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The fourth common misconception is a lot of people ask if you can treat mold with heat?
There's a new process that some people are selling with treating and killing mold with
heat. There are different studies which show different results as far as the effectiveness
of heat killing mold. However what heat can never do is remove mold. Even dead mold where
its no longer active, it can no longer continue to grow, you still have the spores and those
spores still have the micro-toxins, and you're still going to have all the negative effects.
So industry standard is not to kill the mold, but to remove the mold. And thus heat treatment
will stop it from continuing to grow, for a short period of time, but its not an ultimate
result that you're looking for.
Now the last one that people always get wrong, is they say "Well, This is just a modern-day hype.
Twenty, thirty years ago this didn't even exist; people didn't worry about mold at all."
In one aspect they are correct, that thirty years ago mold wasn't a big deal. And part
of it was because the health industry didn't realize the negative effects that can result
from mold. But the second reason is that homes are built very differently today than they
were twenty or thirty years ago. Now you have moisture barriers and insulation. And homes
are built to be air tight and to be even water tight.
And so when you do have a water loss or a water damage inside a home, that water sticks
and it stays, and it doesn't dry. And the heat systems are changing the air inside;
you're not bringing in fresh air. And so all these things are causing mold problems to
be more severe and to be more dangerous.
So, did this problem exist twenty or thirty years ago? Not as severe as it is today. But
it doesn't mean that its not something that needs to be taken cared of, when you do find
a mold situation.
Just to recap- "What are the five common misconceptions about mold?" Number one, "Is it black mold?"
As we know, color doesn't matter. Number two, "Is it a dangerous mold?" All molds are treated
the same regardless of type. Number three, "Can you just wipe it with bleach?" The answer
is, sometimes. But I would highly recommend that you actually don't use bleach. Number
four, "Can you kill it with heat?" Maybe. But it doesn't remove it so you still have
a problem. And lastly number five, "Mold didn't exist thirty years ago." Well, smoking also
didn't kill you thirty years ago. And homes are built differently today.
Well, I hope you learned something new today. Take care!