Truth About Mold

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If you are looking for accurate information about toxic mold, you have come to the right place.

We know there is a lot of confusing and misleading information about toxic mold on the Internet.

We created this website to give you a place to go to help you identify accurate and reliable information.

If you find a website, article or document that says toxic mold isn't harmful, that will be your clue that the information may not be reliable.

It's important to know that the insurance industry has spent a lot of money trying to stop the use of the term "toxic mold." They like to "spin" the news to their advantage. They use those same tactics during litigation. They will spin the truth and alter the facts and the evidence. The truth is that many types of mold produce mycotoxins, so the term "toxic mold" is appropriate.

It's also important to know that there can be other factors (in addition to mold and mycotoxins) that cause illness in water-damaged buildings. For example, there could be various types of bacteria such as actinomycetes and streptomycetes. This is a complex issue, so you must be sure to hire qualified experts to help you. For a list of qualified experts, refer to our Resources page.

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Contact Your Elected Officials

U.S. Senate

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

U.S. House of Representatives

http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml

State Legislature--find the website for your state legislature and identify your legislators using your address or zip code.

Governor for each state--find the website for your state government and locate the contact information for your Governor.

Message sent to Elected Officials

Please join our efforts and send this message to your elected officials.

The following information has been sent to hundreds of elected officials throughout the country.

I am writing to you on behalf of millions of Americans who have been harmed by exposure to toxic mold. The following message has been sent to hundreds of elected officials including President Obama, all U.S. Senators, members of the U.S. House, the Governors of all 50 states, state legislators, state health departments, etc.

Toxic mold causes serious health problems. We need your help to get laws passed in order to ensure that the American people can get appropriate medical care and the correct information regarding the handling and remediation of toxic mold. We need laws and regulations in regard to people who test and remediate mold in order to stop the fraud and deceit that has been occurring throughout the country.

For 50 years, the tobacco industry denied the truth about the health effects of tobacco. How long will the insurance industry and other stakeholders be allowed to deny the truth about the health effects of toxic mold? We need to expose the truth now and educate the public about the proper way to handle mold problems in our homes, schools and businesses. If your family was exposed to toxic mold, wouldn’t you want laws in place to protect your loved ones? This is all we are asking. We need your leadership and action on this very important issue.

The following information will give you a good place to start in understanding the issues that need to be addressed. These ten items are a very small sample of the thousands of documents available on this topic. I thought these items would be most helpful in your efforts to create new laws and regulations about mold-related issues. You might also review the mold legislation that was proposed by Representative John Conyers.

1. The following paper has an insightful discussion of whether mold contamination in homes can be regulated. “Can Mold Contamination of Homes be Regulated–Lessons Learned from Radon and Lead Policies”? The answer is YES.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es0620585

2. The State of California issued mold remediation guidelines. This is one of the most up-to-date reports available. It contains references to several important articles about the health effects of toxic mold. The U.S. Navy also has mold remediation guidelines.

http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/06/01/06-001.pdf

http://www-nehc.med.navy.mil/downloads/prevmed/katrina/ihfom_ch13-3.pdf

3. Several states have passed legislation designating September 2009 as toxic mold awareness month, and other states have passed legislation regarding standards and qualifications for mold investigators. The following links provide two examples:

Nevada legislation about toxic mold awareness month

http://www.leg.state.nv.us/75th2009/Bills/ACR/ACR7_EN.pdf

Florida legislation about mold remediation

http://www.flsenate.gov/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=Ch0468/PART16.HTM

4. The U.S. Surgeon General recently announced the federal government’s new Healthy Home Initiative which discusses mold and mold toxins, along with lead paint and radon, and other issues that can affect the indoor environment in homes.

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/healthyhomes/calltoactiontopromotehealthyhomes.pdf

5. Another group, Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings, is focused on water damage and mold problems caused by construction defects.

http://www.hadd.com/

6. There are many books available on this subject including these two books:

Bioaerosols: Assessment and Control” This book was published by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists in 1999.

“Molds and Mycotoxins–Papers from an International Symposium” This book was edited by Kaye Kilburn, M.D. and was published by Heldref Publications in 2004.

7. To learn more about the experts who have been leading the way, check out the names of treating physicians and other specialists on the Resources page of our website.

8. The following links are from military textbooks. The first one is Chapter 34 on Trichothecene Mycotoxins, and the second one is Chapter 4 on Toxins (which includes information about mycotoxins). If the U.S. military can admit that mycotoxins are dangerous, then why are the insurance companies allowed to deny that mycotoxins cause health problems.

http://www.envirochex.com/Downloads/Chapter34_Military_Medicine.pdf

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1018.5/MR1018.5.chap4.html

9. The University of Connecticut published a handbook titled “Guidance for Clinicians on the Recognition and Management of Health Effects Related to Mold Exposure and Moisture Indoors.”

http://oehc.uchc.edu/images/PDFs/MOLDGUIDE.pdf

10. There are thousands of articles regarding the health effects of toxic mold, including the following report focusing on the neurotoxic effects:

"The Validity of Environmental Neurotoxic Effects of Toxigenic Molds and Mycotoxins."

Click here for the link to this article

Toxic mold is a very serious health threat, and we need to do everything we can to help protect all Americans.

For a pdf version of this information, click here:

INFORMATION FOR ELECTED OFFICIALS

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