Multiple Chemical Sensitivities

http://http://arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/multiple_chemical_sensitivity.html
This website has some pretty good information about multiple chemical sensitivities.

Air handler leaks on ceiling at eb2

This is an air handler leaks on ceiling at eb2 above the door to room 1230. It is kind of funny how the air handlers in this building keep failing. I can count at least 4 air handlers that have leaked that I have personally seen and I am sure there is more. This building cost the taxpayers $42,000,0000 and is only 4 years old. If the air handlers have been defective from day one then how on earth did the building ever pass inspection??? Water + porus surfaces = mold growth. Something you don't want to mess with.

Multiple Chemical Sensitivities and Mold

http://www.multiplechemicalsensitivity.org/http://

Here is a great link to find out more information on multiple chemical sensitivity.

If you ask a person that has been exposed to mold, they will more than likely tell you that they are sensitive to things that most of society could never fathom. If a building has been water damaged, a lot of MCS (multiple chemical sensivity) patients can tell as soon as they walk in the door. With an increased sense of smell we are like the canaries in the coal mine. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, we can smell small amounts of voc's and mold behind the walls, in the ceilings, behind tiles, under the floor, etc. Call us bloodhounds if you want but if we can smell it, it's there. Unfortunately this illness limits our abilities to function normally in society.

It can really start to drive a person insane. But fortunately there is more than one of us and we can find comfort in knowing that others like us exist. Unfortunately society doesn't see us as sane, and therefore we suffer the stigma of: crazy, delusional, or psychotic. Maybe we should tell people that are allergic to strawberries and peanuts that "it's all in their head" and watch while they die from an anaphylactic reaction as we force them to be around the very thing that is poision to their bodies. I mean really why is being allergic to mold so unbelievable and being allergic to a food so accepted in our society? Its the same thing really, only we are allergic to mold and multiple chemicals and voc's.

UNC Facilities are a mess - News and Observer

http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/10/03/717591/unc-system-facilities-are-in-a.html#storylink=misearch
This story just scratches the surface of what is really going on with the HVAC systems on NC State's campus. Many, many buildings are spreading mold and making people very very sick. Some buildings are new, some buildings are old that are having problems. Basically there is just no excuse for the lack of maintenance and lack of budget to maintain these buildings. If you are going to build it, you must maintain it, and historically preserving a building full of mold, is just wrong, its just wrong.

Health hazards in schools

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/30/evidence-mounts-of-school-health-hazards.html

Mold Warriors book

This is an excellent source of reading material on the subject of mold illness. I was amazed that I actually couldn't put this book down. I have a hard time focusing after being exposed to mold at work. Once I started reading it, I realized that I wasn't alone anymore. I realized that mold illness is happening to people all over our great country the good old USA. I realized that stricter laws need to be in place when building new buildings. I realized that the hvac systems need to be maintained in all buildings for good health. I realized that buildings that leak are bad for your health. I realized that many many school teachers, students and staff get sick unnecessarily because the buildings they work in and/or go to school in are contaminated and pretty much, nobody cares, and nobody does anything about it. Well its about time we all banded together and stood up to the problems that are forcing us into having adhd children, and becomming adhd as adults. Its about time people started realizing that the girl down the hall had leukemia because the building she worked in was contaminated with mold.

Air Handlers that leak at NC STATE $41,000,000 building EB2

Ok, I know I just fell off the turnip truck, but enviro health and safety weren't aware of any problems in this building. hmmmmm

Water damaged sprinkler head eb2

Here is a water damaged sprinkler head at work, not too pretty, and it is rusting around the edges of the metal. I wonder what's behind that sheetrock?

Ed McMahon's problems with mold

//www.mold-help.org/content/view/296/

Mold is serious business, it is about time the government and the EPA put some regulations on homes and all buildings to ensure that people's health is protected. When are people going to stand up, and say, this is enough, we can't stand being sick anymore!

Rachael Ray's Mold Lawsuit

//www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrity/69086?cid=RSS

Even the movie stars with millions of dollars and luxury homes are not immune to mold exposure. It is unfortunate for them that even with the kind of money they posess, they still can't escape something as simple as water damage. Why are we building million dollar homes and multiple million dollar buildings for them to leak and cause mold damage? If the standards are not there to prevent the leaks and mold growth, then there will always be mold damage. Why are we letting the insurance companies get away with it? Why is it only the rich who have been able to fight the mold lawsuit battle, and why do they even have to fight for what is right to start with? Clean, safe, affordable housing is a must. This country would do a lot better to improve the standards of building practices against mold prevention. If we had higher standards for mold prevention, we could save a lot of tax dollars on treating those exposed to mold damaged and water damaged buildings.

Unfortunately most of the time people suffering from water damaged buildings and mold exposure are not in a position to speak up about it, for fear they will loose their job, for fear they will loose their rented apartment or home, for fear that people will think they are crazy, for fear that nobody will believe them. I am not glad that Rachael Ray has these problems with her home, it saddens me, but I am glad that the news is getting out about mold and how dangerous it is. The public deserves the truth and to be brought aware of this nightmarish situation. Your son or daughter, wife, husband, mother, father, brother , sister, aunt, uncle, best friend, could be affected by mold and if you are educated on it you might just recognize it in time before it does severe damage to them like it has to me. It took me 7 years to figure out I was getting exposed to mold.

Do me a favor: Just ask yourself, if one of your loved ones is sick, do they live or work in a water damaged dwelling or building? If the answer is yes, then please help them to get out, before its too late like it was for Brittany Murphy and Simon Monjack. Their lives were cut short. It is important, it is the right thing to do.

Black Mold Exposure

Black Mold Exposure is one of the best documentaries that I have seen in a while. While it is educational and enlightening, it is a story about real people that have been affected by mold exposure, and sadly relates to my own life. The young couple in the documentary are not that old, they were only exposed for a few months in a moldy apartment, but their lives will likely never be the same as before they were exposed. I am thankful that someone took the time to share their experiences in a film that is both enlightening and entertaining. I didn't even want to leave the room to got to the bathroom once I started watching this film. It is riveting!

My experiences are much like the young couple in the movie। I thought I was going crazy with all the weird things that I was smelling, and all the headaches, sore throats, facial pain, itching, nausea, and trouble breathing, but now I know that I was far from it. I had gotten mold exposure, more than likely from water damaged, leaky buildings that I had worked in. After having my son in September of 2008 I went back to work around December of 2008, I started developing a sore throat before the holidays. On December 31st I was in the Emergency Room. My sore throat was severe, I could hardly swallow, and I had stabbing abdominal pains. It was verified that I had a strep infection. I was out of work for at least a week in January, I kept returning to work, with the fevers and nausea, and fatigue. Normally a person tends to get better after several days on an antibiotic. I did not. I kept strep throat for over 2 months before I finally took a strep test and it was negative. I had not had a strep infection in over 20 years, I don't even have my tonsils and haven't had them for over 20 years!!!

Finally I started making the connection, when the cleaning lady kept telling me I needed to get out of the building. I was like, why is she so adamant about encouraging me to leave? She knew the building was bad news apparently. Stories about other people getting sick in the past started to surface, but only through my prodding of course. I am not one to just give up when it comes to figuring something out. Of course, the EPA had swept all accusations under the rug. So, I started walking around, and looking intensely. What I found was mind blowing. The steam pipes were leaking all around the building, the smell of yeast was so intense in one spot on the third floor that it smelled as if bread were baking all year round. There were moldy ceiling tiles from previous water leaks, there was a section of wall in one professors office that had water running down it like a waterfall. On the fourth floor the window seals were metal. They were completely rusted all the way around them. Paint was peeling in the stairwell with large spots of black discoloration (mold) growing behind it. Puddles of water sat on the rooftop after it rained, failing to drain correctly. The thermostat in my office read 54 degrees at the lowest temperature to 90 something with humidity levels up to 81% which is way to high. This was definately a leaking building and one with moisture problems. Who knew that this leaking building would be a problem for a thirty something year old? The migraines started happening almost daily. Severe sinus pain and facial pain, and nausea, abdominal pain, concentration problems, daily rashes, itching fits, bleeding for 2 weeks out of the month. What else could happen to me?

In addition to the mold illness, chemical sensitivity became severe. So severe that I couldn't stand to smell new furniture. I bought some new furniture and had to return it. I thought my husband was going to divorce me over this one. I could smell the formaldehyde in the wood, but he couldn't smell a thing. It is enough to drive a person crazy if they weren't already labeled as that. I can smell chemicals even if they are in the bottles. I can even smell voc's several floors away.

One time I was on the third floor of another building at work and could smell the voc's from the mold on the first floor. It was driving me crazy, so I went looking for it. Sure enough, I found a storage room that the whole ceiling had collapsed due to water damage. On part of the hanging sheetrock, was a large section of mold growing on the paper and if it was visible I am sure there was much much more mold that was hidden in places that I couldn't see. Moldy boxes lined the hallway down from the storage room that had the problem. Ceiling tiles along the entire hallway were soaked from the water damage. The problem was blamed on a faulty HVAC system.

Mold causes health problems- Brittany Murphy's home investigation

http://http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1297862/Brittany-Murphy-Mould-home-kill-actresss-death-linked-fungus-LA-mansion.html?ITO=1490

Brittany Murphy's Moldy House

I am curious to find the real results of the mold test performed at Brittany Murphy's home. Ok, you can see right here the tarps on the rooftop, hellooooo can you say water leak!! When there is water leaks there is mold soon to follow. But, nobody is going to admit that it could have been or was mold that played a factor. Doctors are paid off to never ever say that mold caused an illness, when in fact, mold causes a lot of illness. If doctors started comming forward and admitting that mold makes people sick, then new laws and rules and regulations would have to be set forth, and then enforced, and who would want that? Mold is serious business, and its possible that it could have been a factor in Brittany Murphy's death, the statement "there was no mold found in Brittany Murhpy's house" is an absolute untruth!!! In fact mold exists everywhere you go indoors, outdoors, etc. In fact, Brittany and her husband could have had the dreaded HLA gene which makes them suceptible to mold illness, and her mother may not have the gene. That is why you can see a family of 8 people living in a house with mold and 7 people are well, and 1 person is extremely sick (cancer, lukemia etc.). It is not absurd to think that mold exposure could play a factor in Brittany Monjack and Simon Monjack's untimely death. If there is a water leak, mold is sure to follow.....

What is mold illness?

Mold is a toxin and can cause illness in certain individuals that possess the HLA genotype. About 24% of the population have the dreaded genotype where exposure to mold makes people sick. I like to give people the analogy of a person that is allergic to strawberries. If a peson is allergic to strawberries, that person can not even be around them, the smell alone could set off an allergic reaction. The same with mold, its like kryptonite to Superman. It depletes the bodies organs to function properly. It can cause brain fog, allergic reactions, asthma like symptoms, chronic fatigue, headaches, depression and anxiety, just to name a few.

The best thing to do is to get away from the mold, which may be near impossible since there is mold everywhere in our environment, but we can try to limit our exposures the best we can. If we report leaks in buildings we work in, and the buildings we shop in, and the schools our sons and daughters attend we may have a fighting chance to get better.

It doesn't just happen in older buildings either, there is an example of a $41, 000,000 building that was only 4 years old, where the air handlers were leaking all over the ceilings, the air handler drains that would stay clogged, the sprinkler heads would leak onto the sheetrock. Where there is water on porous materials, there is probably mold to follow.

Keep your eyes open for water leaks, they are a major culprit to mold growth. Report any water leaks you find. If you think you have mold illness there is a doctor in Maryland named Dr. Shoemaker who has written a book on mold illness.