Since it is believed that 80% of all mold
grows on dust, a good vacuum cleaner, with HEPA filtration,
is a must.
Vacuum Cleaners and Filters
I mentioned previously that
I bought a vacuum cleaner with HEPA filtration, a Miele. I
am not necessarily recommending this brand, but it was a
bit more affordable than some Swedish machines with a higher
rating. Still, it's not in a normal budget range for
a vacuum cleaner. Mary has been using this machine,
but the air filter in the return used to clog every few days. Sometimes,
it had to be replaced after only one day of use and once
in a while, a filter lasted 2-3 weeks, but this is really
rare.
Despite a monumental amount
of effort, vacuuming and HEPA filtration have not eliminated
either dust or mold. The filters one buys at places
such as Home Depot have stupendous claims about their capacity
to remove everything from pet dander to mold. I had
two of these filters tested by laboratories when the air
quality tests were run in my house. The comment of
one of the technicians was that if there are objects on both
sides of the filter, the filter is not doing its job. These
filters are generally rated to last "up to 90 days." Would
it were true. Nine days would be a miracle!
Ultraviolet
Light
As you know,
I have a Sanuvox UV filtration system inside the ducts, with
air filters at the return as well as right after the UV light
before the air is warmed and recirculated. Despite the ultraviolet
lights
in the duct, in the Sharper Image unit, and in a new unit
I bought about a month ago, mold is obviously still sporulating
and decomposing organic materials.
I am merely saying this because
I hear advertisements on the radio for various filtration
devices, ozone machines, ultraviolet lights, etc., etc.,
etc. and while I am totally convinced that these devices
reduce the burden on occupants, I do not believe they eliminate
mold. I
wish they did, but this simply isn't true. The reason
it isn't true is that the amount of ultraviolet light required
to clean a house and the volume of air that would have to
pause in front of the bulb before recirculating is astronomically
greater than the capacity of the home use devices marketed. In
my not so humble opinion, this does not mean that one should
not operate such units if one can afford to buy them; it
merely means that if you really want full protection, you
absolutely have to remediate the property and this means
eliminating moisture and removing contaminated materials.
Ozone
The Sharper Image air filtration
device produces some ozone as does the new model I bought. I
have also used several other ozone machines. I have
even put the machines inside closets and under the enclosed
stairwell in an effort to destroy mold. The first
person who explained the operation of his device said that
ozone rips the spores so they become non-viable. That's
unfortunately only half the battle because the dead spores
are toxic and still need to be removed. Also, I am
not sure that when people make such statements that they
are clear about the differences between bacteria and mold. It's
possible that some studies are performed on bacteria
and extrapolated to cover "other" pathogens. However,
mold spores are hardy. They endure thousands of years
because they have a protective outer layer composed of chitin,
a substance high in calcium that is similar to the
shell of oysters. You can actually see nutritional
information on oyster mushrooms that refer to calcium benefits.
There are safe levels of ozone
and dangerous levels. One has to be very careful not
to exceed the safety guidelines. Moreover, ozone plays
havoc with some high tech equipment, like computers!
Ducts
In the part of
this site that tells my
story, I describe the cleaning of the ducts in my house.
There are pictures
of the process on a newly posted page.
Normally, ducts in this part of the world are cleaned
every ten years. This
is considered to be responsible maintenance. I have
had the ducts cleaned three times because they are full of
a powder that I have been told would be very expensive to
analyze. Given
the cost of the mold tests, "more expensive" sounds "very
expensive" indeed.
After trying every suggestion
and what would almost seem to be every filtration method
imaginable,
the house was still a nightmare. So,
I had another idea. This time I took some felt pads,
the type used in aromatherapy. I saturated them
with essential oil of cinnamon and affixed the pad to the
filter in the return. It
was so intense that I had to remove it after about 20 minutes,
but it helped! It wasn't a total solution, but it
made things a little better , and guess what? The
filter hasn't clogged since I did this!
Evaluation
I do not think any of the measures
I have employed were worthless; they simply have not eliminated
the problems. If contamination is minor, it is very
likely that a portable air filtration device will remove
a considerable amount of odor and possibly also particulate
matter, but when all is said and done, remediation is the
only solution. In the next two weeks, I am going
to
"eliminate" all moisture in the crawl space using
something called the CleanSpace system . . . and there will
be a report on the efficacy of this when the project is completed.
Ingrid Naiman
1 November 2005
Updated 22 October 2006
Blue
cheese 
