It's normal to find black mold in a homes indoor air and other surfaces like clothes, walls, and furnishings. Most of the time mold found indoors are probably from outside sources. Regular cleaning helps insure mold levels stay low. Scrubbing minute areas of visible mold, like the mold around your sink, is obligatory to keep mold under control.
When you should be more concerned is when your house has a big area of mold spores growing. These problems are likely to happen when there has been a continuing water leak, flood, or extremely high levels of moisture in the home. Indoor mold growth may lead to high levels of airborne mold spores, which, in turn, may trigger the propagation of mold spore propagation from the original source to more areas of the home having high moisture levels.
Large levels of mold growth can damage your home and furnishings such as carpets, couches and cabinets. Over a long time, unfettered mold growth may even cause unseen damage to structural elements of your house. While there is no practical way to get rid of all mold and mold spores in the indoor environment, keeping your house dry and clean can help avert extensive black mold growth and the ensuing damages it can generate.
The possibility of damage to your house and possessions is not the only reason to be concerned about mold. Although most people are exposed to small quantities of black mold or their spores on a regular basis without noticeable damage, mold is an unhygienic condition that may present possible health risks to certain individuals.
Possible adverse health effects produced by mold can include allergic, annoying, or toxigenic effects, and possibly infections, allergy problems being the most prevalent. Symptoms described by affected people include: respiratory conditions, like wheezing, difficulty breathing, and shortness of breath, sneezing and/or nasal stuffiness, eye and/or throat irritation, headaches and overall tiredness.
Here are a few tips to keep moisture from becoming a breeding ground in your house for mold:
- Ensure that bathrooms, dryers and other wetness-creating sources are directed to the outside
- Take care not to block any of your house's air conditioning vents
- Put dehumidifiers in your basements and crawlspaces
- Use your kitchen's exhaust fans when preparing meals
- Put insulation on cold surfaces including pipes, air vents or basement walls to lessen the possibilities of condensation
- Place wetness sensors in potential water back-up and overflow locations to alert you when a leak occurs
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