How do I know if mold is affecting my health? .
The best way to know if mold is affecting your health is to first test your home for toxic mold and myctoxins. While mold levels in home can’t directly diagnose a condition This information is a valuable tool to understanding what you are being exposed to in your home and what may be impacting your health.
While there are many types of tests, some may be more suited for your situation while others are not worth your time or effort.
Below I have organized the type of tests, what they are good for, any drawbacks and situations they are best for, Most mold tests can easily be done in 10 minutes by you and this route can save hundreds or thousands of dollars on mold inspectors.
The key to your first mold test is to test the entire home and all areas using a dust or ERM test. More on they types of tests below:
Types of tests and their usefulness.
The tape test: this test is a small piece of tape that can be pressed up to a moldy surface to test the type of mold
Benefits: quick, inexpensive
Drawbacks: only works on one spot of visable mold doesn’t test overall mold spore types in home or levels of moldiness.
Good for: specific area of visible mold growth to determine the type of this particular mold.
ERMI test: this is the standard “dust test” created by the EPA to measure mold levels and types created for allergy purposes.
Benefits: tests 30+ types of indoor molds and amounts present. Gives an overall home moldiness rating that can help you determine the overall issue in the home.
Drawbacks: No mycotoxin testing so more testing may be helpful to determine myctoxin load as well.
Recommended? YES highly recommend as the first step to determine mold exposure.
This is the test for mold:
https://www.envirobiomics.com/product/ermi/?ref=22741
This is the test for mycotoxins if you decide to add this on.
Mold air tests:
Air tests may be able to test mold and mycotoxins in the air. They are a bit of an outdated way to do it as they are rarely conclusive. The reason is that air is always circulating and air movement, open windows, or recent cleaning can all affect the results dramatically. So you may have a mold issue but if you recently aired your house out it may not show up on the test. doesn’t always have a high number of myctoxins or mold spores in it at one specific area at a time the results are not always conclusive.
Mold inspectors sometimes use these tests and test several areas in the home, sometimes in excess racking up mold and mycotoxin test to 10-20 tests leading to thounsands of disparate in unnessisary lane fees. Sometimes with inconclusive results of lab fees.
Benefits: mycotoxin and mold levels may be found at the same time.
Drawbacks: not always conclusive. Not recommended.
2 in ONE – Mold and myctoxons swab:
This test can help determine both the mold AND Mycotoxin types and levels any sample. This could give you an idea of what types of mold and mycotoxins you are being exposed to in a specific room of your house. Removing the need to do 2 tests.
Benefits: Convenient to test for both mold and mycotoxin levels in one test so this can save time and money. Quick turnaround
Drawbacks: one swab provides only a small amount of mold so this is not recommended for the entire home but just one room.
Great for: single rooms like baby room to determine before or after remediation what the exposure level is in a specific room. Also can be used periodically in a room with sensitive individual to get quick results without the need to do2 separate tests.
Recommended test:
Plate tests – these tests allow mold spores in the environment to settle on the plates, after 5 days the mold spores may grow and can be sent to lab. This test is just for mold types and not good overall moldiness indication or level of exposure of mold or mycotoxins in the home.
Great for: can be helpful to determine a specific area of mold exposure like bathroom room exposure. You’ll need several plates 3 or more per room because some won’t grow mold and only send the ones that grow into the lab. Good as a follow up step after remediation to see if the issue has been solved in a specific room.
Drawbacks: depending on how manu areas you test the plates are inexpensive but the mold lab testing fees can add up.
Not good for: This test doesn’t measure overall moldiness and is not a good indicator of overall exposure in the home. It just measures what molds are present.