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[Microbiology] Re: Killing MOLD: Need an informed opinion

JEDilworth bactitech at nospamhortonsbay.com
Sun Nov 6 22:23:31 EST 2005


Be extremely careful with prodigious amounts of mold. You don't want to
be physically "breaking" up the furry stuff, as those carry the
microconidia. There are literally billions of these that will be spread
into the air - and into your lungs - if you do this. You should be
especially careful with infants and young children, anyone with chronic
lung conditions, or who is immunocompromised. The day you decide to
clean, get them out of the house, assuming that your area is small
enough to clean (see link below for cleaning information).

Best to get a professional opinion on this. All the cleaning in the
world will not help if you have an ongoing source of dampness or water
leakage.  I took a quick peek at your pics. There's no way of knowing
exactly what you're growing without doing preps of all of this stuff,
but I'd be willing to bet some of this is Aspergillus sp. The round
glisteny colonies are bacteria, or they may be yeasts. Hard to tell. We
work with all these types of plates under a safety hood. You should,
too!!! (Talk to your mold test lab techs - they'll set you straight!).

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/aspergillosis_t.htm

http://www.doctorfungus.org/mycoses/human/aspergillus/aspergillosis.htm

Certain species of Aspergillus are worse than others, and this can only
be determined by a mycology laboratory. Also, if the mold is growing on
anything with cellulose, or your house has been previously flooded, you
have the danger of Stachybotrys atra. I'm not familiar with its colony
morphology, but this mold produces an airborne neurotoxin that is
dangerous to breathe.

http://gcrc.meds.cwru.edu/stachy/default.htm

There is a link on this page that has to do with mold cleanup.

http://gcrc.meds.cwru.edu/stachy/cleanup.htm

It stresses that, if you have more than one square foot of moldy area to
clean, you should get professional help (for reasons cited above).

Judy Dilworth, M.T. (ASCP)
Microbiology 31 years

"Ian" <mold at prodigy.net> wrote in message
news:9aubf.6560$Kv.709 at newssvr22.news.prodigy.net...
> We've been having problems with mold in our house. Can't find the
source
> yet, but when I put a petri dish from the mold test lab out for even
10
> minutes it starts growing all sorts of mold.



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