Mold isn’t a toxic chemical like the others we’ve discussed, but it can make your home unhealthy and negatively impact your home’s air quality. Molds can cause health problems. Mold exposure to a range of adverse health effects, from minor allergic reactions to brain damage. One in 5 asthma cases in the U.S. is attributable to dampness and mold exposure.

Molds are found everywhere. They can grow on virtually any organic substance, as long as food, moisture and oxygen are present. They play an essential role in nature, for example, breaking down dead organic matter, such as fallen leaves, and are also useful to us, such as penicillin, which is obtained from a specific type of mold.

Molds reproduce by releasing tiny, invisible spores. If the spores land on a surface with the right conditions, they can start growing and forming mold colonies. Many materials in our homes, including wood and sheetrock, provide enough food to support mold growth. In fact, even the dust settling on building materials or furniture can be a sufficient food source for molds, if moisture is also present.

Molds are always present in your home and you cannot eradicate all molds, nor should you even try. But excessive mold growth should not be permitted. Mold can cause adverse health effects, most typically allergic type responses. It is generally accepted that a greater risk of health effects is associated with a higher concentration of mold spore counts over background levels.

Mold growth is usually indicated by signs of water damage or water intrusion, discoloration, a musty or earthy smell, or visible mold growth. Key to mold growth is water. Moisture makes mold happy. Without water, mold growth cannot start. Water damage, excessive humidity, water leaks, condensation, flooding, and water intrusion are all conditions that can lead to conditions that foster mold growth. If you see signs of water damage or water intrusion, such as bubbling paint around a window sill, or staining at a ceiling corner, signal conditions that are likely to lead to mold growth and you should take action. It has been estimated that almost 50% of US homes have dampness or mold problems.

Molds can colonize quickly. Some molds germinate in four to twelve hours. Left undisturbed, a mold colony can start forming within 24 to 48 hours after a water leak or water intrusion problem. A quick response to water intrusion, including fixing the source of the water, can stop mold from growing.

You will never eliminate all mold and mold spores from your home. But, you can control indoor mold growth. Here are some simple steps to reduce mold exposure in your home.

Fix water problems. Fix water problems quickly to eliminate the environment that molds need to thrive.

Control humidity. In your home, keep humidity levels below sixty percent (60%) or even below fifty percent (50%) if you can.

Use your eyes and nose. Your eyes and nose can tell you a lot. Musty odors and/or water damage signs indicate mold is present.

Ventilate. Make sure you have and maintain adequate ventilation in “wet” rooms, such as the bathroom.

Remediate mold. The appropriate remediation of mold will depend on the area covered by mold growth and the material(s) involved. Check the EPA’s website or your state’s health department’s website for guidance on mold remediation.

Be safe, not sorry. All molds should be treated in the same manner in terms of health risks and removal.

Dry completely. If you do have a water intrusion problem, then make sure you fix the problem, remediate the mold, and dry out damaged areas completely. Porous and semi-porous materials may need to be disposed of if they get moldy or wet.

Change filters. If you use an air condition or dehumidifier, make sure you change the filter regularly in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.

Discard moldy items. Don’t be a packrat! If you have moldy books, magazines, newspapers, clothing or other items, then appropriately discard them.

Limit houseplants. Houseplants, especially if overwatered, can contribute to dampness. Mold can grow in the soil and on the bark and leaves.

Non Toxic Mold Killer. Need a non toxic option for cleaning mold in the bathroom? You can mix two teaspoons of tea tree oil in a spray bottle with two cups of water. You can also use undiluted vinegar or undiluted lemon juice. Now, this isn’t for a large mold problem, but those small mold spots that you see in bathrooms.

Asbestos can be found in many building materials, including those in our homes, offices and daycare centers. The sprayed on ceiling in your living room? The floor tile in your kitchen? Both may contain asbestos. Building products that may contain asbestos include resilient floor tiles, the backing on vinyl sheet flooring, and adhesives used to install floor tile; paper tape and blankets used to insulate steam pipes, boilers and furnace ducts; cement sheet, millboard and paper used as insulation around furnaces and wood burning stoves; door gaskets used in furnaces, wood stoves and coal stoves; soundproofing or decorative material sprayed on ceilings and walls; compounds used for patching and joints; textured paints; and cement roofing, shingles and siding.

Many people assume that asbestos products are banned, but they aren’t, even though at least 30 other countries have banned asbestos. The EPA’s ban of most asbestos containing products was thrown out by a court, and was one of the most spectacular failures of our chemical regulation law, the Toxic Substances Control Act (“TSCA”). In 2001, approximately 29 million pounds of asbestos was used to manufacture products in the United States. However, individual product uses of asbestos have been controlled.

Exposure to asbestos fibers causes adverse health risks. Asbestos kills an estimated 10,000 people in the U.S. each year. The three major health effects associated with exposure to asbestos fibers are asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. Children are potentially more at risk of suffering adverse health effects of asbestos exposure.

Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral fiber. The term “asbestos” actually refers to a number of naturally occurring, fibrous silicate materials, including chrysotile, crocidolite, amosite, tremolite, actinolite and anthophyllite. These fibers provide a number of desirable properties, including heat insulation, fire resistance and strength.

Asbestos poses a health problem because of its physical characteristics, as opposed to its chemical properties. Asbestos fibers are long, microscopically thin fibers – so thin you can’t see them – and light, so they remain suspended in the air and float from room to room once released.

The risk of exposure for most of us comes from building products, insulation materials and consumer products that may have been used or found in our homes.

Asbestos building products and insulation materials were widely used up until the late 1970s. The most common and significant uses of asbestos in the home was banned in the 1970s, so homes built before 1978 are the ones most at risk.

Don’t panic though – a risk only exists if the asbestos is friable (can be crumbled with hand pressure), or if you are cutting into or removing such materials. Asbestos just being present in your home isn’t a problem – only it is friable or if it is disturbed. Asbestos is generally combined with other materials. As long as the materials remain bonded, the asbestos fibers are not released. If you have asbestos containing building materials in your home, and they are in good condition, just leave them be.

If the material is deteriorating, torn, or worn, then you need to either repair or remove it. The EPA acknowledges that slightly damaged material may be best dealt with by not touching or disturbing the material and limiting access¹. But, if the material is more than slightly damaged, or cannot be dealt with by limiting access and not touching, then you need to repair or remove it.

If you are going to be remodeling or making changes to your home that could disturb asbestos containing materials, then you may need professional help. Unless it is labeled, you won’t be able to tell whether a material contains asbestos. You can’t sample the material yourself, since sampling can itself release asbestos fibers.

Contaminated vermiculite can be another source of asbestos. Vermiculite has been used in construction and consumer materials, including loose-fill insulation, acoustic finishes, spray-on insulation, concrete mixes for swimming pools, and agricultural and horticultural products (e.g., potting mixes and soil conditioners).

What are some simple steps you can do to reduce exposure?

Inspect your home. If you have an older home, then you may want to inspect it to indentify suspect materials. If you still have your home inspection report from when you purchased the home (if you had one), then it may identify suspect materials.

Let it be. If the material is in good condition, let it be.

Don’t disturb it. Make sure you don’t cut, saw, sand, drill holes in or otherwise disturb asbestos containing building materials.

Repair it. If the material is not in good condition, then you probably need to repair it or remove it. Repairing it usually involves either sealing or enclosing the asbestos material. Sealing the asbestos material involves using a sealant that binds the asbestos fibers together or coats the fibers so that they cannot be released. Covering the asbestos material usually involves preventing the release of asbestos fibers by putting something over it, like a protective wrap over insulated piping or new flooring over asbestos containing floor tiles. Of course, repairing it means that that asbestos fiber remains in place. If you ever remodel or replace the material containing asbestos, you will need to take further action. A professional trained in handling asbestos should be used even for minor repairs because a risk of exposure exists and improper handling can result in a hazard where none existed before.

Remove it. Removal of the asbestos containing material will eliminate the risk if the removal is done properly. Make sure you use a professional trained in asbestos handling. Removal can be expensive and hazardous.

¹U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Asbestos in Your Home, found at http://www.epa.gov/asbestos/pubs/ashome.html#2.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, radon is the number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. Surprising? Had I’d ever been asked about the number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers, I would have guessed secondhand smoke. Moreover, for lung cancer, smoking is the leading cause, but radon is the second leading cause, and secondhand smoke is the third.

Radon is also potentially linked to developing childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (“ALL”), according to recent research. The study found that children exposed to “intermediate” levels of radon had a 21% higher risk of developing ALL as compared to children exposed to the lowest levels. Children exposed to the highest levels of radon relative to those with the least exposure had a 63% greater risk of developing ALL.

Although radon – a radioactive gas – sounds scary, it is one of the easiest environmental exposures in our homes to address. You can readily test for it in your home, and eliminating or significantly reducing the exposure is pretty easy.

Radon is a gas and escapes rocks and soils. While it isn’t a problem in outdoor air because it readily disperses, it can be a problem in homes.

But radon in homes can be a problem. Radon enters your home through cracks, utility entries, seams, and other openings in your home’s foundation, and from uncovered soil in crawl spaces. It can build up to unhealthy levels. Since it is heavy, it can accumulate in basements or at the floor level.

Radon is odorless and colorless. It has been called the silent killer. Not only are there no signs that radon is present in your home, there are no signs that you are being exposed. And, 1 out of 15 homes have radon levels above the EPA’s recommended radon action level of 4 picoCuries per liter (pCi/L) of air.

Radon gas decays. When radon decays, small radioactive particles are released. If you inhale radon (or the particles), once in the lungs, the tiny particles damage the cells that line the lung. These particles release small burst of energy as they decay. These small bursts of ionizing radiation can affect DNA, leading to mutations that may turn cancerous. The latency period for developing lung cancer from radon exposure is twenty to thirty years.

The increased risk of lung cancer from radon exposure is greater if you smoke. But even if you don’t smoke, elevated concentrations of radon in the home pose a fairly significant increased risk of cancer. For a home with 4 pCi/L, the lifetime risk of cancer is 7.3 out of 1,000 persons. That is really high, surprisingly high, especially when you compare it with the 1 in 1,000,000 risk factor generally used to regulate contaminants in our environment.

So, how do you reduce your exposure and risk from radon?

Test Your Home. You can purchase an inexpensive do-it-yourself kit from hardware stores or online. Short term and long term tests kits exist. Many states offer free test kits for their residents. If you buy a kit from a hardware store or online, make sure the test kit is state-certified. A study by Consumer Reports found long term tests more reliable than short term test kits.

Fix Any Radon Problem. If the testing determines that radon levels are elevated in your home, then fix the problem. Radon reduction systems can reduce radon levels in your home by as much as 99%. EPA recommends that you reduce your radon level if your current radon level exceeds 4 pCi/L. (For reference, the EPA’s standard of 4 pCi/L is equal to 0.016 working levels, also used in the industry.) EPA recommends fixing your home if one long term test, or two short term tests, show radon concentration levels above 4 pCi/L. However, there is no safe level of radon established. EPA also recommends that you consider fixing your home if the radon level detected is above 2 pCi/L. If you have a radon problem and you decide to fix it, check out the EPA’s Consumer’s Guide to Radon Reduction.

Yesterday, we talked about the problems of lead in the home. Today, let’s talk about simple steps to reduce or eliminate exposure to lead in the home:

Take off your shoes. One study found that simply taking off your shoes can reduce the amount of lead contaminated dirt in your home by 60%.

Invest in good quality doormats. If you don’t want to take off your shoes, a good quality doormat used to wipe shoes can go a long way to reduce the amount of lead contaminated dirt and dust tracked into the home.

Use walkways to prevent soil tracking. If you can, make sure all walkways to the house are cement, gravel or stepping stones, or something similar, and not soil. This will prevent contaminated soil from being tracked into the house.

Buy a good quality vacuum with a HEPA filter, a dirt finder/sensor and a power head. Make sure you get a good vacuum – you don’t want to redistribute the dust and vacuum regularly and properly.

Wash your hands and wash your baby’s hands! Get rid of that dust by washing, using warm water and regular soap.

Wet wipe regularly! Lead dust is sticky, and requires wet wiping to remove. Keep the areas where your family spends time dust free. Wet wipe or mop those areas your family, particularly your children, are likely to remove lead dust.

Wet wipe or wash toys! Regularly wet wipe or wash those toys your children play with to remove lead-contaminated dust.

Check the diet. Maintaining a diet that is sufficient in iron, vitamin C and calcium may inhibit the absorption of lead.

Maintain your paint. If your home was built before 1978, keep your paint well maintained.

Abate the lead. You may consider abating lead based paint hazards. There are four options, only one of which is permanent: replacement of lead painted items, enclosure of lead painted surfaces, such as by installing dry wall over painted surface, encapsulation of lead painted surfaces using a special coating designed to encapsulated lead, or removal of lead based paint. Abatement must be done be a certified lead abatement contractor. Call your state agency for help. If you have an older home, do not renovate/remodel without addressing lead based paint hazards and the generation of lead dust.

Notify landlord of peeling paint. If you rent, notify your landlord of any peeling or chipping paint.

Replace lead painted items. If a lead painted item is easily removable, then you may want to replace it, such as an interior door. However, this should only be considered if you can remove the item in a manner that doesn’t disturb the lead based paint.

Get your home tested. If you are concerned, you may want to get your home tested. You can either get an inspection, where the lead content of all painted surfaces are analyzed, or a risk assessment, which will tell you the sources of lead exposure and outline recommended actions. The EPA does not recommend home based test swabs because they cannot distinguish between high and low levels of lead. They just tell you if lead is present. And, they cannot detect paint below the surface. They may, however, be a useful screen, although they are prone to false negatives and positives.
Also, you can use lead dust wipes to test your home. With a lead dust wipe, you collect a wipe sample pursuant to a specified procedure and send it to a certified laboratory. These can tell you more accurately the levels of lead present in surface dust. The National Safety Council offers a lead dust test kit that includes everything needed to determine the presence of lead in the home.

Cover the lead based paint. Another option for paint in good condition is to cover the lead based paint. You may be able to cover the surface with wall board or use a sealant. But, this isn’t a long term solution.

Avoid activities that disturb/damage lead based paint. Don’t damage, cut into, scrape, sand, or otherwise disturb lead paint. Lead contaminated dust can be distributed throughout the home if you scrape, sand, chip, grind, cut into or otherwise disturb or damage lead based paint. Work done by someone unfamiliar with lead based paint hazards can create significant hazards. Many horror stories exist of homeowners or contractors with lead based paint contaminating homes by improper handling of lead based paint during home renovation activities.

On June 9, 2009, Acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson, MD, MPH, issued The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Promote Healthy Homes. The Call to Action tackles a host of safety issues in the home, from falls down stairs to burn injuries to drowning in bathtubs. It also tackles important environmental issues, including lead and radon, issues that are near and dear to my heart. So, I thought in this 5 part series we could tackle some of the environmental issues that affect your home, and identify simple steps to reduce or eliminate exposure. As the Call to Action states, healthy homes lead healthier lives.

So, let’s talk about lead first.

Lead remains an environmental contaminant in our homes, a toxic legacy mostly from lead use in paint. Other sources of lead in the home include lead water pipes and solder used in plumbing; brass faucets, particularly older, imported brass faucets; toys; jewelry; ceramics; herbal and folk remedies; and more. Many of us dismiss the risk of exposure to lead, believing that the ban of lead in paints and gasoline have solved the problem. But, lead remains, even today, the number one preventable childhood environmental poison.

Children are particularly sensitive to lead exposure because of their smaller size, greater rate of lead absorption, and ongoing development. Since the 1970s, because of a number of regulatory programs, the average blood lead levels (“blls”) of US children have declined significantly, almost 80%. But, children are still exposed to lead. More importantly, new data indicates that blls once believed to be safe are not. Several recent studies indicate that children with blls at 2.0 ug/dL exhibit adverse health effects (well below the current “level of concern” of 10 ug/dL). Studies suggest a significant loss of IQ occurs in children with blls less than 7.5 ug/dL. Keep in mind that 1 out of every 10 US children has a blood lead level above 5 ug/dL.

Many moms have told me that they don’t have to worry about lead because they live in a “nice house” and their children don’t “lick the walls.” But lead exposure isn’t about living in a nice house or not eating paint chips. HUD estimates that 25% of the nation’s housing stock contains significant lead based paint hazards.

We are exposed to lead primarily by ingestion and inhalation. Children are more likely to engage in activities that can lead to lead exposure, such as mouthing activities. Video studies of young children demonstrate that they put objects into their mouths more than 20 times per hour. If dirt on their hands or those items contains lead, children will get a shot of lead each and every time they engage in mouthing activities. In fact, thumb-sucking and other hand-to-mouth behaviors may account for as much as 80% of child lead-related exposures. On average, children under six will retain about 50% of the lead that reaches their digestive tract, and will also retain about 50% of the lead that they inhale. In comparison, adults only absorb about eleven percent (11%) of the lead they ingest.

We get lead in our homes primarily from lead based paint, which was used up until 1978, when the residential use of lead based paint was banned. Lead may also be found in varnish or wood surfaces in older homes. Although lead has been banned in paints and varnishes, the it persists in our homes, day care centers, churches and schools. Both lead from paint chips, which you can see, and lead dust, which you can’t always see, can be serious hazards.

What’s the risk of lead being in your home?

• A house built before 1940 has an 87% chance of containing lead based paint.
• A house built between 1940 and 1959 has a 68% chance of containing lead based paint. •
• A house built between 1960 and 1977 has a 24% chance of containing lead based paint.

Lead paint chips from peeling paint are one source of lead, but so is lead contaminated dust, created as painted surfaces wear over time, particularly where painted surfaces rub together, such as doors, windows, and built in cabinets. We also track into our homes lead contaminated dirt from outdoors. One study found that 85% of the dirt in our homes comes from outside. That contaminated dirt then falls off of our shoes and onto our floor coverings and collects as dust in our homes.

Household dust levels of lead have been shown to be an accurate predictor of a child’s blood lead levels. The higher the lead dust lead levels, the higher the child’s blood lead level. For reference, a child’s blood lead level can rise 1 to 5 micrograms lead per deciliter of blood for every 1,000 ppm increase in dust lead. The EPA’s safe guideline for lead contamination in dust resulting from lead-based paint hazards is 40 micrograms of lead per square foot of floor (ug/ft2). But, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, 20% of children exposed to floor dust lead levels of 40 ug/ft2 will have a blood lead level in excess of 10 ug/dl.

What can you do to make your home healthier and reduce the risk of exposure to lead? Come back tomorrow to find out.