Some years ago I moved to Vermont and settled in an old farmhouse on a dirt road. It all seemed so romantic. The house was rustic and full of quaint New England charm. This was the Vermont I had dreamt about. I was enchanted by the view of the snow-covered road and the old sputtering wood stove I lit each evening. But after nearly a month in my new home, I developed a burgeoning sinus infection and my skin was often irritated. My legs started to develop small, itchy, red patches. It was annoying. But nothing a few visits to a dermatologist might not be able to clear-up, I reasoned. Yet after several months, the skin rashes and sinus infections were accompanied by a persistent cough. It was difficult to get up in the mornings. I began to experience an intense drawn out fatigue. I didnt know it at the time but I was suffering from exposure to a toxic house mold. The spores had begun to reek havoc on my health.
House mold is a virulent, pesky fungus that is making millions of Americans terribly sick each year. Thirty-seven million Americans are affected by mold. And the effect this fungus can have on their health is devastating. Prolonged exposure to the spores can lead to chronic forms of asthma, sinus infections, fatigue and bleeding lungs.
In 1994 Harvard University conducted a study of 10,000 US and Canadian homes and found that over 50% of them had mold conditions that contributed to significant respiratory problems.
House mold grows in damp places: behind walls, under floors and behind shower tiles. Water is the key. Without water molds cant get started.
There are many different types of mold but stachybotrys is the strain that is most lethal. If a person faces continuous exposure to the strain, the lungs can be devastated by pulmonary hemorrhages, which can lead to death. Other symptoms include severe memory loss, headaches and dizziness.
Nine months after my move into that New England farmhouse, I stumbled across an article on house mold in an issue of a magazine. I was sitting in the airport after a much needed winter vacation in the Yucatan. In the airport I realized it. The mysterious nagging health issues had disappeared on my vacation. No more sinus infections, no more cough, and the sun with all its heated rays had quickly eliminated those fungal rashes.
When I returned to the old farmhouse, within days I felt miserable again. The skin irritations, the sinus infections, the cough, and fatigue, all of my old symptoms returned.
I had the farmhouse tested for house mold. It was filled with stachybotrys.
In the end, I searched for and eventually found, a nice dry apartment which I had thoroughly inspected for mold. Now from my window, I still watch the New England snow fall across the road in the evenings. But I do so knowing that the air I breath is no longer a threat to my health.