Chico, a Gulf of Indoor Toxins

By Carol Alongi

Too many Chico homes, particularly rental units, have indoor biotoxins caused by water damage found in unmaintained buildings. These substandard buildings act as production "factories" of toxic molds and fungi, known as biotoxins. Some biotoxins refuse to live in a human body, but poisonous ones make your human body their home. Biotoxins can be creating all kinds of complex diseases, even at carcinogenic levels. Chronic debilitating and severe degenerative health disorders happen from living with indoor toxins in "sick buildings."

Most indoor toxins are invisible and airborne during summertime. Chico's mild wet winters and hot summers are ideal for biotoxin growth. Chico's hot days dry out the mold and fungi spores, sending them into our air. It does not matter if you can see anything at all. If there is a crack in your wall, behind a cupboard or around a pipe, biotoxins can come into your home from inside the walls. If you have multiple toxic molds living together they'll produce microtoxins, the smallest and worst toxins, fighting each other for survival. Without your knowing, every breath you take has the potential of infecting you and anyone who visits.

Since professional testing for biotoxins is very expensive, how can you know if you are being exposed to indoor air toxins inexpensively? Test yourself! Wear a half or full face gas respirator mask at all times in your home. These are far better than N95 disposable face masks. If you feel better, you have indoor toxins. If your home has any signs of mold presence or previous mold or water damage and you have any adverse health reactions like dry coughing, sore throat, respiratory problems, heart palpitations or increasing fatigue, try using the gas respirator while in your home for a week or two, stay out of your home when you take it off, and see if you feel any better.

Chlorine bleach is not a registered EPA mold killing product. It may kill mold on a hard, smooth surface yet not on porous surfaces like wood, clothing, cloth covered furniture or drywall. When you spray mold with bleach, only the water part of the solution soaks into the wood while the bleach chemical sits on the surface and evaporates. It does not destroy the roots that reproduce the mold. Monique Nivolon of the U.S. EPA in San Francisco states, "Remediating the mold properly and as soon as possible is a must or the mold will continue to spread and the property will devalue more and more. Cosmetic repairs such as painting over, or bleaching the surface, will not be enough: as long as there is water hidden in the structure the mold will eat through the paint or any coating, and this, very fast ... So it would be just a plain waste of money."

Kill mold and fungi by using borax, white vinegar or rubbing alcohol. Spraying mold with a "killer" is not enough either. Dead toxic mold is still toxic. You must physically get it out of your home.

Not only your health is damaged from indoor toxins, your belongings are contaminated. Moving your toxic belongings into a different home brings your biotoxin problem with you. You cross-contaminate. Remediation (cleaning toxins) costs of your belongings begin at about $10,000.

Water+mold = Mold growth. Protect yourselves. Be well.

From the Summer 2010 issue of the Environmental News.