What Causes Mold in a Home
The warm humid summer months mix with a high level of moisture in your home can create the perfect conditions for an undesirable fungi growth to occur within your personal indoor environment. Mold is a fairly common fungi that grows in both indoor and outdoor environments, wherever the ideal conditions are present and allow the mold to thrive. You may first notice a distinct discoloration on the surface(s) of your home, an altered odor that is produced inside your home’s air, or even a bout of health symptoms that are in full force in your body and also for others who are exposed to this tainted mold environment.
Mold is a known allergen that can trigger health symptoms in those who are exposed to the mold and the spores they produce into the air. This allergen is also a hazardous fungus to the surfaces of your home, as mold thrives on drywall and the materials used to construct a home. Mold will eat away at this material and leave structural surface damage to the home. Preventing mold from developing and spreading inside your home is critical to protecting the surfaces of your home, the health of those exposed, and the air quality inside the home.
What will cause mold to grow in your home and how can you prevent mold from growing within your personal indoor environment?
What is Mold?
Mold is not a plant or an animal, rather it is a type of fungus that can develop and grow inside a home. There are several hundred different types of mold that can be found and grow indoors and outdoors, depending on the conditions present in the environment. Some of the most commonly known types of mold fungi include aspergillus, Chaetomium, Cladosporium, penicillium, and stachybotrys (also known as black mold). A dangerous component of mold is the tiny microscopic mold spores that are produced from the fungi and that are released into the air which can significantly affect human health upon exposure and impact the air quality in the indoor air space.
When the ideal conditions are present in an environment it will allow for mold to develop and thrive in the home.
The conditions that mold finds desirable includes the following:
✓ Moisture
✓ Humidity
✓ Darkness
✓ Warm Climates
✓ Poor Ventilation
Symptoms of Mold Sickness
Mold can affect people differently, whether they are susceptible to this allergen or if they have heath conditions that make them more adversely affected to the mold. Mold sickness or mold allergies are conditions that are triggered by the exposure to mold within a personal indoor environment. Whether or not you are allergic to mold, the allergen can still potentially impact human health and trigger a bout of varying health symptoms upon exposure.
For those who are sensitive to mold, particularly upon inhalation or contact, a bout of health symptoms can be triggered, and these symptoms include the following:
- Sneezing
- Runny nose
- Red eyes
- Skin rash
- Allergic reaction
- Asthma attack
- Throat irritation
- Difficulty breathing
How Do You Stop Mold from Spreading
Mold multiplies by traveling through the air as tiny mold spores (as small as 0.3 microns) that will find and latch onto a surface within the environment and start to grow and develop mold on the surface. Most people will halt mold growth by cleaning the mold from the surface in which they have grown on, this is done by cleaning the surface with bleach and following up with a specialized mold remediation expert to properly contain and eliminate the mold from the surface. After this is conducted, however, there is still a potential for mold to be floating inside the home through the air in the form of mold spores.
The process of removing mold spores from the air is accomplished through the use of an efficient mold air purifier. The EnviroKlenz UV Air Purifier is a highly efficient air purification device that is able to effectively capture and kill mold spores within the purifier. EnviroKlenz utilizes a patented earth mineral technology that is capable of capturing and breaking down/neutralizing the chemicals and chemical odors such as from mold in the air. Along with this technology, the EnviroKlenz UV Air Purifier uses a hospital-grade HEPA filter for particulate capture, used in conjunction with UVC lights that shine on top of the HEPA filter to kill the collected microorganisms that are collected on the HEPA such as bacteria, viruses, and mold spores. This is done safely and efficiently without the production of ozone or the creation of a byproduct, making the EnviroKlenz UV Air Purifier a top choice for mold spore removal in the air.
EnviroKlenz UV Air Purifier Effectiveness Against Mold
The following experiment was set up to illustrate the impact of the UVC light in the EnviroKlenz Air System. Two EnviroKlenz Air Systems were set up in the same indoor air environment with HEPA filters installed. HEPA filters are designed to capture a broad range of particulate mater 0.3 microns in size and larger.
In one system the UVC light bulbs were turned on, while in the other system UVC lights were not used. The systems were allowed to collect particulate matter for 1 week. After the week of collection ended, the systems were turned off and the HEPA surface was sampled with sterile collection swaps and streaked on to the nutrient agar plates (MEA). The plates were then allowed to incubate for 10 days.
In the image above, the plates are observed. The MEA plate on the left has mold growth. This was the sample collected from the system without the UVC lights running, while the sample on the right shows the UVC light being on killed the mold and the resulting plate with no growth observed.
Frequently Asked Questions – Mold Growth Indoors
The Cleanest Air
Your Home Has Ever Had.
EnviroKlenz Mobile Air System
(Standard Model)
$699
EnviroKlenz Mobile Air System
(UV-C Model)
$799