Nicole Bijlsma - Healthy Home Guru

Mary is allergic to her home. I just cant think of a better way to describe it...

Within an hour of being at home she experiences itchy red eyes, difficulty breathing, and her nose starts to run. At first she didn’t make the connection that it was her home, until she started noticing that it didn’t happen in other people’s homes. However it wasn’t until she came back from a holiday in Europe recently that she realised how bad the problem was. Once again, within an hour of arriving home, the symptoms began. After countless visits to doctors and naturopaths and thousands of dollars in medication to no avail, I was called in to see if her home was making her sick. During the audit, I discovered that her symptoms began after they completed an extension to the living room in 2008. An examination of the crawl space in the renovated section revealed no damp proof course, pooling of water, lots of clutter and no ventilation. Surface samples revealed exceptionally high levels of mould (Penicillium and Aspergillus niger) on the underside of the floorboards. These species of mould release chemicals (mycotoxins) that can trigger hayfever, asthma and other lung problems. Air sampling in the living room immediately above revealed these moulds were three times higher than what is typically found in the outdoor air.

Most doctors and natural therapists have little understanding of the cause and health effects of mould, so unfortunately many asthmatics end up relying on prescriptive medication when it could be something as simple as mould in the home.

As fungi is ubiquitous throughout our environment, the only time mould becomes a problem in the house is if you give it food and moisture. As most building materials are the perfect food for mould, dampness is always the key to addressing mould problems. Dampness generally comes from condensation build-up as a result of poor ventilation, living in humid climates or flooding (plumbing issue, poor drainage…). When cleaning mould, use an 80% naturally fermented white vinegar to 20% water solution. Don’t use bleach as it provides some species of mould with a food source! If the area exceeds 1m2, a mould remediator maybe required. For more information, click here.