Never Ignore Mould Growing in Your Home

Never Ignore Mould Growing in Your Home

By Ruth MacEachern

Product Manager

Increased health issues including allergic rhinitis, asthma, and other respiratory diseases are linked to the presence of damp or mould in a home.  If they live in a house in a building with high levels of mould, young children and the elderly are particularly susceptible to the effects of mould.

How mould affects your health

Almost everyone will have some response to the presence of mould, but not everyone will experience severe symptoms as a result.

Common side effects from inhaling mould spores include nasal congestion, throat irritation, wheezing, and eye irritation.  In some cases, people with sensitive skin may have an allergic reaction in mouldy settings.

Exposure to toxic black mould are very serious.  The mycotoxins produced by Stachybotrys Chartarum can destroy brain neurons and have an impact on our mental and emotional health.  In serious cases, people ingesting spores from toxic black mould can experience dizziness, confusion, and even hallucinations.

Mould should always be taken seriously, especially in homes with occupants who may have underlying respiratory conditions or weaker immune systems.

What is Mould and how does it spread?

Mould is related to fungus that thrives in damp conditions where it absorbs nutrients from dead materials.  Some mould is found in every building due to the way its tiny spores spread in the air, although it only develops into a problem when it settles on damp areas where it can grow.

Most moulds spread by releasing tiny particles known as spores.  When these land in suitable conditions, they can start to grow quickly.  Because the spores can be carried on the air, mould colonies can form throughout your home. Aside from being the seeds for each new colony of mould, these spores are what cause irritation when inhaled.

In homes, damp areas typically form in areas where condensation is allowed to settle.  When warm humid air from bathrooms and kitchens or drying clothes meets a cold surface, it releases the moisture that it carries.  When the condensation soaks through porous surfaces and saturates the material such as plaster, it causes damp where the mould can grow.  While the most common place to see mould is in bathrooms and around windows, it can also grow in quieter areas with less airflow such as behind cupboards or under beds.

Removing mould is essential

After finding mould in your home, you should remove it as soon as possible – there are mould cleaning chemicals called fungicides available on the market, although heavily diluted bleach is almost as effective.

When cleaning mould, always wear eye protection, gloves and a mask.  When working with bleach, it is a good idea to wear older clothes in case they are damaged.  Any cloths that you use to clean the mould should be thrown away immediately after use to prevent contaminating other areas of your house. 

If you have Stachybotrys Chartarum or toxic black mould in your home, it needs to be cleaned professionally to protect you from the mycotoxins it releases.

It is important to remember that cleaning mould from your walls will not get rid of the problem for good. You need to remove the environment that mould thrives in, and this means preventing damp in your home.  With condensation being the most common source of damp in UK homes it is important to ensure that you have enough ventilation in your home to reduce humidity and stop condensation.

Read more about dealing with mould >>

Act on mould today

Mould can seriously affect the health of your family, and it is important to protect them.  Our local ventilation specialists can provide a free home survey that will identify the sources of condensation in your home and provide advice about the best solution – whether this is improvements to the extractor fans in your bathroom and kitchen, or a more advanced whole house ventilation system that draws fresh air in from outside the property to replace stale or moist air that contains mould spores.

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