is not being negatively impacted by mold found in the ceiling.”

Don’t you just love “politicalspeak?”

The mayor even says “even though there was no “evidence of fungi found in the building”, officers will be kept out of the building until further notice.”

That’s smart, because the mayor knows–or surely his mold experts told him–what goes up must come down. Or to put it specifically, give it some time and it will be in the air.

Either the mold will continue its life cycle and give off spores normally, or dust will happen, some of it originating from the mold, or aggressive procedures will be taken (hopefully with remediators wearing hazmat), and that mold is going to be in the air.

There’s a REASON that officers will be kept out of the building until further notice.

If this is your situation too, and you’re in California, you might want to give us a call and see about getting an assessment from Byebyemold.

Whether a mold related toxic tort case is work based, product based, or environmentally based, historically they have been difficult to prove. But the symptoms of mold exposure like memory loss, allergies, and breathing difficulties don’t care that the case is hard to prove in court. The negative aspects of mold, and the potentially fatal dangers that it poses to infants and individuals with weak immune systems happen anyway. You’d think it would be easier to prove that mold is dangerous, that the individual was exposed to it, and it caused harm. In any case, before you set out to establish a mold case, you need documentation of conditions, concentration and type.

If this is your situation too, and you’re in California, you might want to give us a call and see about getting an assessment from Byebyemold.