Originally published January 31 2006
Treating house mold is important for ensuring your family's health
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Newsday.com looks at a 2004 report by the National Academies Institute of Medicine that provides readers with information on how to treat house mold.
The best source is a recent and comprehensive review of already-available information called "Damp Indoor Spaces and Health," a report published in 2004 by the National Academies' Institute of Medicine.
Researchers and practitioners in the field consider this report to be the gold standard on what is known and unknown, likely and unlikely, about the health effects of household mold.
The institute's committee of experts found "sufficient evidence to conclude that the presence of mold [is associated] with cough, wheeze, asthma symptoms in sensitized asthmatic persons, and hypersensitivity pneumonitis [a relatively rare immune-mediated condition] in susceptible persons."
It also found limited evidence that mold can cause lower respiratory-tract illness in otherwise healthy children.
But the committee found inadequate or insufficient evidence to support sometimes-fanciful claims - many of which, I'd note, tend to get more than their due from the news media and the Internet - that mold causes a variety of other health problems such as gastrointestinal tract disorders, fatigue, neuropsychiatric symptoms (memory loss, for instance), pulmonary hemorrhage and cancer.
On average, seven will have asthma, four will have asthma that is triggered by some allergen, and one or two will specifically have a mold sensitivity.
Given that most people can be exposed to mold and remain symptom-free, medical professionals tend to regard the terms "toxic mold" and "sick house" as misleading.
In large quantities - resulting, say, from excessive humidity, poor ventilation or water leaks - residents should remove or, better yet, prevent the mold formation in the first place.
Already-existing mold can be removed with commercial products, soap and water, or a weak bleach solution.
But to prevent the recurrence of heavy outbreaks of indoor mold, the key is to eradicate the warm, damp and humid conditions under which it thrives.
In the meantime, short-term asthma or allergy symptoms, whether from mold or other allergens, can be relieved in several conventional ways - through the selective use of asthma medications, or with allergy medications such as antihistamines, decongestants and intranasal corticosteroids.
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