In thousands of homes and on social media posts across the land, you saw the annual notice heralding the end of summer vacation: “Summer is over and the kids are back in school”. Some will cry, some will cheer, some will only shrug their shoulders. No matter what we do or say, every school year, the emotion, and the back to school sales come to an end and attention shifts to the students actually being in school. Click Here to Download a Copy of Published Article
The bottom line on this is that parents DO NOT want their child sick because they go to school. Our schools that have mold are like the “Jaws” movies. Just when you think it is safe to return, we find out that it is “not so safe.”
When we experience any school environmental issue such as mold, it can be front page headlines, TV, talk show fodder and Facebook news feed material.
Environmental issues in schools are not “just another student health issue”. These problems are a public relations nightmare, a staff human relations mine field, a facility management challenge, a budget buster, a political fiasco and a liability time bomb.
Signs of Mold in School
If a school is flooded or has leaks that are not quickly cleaned up, there will be mold. Whether it is a roof leak, plumbing leak or any other area of wet surfaces, you can count on mold growing.
Parents should take a look around their child’s school. Water stains are the target to look for. Fuzzy or splotchy areas are the bullseye in the search for suspected mold. These can be in almost any area of a building anywhere from the highest ceiling to the lowest floor. In addition to the visual indicators of mold presence, odor can be indicator. When the odor of mold is in the school or on a child’s clothes, books, papers or possessions, mold should be investigated as a source of the offensive smell.
Sewage backups, leaks and all floods also have a host of water borne diseases and contaminants. When these occur, a professionally conducted disinfection must be conducted even when mold is not visible. Even a little dust left in an obscure corner after the flood is gone can enter through a cut in a student’s hand or their lungs long after the water is gone if the areas has not been disinfected.
Mold is a Science Project
Though not part of the approved school curriculum, mold that is found in the school is really a science experiment. Anywhere on earth that there is food and water, something will grow. It can be the deepest ocean or highest mountain. It can be the north pole or south pole or anywhere in between. That scientific fact is that books, paper, wood floors, drywall, dust, or any other material or any other substrate that can grow mold will grow mold within 48 hours of leaks or high moisture occurring.
The first step in preventing recurrence of mold is determining the conditions that were mold conducive. If mold grew in a school over the summer because the air conditioning was not run, or there are roof leaks, or any other reason, it will return if the cause of mold is not corrected.
Failure to correct the underlying cause of environmental hazards as well as the hazard itself, is a waste of money, and serves to mislead parents, administration and faculty into believing that the school mold environment is safe. In school we learned to consider both cause and effect. The same applies in the process of creating healthy indoor air quality.
Schools Can Get Help to Keep our Children Safe from Mold
The EPA provides great online tools available to learn the issues and solutions to mold problems. These are great general guidelines, but can’t address individual conditions. Mold problems are often complicated by being the result of several underlying conditions that require expertise in multiple construction fields.
Unfortunately, learning to use and to then implement these tools is often much tougher than obtaining them. Professional assistance is a good option to get an environmental awareness and mold prevention program up and running properly. Once established, existing staff can usually keep the program running.
Usually an indoor air quality (IAQ) program process starts with an initial site assessment, or information gathering session. The environmental risks are evaluated and appropriate tests then conducted. These could include mold and allergen testing. If there was flooding or sewage backups, testing for a number of common infectious diseases should be added.
An educational staff can’t be expected to have the full knowledge to implement a program, but often, once in place, the good health of school occupants can be maintained through the corrections and adjustments made in the facility. There are several companies that have assessment and monitoring programs that include a yearly Indoor Air Quality Certificate for posting after the assessment and completion of any appropriate testing and corrections.
Imagine struggling with an unexplained illness that robs you of normal life. You go from traditional doctor to traditional doctor and still no answers other than it must be your imagination. This isn’t science fiction. It is real people, real life and may even be you or your loved one.
For too long, people have unknowingly eaten, inhaled, drank and absorbed toxins that are often hidden in everyday products and the vary air and water we need to live.
Big business and government have told us not to worry, they will keep us safe. We are told that we can trust the food, water and air. They tell us the multitude of energy waves they beam through our bodies won’t hurt us. They did the same with asbestos, lead paint, radon and the drinking water in Flint Michigan.
There is new hope and healing for the millions of people affected with environmentally created health problems. CIRS, MCS, chemical toxicity, autoimmune disease and sensitivity to electro-magnetic forces are some of the illnesses. For many individuals, the health problems are the result of compromised health due to chemotherapy, organ transplants, and other illnesses that attack the bodies’ ability to heal.
Modern chemistry has brought us tens of thousands of untested new chemicals mixed in combinations to create hundreds of thousands of new exposures. If the product doesn’t have a toxin as a key ingredient, manufacturers often add toxic chemicals to create a pleasant odor.
What we have been doing is not enough to protect our health and the health of our children It is not OK to keep dosing environmentally ill individuals and ignore the source and causes. It is unacceptable to dismiss environmental illness as imagined or unimportant.
People are the sum of their genetics, health history and exposures. We accept that some children can find a peanut deadly, but have a difficult time understanding that other exposures can be deadly.
It is time for qualified Functional Professionals to work together to identify the causes of environmental health, find ways to avoid the toxins and help the people affected by environmental hazards to heal.
Functional Health Professionals
It is not enough to give people pills to treat the symptoms of environmental illness instead of the illness itself. Functional Health Professionals identify the cause and source of illness. They prescribe testing that can confirm what is the cause of illness. The source of illness can range from the food we eat to the air we breathe.
When food is the source of illness, they prescribe diets to improve health. When environmental factors are the issue, they refer patients to Functional Environmental Professionals to test and evaluate the source of toxins. Mold is the most common source of environmental illness.
The Functional Health Professional’s next steps are to provide advice to avoid the risk and medical care detoxifying and healing patients.
Functional Environmental Professionals
Functional Environmental Professionals (FEPs) explore the wide range of sources of environmental health risks. Mold is the most common problem. Toxic exposures can be found in drinking water, building materials, construction defects, HVAC systems, or from the activities of every-day living. Health risks can be from daily or occupational activities, frequented buildings or even outdoor sources. Testing is done to confirm the source of an exposure and then it is important for the FEP to identify and report on the changes needed to remediate the risk and avoid its return. Educating the client in avoiding future exposures is important to recovery. All buildings and their exposures are a science experiment. We all know that if we do not change the conditions of the experiment, the results will be the same. Identifying the changes that are required to keep a building healthy is a critical part of the assessment that requires a qualified Functional Environmental Professional.
Functional Remediators
It is not enough to spray a chemical in a building and declare that everything is better. Functional Remediation Professionals (FRPs) understand that there is not a single magic spray or pixie dust that remediates every building. When you clean your kitchen counter, you wipe the food and debris that is the food of bacterial and viruses off the counter. Just picture if you sprayed Lysol on the kitchen counter without cleaning up the food debris for the next couple of weeks. Yep, Lysol has a 99.8% kill germ claim, but that is not enough to spray a house without cleaning up the bad stuff where the contaminants are living. It is critical to test a patient’s reaction to treatment products before they are applied. This is especially true in one that is occupied by chemically sensitive or environmentally ill individuals. Functional Remediators follow the protocols of Functional Environmental Professionals that include containment, negative air and air scrubbing. Just as the dandelion will spread its white seeds when blown on, contaminants can be spread through a building during remediation. Improper remediation can make an unhealthy building even more toxic.
The Healthy Infusion Program Brings Functional Professionals Together
It is not enough to treat symptoms of illness. We should have healing.
It is not enough to test for an environmental risk. We should strive to correct the cause or reduce the exposure and its return.
It is not enough to spray a “one size fits all” chemical and declare a building free of toxins. We must treat with sensitivity to the occupants and using methods to contain exposures during treatment. We must change the conditions that cause a toxic environment.
Functional Professionals are a team that is focused on identifying the underlying conditions and improving the causes and conditions that can be improved.
Simply put, the Healthy Infusion Program is designed to bring the functional professionals together to address the source of environmental hazards and the path toward good health.
Where do we go From Here?
We know that our modern world has created many environmental risks that can affect each person differently. We need to understand the complexities of the life today and not dismiss the concerns of those that are affected by elements of our changing, complex and often toxic environment. We need to work together to provide the best outcomes for environmentally ill individuals.
Pesticides: Having a professional treat for pests is not a guaranty of safe use of pesticide. Some professionals use too much chemical to avoid return of the pests. In other instances, the problem is consumers not following directions or storing the leftover chemicals in the home. These products are often poisons for people as well as pests. Another common problem is a neighbor of a chemically sensitive individual’s use of chemicals in yards and homes.
New homes: There are hundreds of products off gassing chemicals in new construction. We have found some very unusual sources of toxic gasses in new homes. In one case, the problem in a $750,000 home was defective flexible ductwork. The homeowners could not live in the home until the ductwork was removed and replaced.
Home improvement and building supplies: You have probably heard about the Lumber Liquidators formaldehyde in flooring problem. Carpet, counters, sheathing, and almost every product in the home can have plastic which is made by chemistry that depends on heat, catalysts, timing, mixing and a host of factors that result in the imperfect creation of very complex chemicals. Some of those chemicals can be toxic to people and will evaporate from the materials. Cleaning products: The use of very concentrated cleaning supplies can create toxic residue and fumes. We have found numerous instances of offices becoming unhealthy as a result of these industrial strength products.
Drugs: We have found homes and multi-family units that were toxic with the residue of drug manufacture. As an example, the manufacture of Meth uses Drano, lye and sulfuric acid, and other toxic chemicals
Soil Gases: Many homes and other buildings are built on reclaimed industrial sites and farms. The chemicals and pesticides that may have entered the soil can be very safe in an open field. Buildings constructed over this soil can suck those chemicals into the air occupants breathe.
Stored Products: Just about every container will leak fumes over time. One nasty smelling home we found was venting gases from the stored chemicals that were used to build model rockets. Another home had the chemicals from a photo lab. Another family thought it was a great idea to store chemicals used to dry clean clothing.
Neighboring Environmental Problems: in one case, a neighbor had a side business that used toxic chemicals. He would pour those chemicals down their drains. The chemicals would evaporate into the neighboring home from the sewer making those people deathly ill. A nearby fracking operation was a problem for one homeowner who was using a HRV system to pull outside air into their home.
Misuse of Everyday Products: The safety of products is judged on “normal” use. As an example, many of the plug-in products to make your home smell good anticipate a minimal use in a home. Put one of those in every room and you can have a toxic level of exposure.
by Dr. Edward Group DC, NP, DACBN, DCBCN, DABFM
Published on June 24, 2016
Did you know that every day in your home you come in contact with toxic and hazardous chemicals? If you don’t pay attention and make a concerted effort, it’s almost impossible to avoid this stuff. Let’s look at the most common household chemicals, and what you can do to reduce your exposure and susceptibility to their negative impact on health.
Are Air Fresheners Hazardous?
Just because something smells nice and fresh doesn’t mean that it is good for you. Air fresheners are a prime example. Air fresheners can work by interfering with your sense of smell by coating your nasal passages with an oily film, or they can contain nerve-numbing agents.
Information published in a 2015 issue of The Journal of Toxicological Sciences concluded that air fresheners are a source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor environments. They also contain ultrafine particles and formaldehyde which may cause sensory irritation, respiratory dysfunction, and other serious problems.[1] The full list of harmful side effects is long… damage to the central nervous system, altered hormone levels, organ damage, and damage the pulmonary and cardiovascular systems.[1] Even worse, the negative effects of air fresheners may take years to surface. At that point, it’s too late.
Are Household Cleaners Hazardous?
Ammonia is found in a variety of household cleaners—kitchen, bathroom, floor, oven, glass, and polishers. If the product is at least 5% ammonia, it has to be labeled as poisonous.
The U.S. National Library of Medicine maintains TOXNET, the Toxicology Data Network. According to TOXNET, short-term exposure to ammonia can irritate, burn, and even damage the eyes and skin. Ammonia is irritating to the respiratory tract and causes coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath. Higher exposure can cause pulmonary edema, a life-threatening issue.[2]
Ammonia is not the only hazardous ingredient in household cleaners. Drain and oven cleaners contain sodium hydroxide (lye). Lye is corrosive and a strong irritant to both skin and eyes.[3] Just touching the stuff can produce serious damage and swallowing it will result in a “lights out” emergency.[4] In high concentrations, lye can burn skin and cause permanent blindness on contact.
Toilet bowl cleaners often contain hydrochloric acid, which is corrosive and will seriously damage any tissue it touches, irreversible damage. Protective equipment is an absolute requirement when handling any product that contains hydrochloric acid (or better yet, don’t handle it). Never mix hydrochloric acid-containing products with bleach as it will produce toxic gas!
When buying household cleaners, read the labels. Pay attention if they say “danger” or “corrosive.” All household products come with warnings and disclaimers. Read them and make sure you know what you are about to buy and exactly how, and how not, to handle it!
The Problem With Dishwasher and Laundry Detergent
Most dishwashing detergents contain chlorine in a dry, concentrated form. Those little dishwasher packets usually have bright colors and have been mistaken for candy by many a curious child. In fact, they’re actually a leading cause of child poisonings. The similar-looking laundry detergent packages have also become a problem.[5]
From January 2013 through December 2014, poison control centers in the U.S. received 62,254 calls related to laundry and dishwasher detergent exposure by children younger than six years old.[5] About 60% of all calls were related to detergent packets; 45% were referred to a healthcare facility—more than twice the number of visits caused by traditional laundry detergents.[5] Every 45 seconds, poison control centers receive a call about a child exposed to toxic laundry detergent packets.
Toxic Carpets, Hazardous Furniture
Many carpet cleaning formulas use toxic substances such as perchloroethylene and ammonium hydroxide. The former is a known carcinogen and can damage the liver, kidneys, and nervous system.[6] The latter is corrosive to the eyes, skin, and respiratory passages.[7, 8]
It’s easy for the carpet, upholstery, and furniture to blend in with the scenery. Few people think of these items as a source of hazardous chemicals. But, they can actually outgas VOCs.[9] VOCs are a group of hazardous chemicals that evaporate at room temperature and include benzene, acetone, and formaldehyde. Exposure, even short-term exposure, to VOCs can cause respiratory irritation, eye irritation, nausea, and headache. It can also trigger asthma symptoms. Long-term exposure to VOCs can cause liver, kidney, or nervous system damage, even cancer.[10]
How to Limit Exposure to Hazardous Household Chemicals
There are many other ways to reduce the toxicity of your indoor living environment. Stop using toxic brands, start using natural, non-toxic alternatives. You can even go a step further and make your own. Baking soda can be an effective cleaner for sinks and tubs. Mix water and vinegar to make a good surface cleaning solution that’ll handle doors and windows without issue.
Instead of chemical-based air fresheners, opt for natural air fresheners such as fresh flowers and houseplants.
For laundry, use fragrance-free detergents and avoid the detergent packets. Opt for eco-friendly and organic alternatives.
Traditional mattresses can be loaded with flame-retardant chemicals. Instead, get one that’s all-natural and made from untreated wool, organic cotton, or natural latex.
Instead of cheap, synthetic carpet, find a natural option, preferably something made from wool or hemp. Hemp is resistant to mold and mildew and you can use it in the bathroom or other moist areas. Also, consider that most popular carpet cleaners can be quite harmful to humans and the environment. Instead, use organic and biodegradable alternatives.
To compensate for the toxins you can’t avoid, consider performing a comprehensive, full-body cleanse. Cleansing your colon, kidneys, liver, and gallbladder is a great way to feel better. You can also perform targeted cleanses for harmful organisms or chemicals and toxic metals. Eliminating toxins should not only make you feel better, it should boost your energy.
Do you have any tips for a less-toxic home? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts with us.
References (10)
†Results may vary. Information and statements made are for education purposes and are not intended to replace the advice of your doctor. Global Healing Center does not dispense medical advice, prescribe, or diagnose illness. The views and nutritional advice expressed by Global Healing Center are not intended to be a substitute for conventional medical service. If you have a severe medical condition or health concern, see your physician.
http://m.petmd.com/dog/slideshows/mold-poisoning-pets-causes-symptoms-and-treatment
Mold and its potential effect on your pets is an important subject to our staff and many of the people we work with. Our dog, Buddy has Asthma, and a mold free environment is VERY important for him.
Just as mold can affect the health of people, pets can have health problems caused by mold exposure.
If you think about it, most of our pets spend more time in the home than we do, giving them a higher level of exposure. No wonder they can get sick before we do!
It’s a shame we cannot send them out to do the shopping, visit our relatives, attend events and in general make appearances in our behalf when we would rather be staying home….but…then we would have the higher exposure to any potential contaminants in the home.
This is a great slideshow from PetMD.com. Rest assured we understand that the health of your pests is important, and as pet owners take the healthy home goal seriously for you and your family, including the 4 legged members of the household
In this picture, Left to Right Noah the Assassin (You can ask how he earned his name) and Buddy Howard (as sweet a dog as ever lived)
Noah wanted it mentioned that we care about mold for him too. He is 17 years old and though he has not had Asthma like Buddy has, his health is important to us too!
Our Note This is a sad story of mold exposure, ruined health and financial devastation and a dream of home ownership torn away for a family. The missing part of the story is that regular home inspections do not include environmental issues. Firms like Envirospect? do the kind of environmental assessments that can protect consumers from these problems.
Back in 2009, Deborah Rumberger saw homeownership as the key to providing stability for her two young daughters, then 13 and 7. A few days before Halloween that year, after months of house hunting, she found the one: a 100-year-old Victorian home in Helena, Montana.
It wasn't easy. For starters, her budget didn't allow for a ton of options within a safe neighborhood. "And I just wasn't interested in a lot of the homes I could afford," she says. It's why she initially thought the two-story property she would later purchase for $173,500 was too good to be true — but she pushed her doubts to the back of her mind and bought it anyway.
That first night, after an exhausting day of unpacking, she tucked her kids into bed and crawled under the sheets. Instead of sleep, however, "I got so sick I thought I was going to die," Rumberger recalls. Her heart started pounding and her mouth went dry. All night long, she kept wanting to get up, but she felt so stiff she was barely able to move.
The next morning, a thought made her go white: There's something wrong with this house.
That same day, Rumberger started calling everyone she could think of to try to get out of her mortgage: the realtors, the bank, the title company, everyone. "Nobody cared," she says. "They chalked it up to buyer's remorse or stress from moving."
By the end of November, after about 30 days in her new home, Rumberger was constantly exhausted — more than the usual fatigue that comes with working and raising two children. One night her chest hurt so badly that she went to the emergency room, convinced she was having a heart attack. Another time she rushed herself to the hospital when her limbs went completely numb. By January, she noticed troublesome changes in her daughters, too. Her eldest was acting depressed, complaining of an itchy scalp and had frequent nose bleeds. Her youngest had sinus problems for the first time in her life, along with acid reflux and recurring nightmares.
Terrified over what was happening to her family, and convinced her house was the problem, Rumberger continued contacting her realtor, her bank, her title company, her inspector and her doctors. Finally, that spring, she found help in a neighbor named Clara Holliday. Holliday introduced her to the homeowner who lived in the house before the family that sold it to Rumberger — and that's when she learned about the home's 20-year history with flooding and mold.
Rumberger learned through this previous homeowner that the second-floor plumbing had once been re-routed through the attic. The problem was the attic wasn't heated, which can lead to frozen pipes. Frozen pipes can crack and leak when they expand in warmer weather, which Rumberger suspects happened during a particularly bad winter in 1989, when no one was residing in the home.
Sotereas Pantazes, co-founder of EFynch, a handyman community in Baltimore, says he's seen basements result in mold just days after a significant flooding. Rumberger, however, was living in the home 20 years after unresolved flood damage.
The old homeowner urged Rumberger to search her home for mold, starting with the tub in her bathroom.
Rumberger didn't have to search long. "I peeled back the plastic lining and it was filled with mold," she says. Next, she pulled down nearby drywall and tore up part of the carpet. Everything was covered in toxic black spores.
"At first, I felt relief and thought 'aha!' I knew something was going on," she says. "But at the time, I still didn't understand how damaging and dangerous toxic mold is."
Dr. Ann Shippy, a Texas-based physician and author of Mold Toxicity Workbook: Assess Your Environment & Create a Recovery Plan, says every one of Rumberger's symptoms — fatigue, weakness, headaches, morning stiffness and joint pain — is textbook mold toxicity. "Mold produces chemicals, like microtoxins and microbial volatile organic compounds that have seriously dangerous side effects," she explains. "A lot of people think you're only affected by mold spores if you're allergic to them, but mold makes chemicals that build up in your body." This is why Rumberger's two daughters didn't feel sick until a couple of months after the move — it sometimes takes time to notice the symptoms of mold toxicity.
After discovering the mold in her bathroom, Rumberger convinced a home inspector to come over that very same day. A moisture mirror, which helps identify mold behind the walls, showed evidence of growth all over the house. Her homeowner's insurance didn't cover prior mold or water damage, so she was looking at an $80,000 price tag to remediate her home from top to bottom. "When I heard that, I knew it wasn't a possibility," she says.
She wasn't ready to give up on her dream house, so Rumberger decided to do the remediation on her own. She rented a negative air pressure machine (which draws the mold spores out of the house), along with suits, goggles and other supplies for a total of $500.
But once she got to work, stirring up the mold made the family's symptoms even worse. By June, they started camping in the backyard, only going inside to use the restroom. "By July I couldn't even go inside the house, because it felt like there were so many spores that they would attack anything moist, including us," she says.
According to Dr. Shippy, she's right: "When you open up a wall with mold, you send a lot of a very powerful chemicals into the air that you breathe into your lungs, so they go straight into circulation." Just like doctors have found one of the most effective ways to get medication into someone quickly is though the lungs (verses digestion, which filters through the liver first), this makes these chemicals in the air even more dangerous.
Camping lasted a month, until they got rained out. With no nearby family to turn to, they moved into the local YMCA. They'd spend the next year sleeping in cheap motels, at her co-worker's house and late, renting two bedrooms over a garage before finally ending up in the apartment where they live today.
In June 2010, around the same time Rumberger was forced to move her family into their backyard, she decided to take legal action. "I held off for a while, because I thought 'we don't want to do litigation, we can fix this,'" she remembers. But, financially, she didn't see any other way out.
Rumberger filed against four parties she believes knew about the mold before the sale. "It took almost six years, I had five or six lawyers during that time and it was almost as hard as the mold exposer," she says. Even though they settled to the mutual satisfaction of all parties, Rumberger doesn't think she'd do it again.
"We were able to get out of debt, but let's just say we're still tenants and our lifestyle didn't change much," she says. The only positives Rumberger saw from the settlement was being able to afford some much-needed medical treatment and finally being able to put this experience behind her once and for all.
Then, in December 2010, Rumberger also convinced her bank to suspend the mortgage payments she still owed and sold the house (with full disclosure about the mold), ultimately incurring an almost $80,000 loss — about the same amount as the initial remediation estimate, but with a lot more headaches.
The new owners finished remediating the mold, completely rebuilt the interior and turned it into a three-unit rental, which Rumberger still drives by today. "For the longest time, we'd just avoid that road and wouldn't drive down it," she says. But now, on occasion, she gets the urge to see the house in which she thought she'd grow old.
As for Rumberger and her daughters, they still live in the same apartment they moved into a year after fleeing their Victorian dream home. They've been renting it for more than five years and, even if it was financially feasible, Rumberger doesn't see herself buying again. "We lost a lot of years of our lives and still have some health issues," she says. "But it's just one of those things we have to come to terms with and move beyond."
Pantazes says if an inspector doesn't see mold with their own eyes, they don't have to disclose it. But that doesn't mean potential buyers can't look for their own clues, such as patches in the walls, discoloration, walls that bow and bend and just general poor home maintenance. "Little signs will show you if the owner is a person who took care of their home," he says.
Another thing Rumberger says shouldn't be underestimated: your gut. "My older daughter didn't have a great feeling about the house, but we just shook it off." Today, she wishes she listened to her daughter's instincts, which might have spared them the entire ordeal. "Our American Dream became a nightmare, but the biggest lesson I learned is when to hold up, when to fold up and when to run away."