Mold On Air Conditioning Causes Allergy
Q.
I am an occupational health nurse
advisor in the United Kingdom and need advice on desktop humidifiers in an
office setting. I have clients where employees with asthma ask for desktop
humidifiers at work. It have been told that these can increase the growth
of mould in some cases which can exacerbate asthma. This seems to be in
cases of house dust allergy. Would you advise for or against desk top
humidifiers in large open plan offices. How does air conditioning affect
mold growth? [June 18, 2004]
A.
The humidifiers will definitely increase indoor humidity which can cause
mold to grow. Indoor humidity needs to be kept in the 30 to 40% range to
discourage mold growth. In order to achieve that in UK, or most places,
there would need to be a dehumidifier in operation. If
someone has asthma problems, he or she does not need the added threat from
living and working in mold infestation which makes
asthma problems worse,
as well as posing additional health threats. Air conditioning usually is
good for mold prevention because it is continually removing moisture from
the incoming air. The bad side of air conditioning is that if there is a
mold problem in a house or building, there will be likely mold growth
inside the heating/cooling equipment and ducts, and the heating/cooling
operations will efficiently spread mold cross-contamination everywhere in
the home or building. You should also determine whether an office already
has low or high levels of airborne mold spores with our do it yourself
mold test kits which are available for delivery in the United Kingdom.
Your first and most affordable mold investigative step to learn the
severity and the extent of the possible mold infestation is to use our do
it yourself mold test kits [self observation of results over a 5 to 7 day
time period, or send in for
mold lab analysis] to mold test the
air of each room, attic, basement, crawl space, and the outward air flow
from each heating/cooling duct register for the possible presence of
elevated levels of airborne mold spores, in comparison to an outdoor mold
control test which you should also do. If you see any visible mold growth,
from each moldy area, scrape some of the mold particles into a separate
mold test kit per testing location for observation over a 5 to 7 day time
period, and/or for mold lab analysis. When scraping mold into a test kit,
you would be wise to use a breathing air respirator [Home Depot or Lowe’s
or a safety store] so that you don’t breathe in extra mold spores that you
put into the air by scraping some mold-like substances into each mold test
kit. Our test kits come with detailed use
instructions to make your tests
informative and helpful in mold problem diagnosis. Learn how to do your
own, self-observation analysis of mold test kits results at
Mold Testing Interpretation. You
can also read online our copyrighted form “Self-Analysis
& Interpretation of Visible Mold Growth in Do-It-Yourself Mold Test kits.”
To get more information or to buy our mold test kits, please visit:
Environmental and Mold Store if you live
in the U.S.A. If you live outside the USA, visit our international mold
products website:
International Environmental and Mold Store.
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