Healthy living and a healthy home go hand in hand. Without proper maintenance of your house or residence, you can find yourself being susceptible to harmful bacteria and toxins. At ProCare Restoration, our job is to restore and repair your home through our variety of restoration services.
While our restoration services range far and wide, mold is the most frequent problem our clients deal with. Since mold can linger in your home undiagnosed for long periods of time, there are serious concerns people have as it pertains to health and sickness. Though it’s a serious problem for your home, it can even be more problematic for those living in your house.
The question we get all time: Can you get sick from mold?
Understanding Mold
In order to fully comprehend the damaging effects mold can have on the human body, you first need to comprehend mold at a basic level. Molds accumulate as different types of fungi that grow and reproduce by creating spores. As you may have noticed or heard, mold tends to thrive in environments that are humid, damp, and wet.
What’s particularly alarming is the way in which mold grows and survives. As we stated, they reproduce and form mold spores which aren’t detectable to the human eye. This makes them practically invisible, but even more concerning is the fact that mold spores can survive extremely harsh environments that don’t normally support mold growth.
Here are the most common types of mold:
-cladosporium
-penicillium
-alternaria
-aspergillus
What Health Risks Are Linked to mold
Since mold growth and mold spores can be nearly impossible to detect, it’s important to concentrate on your own health in order to determine if your home is harboring harmful mold. In fact, there are certain types of people whose health conditions make them more prone to the damaging effects of mold.
For those of you who suffer from asthma, chronic lung disease, as well as elderly and infants, your body is more susceptible to the damaging effects mold can cause. Exposure to mold for some these people can lead to irritation of the eyes or skin, coughing or wheezing, or even nasal congestion. However, for people listed above with chronic lung disease, there’s a chance you can develop mold infections in your lungs.
Can you get sick from mold?
The short answer? Yes, you can definitely get sick from mold. While this may not be the case for everyone, there’s no reason risking it. Mold damage is not only damaging to your health, but also to your home. Without a plan of attack or negligence, you are leaving yourself a restoration bill that keeps increasing the longer you don’t do anything about it.
How to prevent mold from harming you
The best plan of action is to prevent mold from ever starting to occur. While it’s easier said than done, planning ahead is a much better solution than mitigating a serious problem. This is especially true if you live with an infant or elderly person in your home. The longer you leave mold untreated, the more at risk they are of long-lasting health problems.
Here’s what you should to prevent mold from causing illness and damage to your home:
-During humid months, keep a dehumidifier or air conditioner running. This is especially important to areas of your home that tend to get moist or damp (closets, basements, attics, etc.).
-Frequently clean your bathroom, in particular with mold killing cleaners. This prevents the mold buildup on shower curtains, ceilings, and dark crevices.
-Control the humidity levels in your home, and make sure that it never reaches above 60% humidity in your home. The higher the humidity the better chance for mold spores to grow.
-In the event that parts of your home get wet, thorough dry within 24 to 48 hours.
-Make sure to check for any leaky pipes, particular around the kitchen and bathroom sink
-Try to avoid carpet on your basement floors, we recommend installing concrete flooring
If the situation gets worse and you feel like there’s not a viable in-home solution, call ProCare Restoration for fast and reliable mold remediation services!
