The biggest myths of mould

Mould growth and treatment is most often miss-understood, much of this comes down to chemical companies who spend millions of dollars advertising ineffective treatments that focus on attempting to kill mould and ignore the importance of removal in order to drive sales that have been misleading the public. This has set an unhealthy and inaccurate public image about mould that rapidly changing as people begin to understand more about the science and health consequences behind mould problems and indiscriminate chemical usage.

Myth 1: Killing Mould

Mould killing solutions is big business for chemical companies!

Our finding indicates that the commonly used fungicides in the indoor environment cannot completely kill all the fungal inocula. Most of the fungi form dormant spores when exposed with fungicides. These dormant spores can germinate and resume growth when a favorable environment is available to them. The results provide further evidence that physical removal of indoor fungal contaminated material is necessary as a proper remediation practice when dealing with indoor air quality problems. Our study strengthens the evidence that effect of fungistasis or mycostasis, a phenomenon linked to exogenous dormancy where fungal growth is inhibited without any effect on viability.

- Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene - Evaluation of Five Antifungal Agents Used in Remediation Practices Against Six Common Indoor Fungal Species

Dead mould is as and in some ways even more toxigenic than live mould. Toxins are not only excreted by toxic moulds during their life cycle but these toxins are also excreted (think mould poo) as well as contained in the spores as well and the cell walls of the mould itself. Once a anti-microbial is applied to the mould the mould will begin to decompose breaking into smaller pieces. These smaller particles of mould and their associated toxins can be breathed even deeper into the lungs due to their now smaller size which exacerbates the negative health effects due to much more efficient absorption by the body.

“The use of a chemical or biocide that kills organisms such as mold (chlorine bleach, for example) is not recommended as a routine practice during mold cleanup.”… “Dead mold may still cause allergic reactions in some people, so it is not enough to simply kill the mold, it must also be removed.” - Americas Environmental Protection Agency(EPA)

To make matters worse antimicrobial chemicals which are by their nature poisonous to biological life often have their own toxigenic properties which add further toxins to the property if not thoroughly removed after application.

Our solution to this is quite simple - We are not there to simply kill the mould in your property, we are there to remove it using the safest means possible. For the vast majority of works this means that we do not need to reach for these chemicals at all and in instances where we do need to reach for these chemicals we only pick the safest ones suitable for the surface and circumstances they are being applied in. Our procedures also mean that we are removing the chemicals are are applying to remove the mould as we proceed through the jobs leaving the property as chemical free as we possibly can.

Myth 2: Spraying is an effective method of chemical application

At no point should chemicals, even those that say appear to be designed that way to be ever sprayed onto mould. This act of spraying the mould can cause the mould spores as well as fragments of the mould to spread throughout the property. The oily biofilm coating which makes mould feel slimey when comes in contact with spray droplets provide massive amounts of energy. The size droplet from a spray bottle exceed 100 microns while a mould spore is only 4 to 20 micron in size. As the comparatively massive and forcefully applied droplet of water hits the spore the oily coating repels against the water in the chemical and this impact provides well more than enough the spores need to bounce back into your face and into the air spreading it throughout the property.

The solution to this is quite simple, cleaning agents need to be applied by hand not by sprayer.

Myth 3: Indiscriminate use of fogging.

A popular technique implemented by a lot of restorers is to use a fogger which sprays an extra fine mist of chemical throughout the property onto all surfaces. As we have previously discussed there is no point trying to kill mould and anti-microbial can often be toxic so this act of fogging can potentially be making the situation even worse by applying an even coating of extra toxins throughout the entire property.

Another fact about anti-microbials is if you were to read the manufacturers literature you would find that they need to be applied to clean surfaces. This creates big problem, the surface needs to be clean for the chemical to be effective, yet if the surface is clean then you under most normal circumstances do not need to apply the chemical. If you were to apply the anti-microbial properly then now you the client needs to pay for cleaning twice as the anti-mircobial should be removed after its dwell time otherwise you are paying someone to trade one set of toxins for another.

One positive aspect about foggers is also one which is ripe for abuse: Foggers are able to very quickly drop mould particulate and spores out of the air as they latch onto the heavy droplets; a process known as floculation. These droplets then fall onto the ground which means that if air testing is done directly after fogging that the air sample will come back clean. However if this mould is not quickly cleaned up off of the surfaces it has been dropped onto then these mould and spores will become airborne again quickly with regular daily activity in the building disturbing them. Before you know it your air quality is back to where it started or perhaps even worse because the source of the problem may not have been properly dealt with.

It is far from all doom and gloom however, the good news is that effective and safe mould remediation centers around what is known as ‘source removal’ Which you can read about here.

Myth 4: Black Mould

There are several species of mould which can appear to be black in colour which are all common moulds associated with water damage. If there is any presence of mould found inside a building there will in fact several species of mould growing in different stages of development.

Initial colonisers of water damage building structure is first bacteria which proliferate in large numbers and invisible numbers. Mould takes some extra time to start growing and also remains invisible until it has grown in numbers large enough to become visible.

There are several factors which influence which type of mould is growing but it is most important to understand is that different moulds will favour different amounts of moisture, so as a material dries one mould will be taken over by another mould which is more often than not impossible to see with the naked eye.

Its safe to assume that the presence of any unwanted growth is presence of a biofilm containing bacterial growth and at least one dominant mould species of which is likely to be taken over other species as the material which is growing on dries over time.

The presence of any visual growth no matter the colour is the canary in the coal mine that action needs to be taken to safely remove the unwanted growth.