You can find black mold by tracking its scent around the house. Black mold gives off a musty, earthy smell that can become quite pungent when growth is heavy. “Sniffing around” is the best we can do when looking for black mold growth because they are rarely seen.
Especially problem areas are hard-to-reach nooks and crannies in a room, small spaces behind furniture or kitchen appliances that are rarely cleaned, behind walls, and inside ceilings.
You can experience several different symptoms when exposed to black mold. The non-toxic variety can cause nasal congestion, coughing, sneezing, shortness of breath, headaches, and skin or eye irritation.
Since many doctors are not very familiar with exposure to black mold, mainly because its symptoms are very similar to those of other diseases, you have to help them a little. When you are at home, keep a journal. Try to keep track of which rooms you enter and where or when you begin to experience symptoms.
This will help you locate the black mold growth and eventually eliminate it. Once a particular area is cleaned, your symptoms are expected to improve, but if not, there may still be other areas that require a checkup.
When exposing a certain section of the house, don’t forget to turn off the air conditioning and heating systems. Ducts run throughout the house and spores in the air can easily travel from room to room. Also, always wear gloves to protect your hands and a mask to avoid inhaling the spores.
What about toxic mold?
Ordinary black mold exposure can be easy to deal with, but toxic black mold exposure is an entirely different story. The spores can immediately attack healthy cells, damaging not only the respiratory system, but also the digestive and nervous systems.
It attacks myelin, a component of the covering of nerve cells, and has been linked to mood swings and severe depression. The worst part of all of this is that the effects can be long-lasting and can remain on the body even after the toxic black mold has been removed from the home.
There is little that can be done to reverse the effects in someone with long-term toxicity problems. Black mold mold exposure, but the insidious damage it brings can be stopped with a detoxification process. Your doctor may not be a detox expert, but can refer you to a detox specialist.
Asthmatics, people with a history of allergies, children, and the elderly have weak immune systems and are therefore highly susceptible to the effects of black mold exposure. If you think you also have a weak immune system, don’t try to clean up the mold yourself – hire the services of experts who can do a quick and thorough job for you.