Eliminating Mold Can Be Costly, In-Spore-Ational

Tiny mold spores float continuously through the air, indoors and out, but when they begin to thrive in a damp indoor area, they can wreak havoc on the health of those breathing in their contaminants.

Bentonville’s Old High Middle School has been working in recent weeks to clean mold from its basement. Although a nontoxic mold, school officials were warned it could eventually generate other more serious strands. The mold was discovered in October after parents of a new student requested a mold inspection. Their child has severe mold allergies.

EGIS Environmental Inc. of Bentonville handled the $25,000 cleanup of an estimated 2,000 SF of space.

“It’s very, very, very expensive,” said Joe Haynie, facilities director for the school district. “It [almost] bankrupted New York City school systems for the same thing.”

The basement has such “a clean bill of health” after the cleanup that Haynie is convinced surgery could be performed there.

“I don’t want to poo poo the mold, it’s everywhere, even in hospitals,” Haynie said. “But this wasn’t any of the bad stuff. This was your everyday, run of the mill mold.”

The Centers for Disease Control stresses that any mold growing in a home should be considered a potential problem and cleaned up. People who are sensitive and exposed to molds may experience symptoms such as nasal stuffiness, eye irritation, or wheezing.

The CDC admits that some people may have more severe reactions to molds. Severe reactions may occur among workers exposed to large amounts of molds in occupational settings, such as farmers working around moldy hay.

Phil Gawthrop of Bella Vista recently started Mold Solutions, a business to detect and remediate mold problems. When a mold problem is detected, Gawthrop first tests to determine the type of mold involved and then uses specific microbes to consume it. The microbes, with nothing to feed on, die out after the mold is destroyed.

A serious residential mold clean up will cost $7,000-$10,000 or more, Gawthrop said. Mold often grows from a plumbing leak or other problem that leads to flooding in a home.

“It’s a real problem when it gets in the walls,” he said. “It’s not as simple as cleaning it up with a Wet Vac and putting a fan on it.”

Ventilation of enclosed areas and immediate attention to plumbing leaks and other moisture problems can help homeowners prevent mold, but, again, Gawthrop said, “it’s everywhere.”

Energy conservation efforts after the 1973 OPEC embargo changed the typical airflow options in most buildings and increased the chance for mold to cause problems. Better insulation, window and door seals, and other efforts led to tighter buildings and the sole dependence upon mechanical ventilation to supply heating, cooling, and humidity in most modern commercial buildings.

Lawsuits and claims concerning mold in Texas have received a lot of recent attention. The state has allowed insurance coverage for damages that aren’t sudden or accidental, so leaky pipes that are ignored can result in a claim. Insurers in that state paid out $841 million on mold claims in 2001, up 560 percent increase over the $153 million paid out in 2000. Some insurance companies in Texas have stopped selling new homeowners policies because of concern over mold claims.

Arkansas limits its mold claims to incidents that are typically covered by insurance anyway but also result in mold damage.

But that hasn’t stopped the home insurance market from shrinking in the state. State Farm Insurance Co. of Bloomington, Ill., announced last year that it would no longer issue new homeowners policies in Arkansas and 16 other states. The company didn’t specifically identify mold claims as the cause, but it has had too many claims ranging from natural disasters to plumbing leaks.

A proposed federal law pending in committee for the past year would require mold inspections for multiunit residential property and all property bought with federally guaranteed funds.