December 9th, 2012 9:46 PM by Dan Howard
There are times that each of us can be in the right place at the right time. The background here is that organ transplant recipients are placed on immunosuppressant drugs. This simply means that their immune system needs to be “turned on to low” to avoid the body rejecting the organs. The good news is that with ant-rejection therapy, transplant patients can now live for decades as compared to the original outcome of many living only days after the transplant.
I was called to perform an inspection on a new, $ 400,000+ home. It was freshly painted and looked wonderful….except …there was the odor of mold when stepping into this beautiful home. The buyers mentioned that they were looking for a new house for health reasons.Upon walking down the steps, there were freshly painted walls, but there was the faint green shade of green mold on the joists and sheathing. The buyers had not noticed the green tint. The mold appeared to be Aspergillus. Among the tons of information poured into this very geeky skull from sitting in tons of classes and reading geeky journals was the fact that Aspergillus is a serious, life threatening exposure for organ transplant patients.
We took the air and swab tests and confirmed that the mold was Aspergillus, was at an extremely high level for even healthy persons and had spread to the upper levels of the home. Had they moved into the home…well….it would have been unhealthy at best and potentially life threatening. No house is worth that risk. The funny thing here is that they called for a home inspection, and home inspectors are not to consider the mold by the ASHI Standards of Practice. As I said ……………..right place with the right client.