Defining Mold

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Everyone has come across mold now and then. We’ve all gone to make a sandwich and pulled out a moldy piece of bread. Mold can be found on cheese, inside plastic food containers, and in refrigerators. Mold can grow in toilets, tubs, and sinks. I went to take out my garbage the other day and saw mold in the bottom of my garbage can in the kitchen. Mold can grow anywhere. Health problems can happen when mold starts to form in your home.

Mold is a kind of fungus. In fact there are more than five thousand differing kinds. These organisms are extremely tiny and can’t be seen without the aid of a microscope. They exist by breaking down organic matter. Mold multiplies when millions of miniscule spores are given off. Mold is a fundamental and instrumental component of nature. It aids in digesting plant waste, wood, and other plant foliage. Mold is very vital to our environment and if it wasn’t around our ecological community would fall apart. Sadly, it isn’t as valuable in our homes.

When mold multiplies, it disperses miniscule spores that come into our homes. As soon as it encounters an appropriate setting, it starts breaking down your sofas, rugs, wallpaper, and other things that provide a very damp and stuffy atmosphere. We used to have wallpaper in our bathroom and the ventilation in our bathroom wasn’t that good. Besides the wallpaper peeling off from the walls, mold was growing on the wallpaper as well as other areas in that room. You can diminish the rate at which mold grows in your home by cleaning regularly and by maintaining a dry environment. Mold does well in damp places where there is no light.

Many times, we are not even aware that mold is developing in our homes. When we do become cognizant of the fact that we do have mold in our homes it may be due to a stagnant smell permeating through the air. Another way the presence of mold is detected is when someone in our home develops an allergic reaction or physical ailment of some kind. Symptoms may be a stuffy nose, sneezing, coughing, inflamed skin, headaches, and other signs that aren’t pleasant.

It is important that you don’t breathe in the miniscule spores that mold gives off when it is tampered with, as in cleaning. These spores are so small that they can get into your body by way of your skin. How else can mold get into our bodies? By the food we eat if any mold is on it. Mold could be growing on our fridge and we touch it, it could then contaminate any food we may handle. Mold also grows inside your child’s little tub toys that squirt water. After your kids take a bath, make sure all the water is out of these rubber toys. Otherwise if there is mold in them, the next time your child squirts them they may be squirting out some mold as well.

Mold is not normally dangerous to individuals with good health, although those who suffer from asthma and allergies can become very sick and even have asthma attacks. If you believe any breathing problem or illness you have is from mold, you should schedule a visit with your doctor.

Most molds in your home can be eliminated by cleaning with natural products specifically targeted toward mold.

By: Bradley Skierkowski