Guide to Mold Cleaning Products & Approaches to Remove Toxic Mold in Buildings MOLD CLEANERS - WHAT TO USE - CONTENTS: Consumer's guide to mold cleaners, mold killers, mildewcides, fungicidals, mold soaps, mold sprays, etc. Pros and cons of most popular mold cleaning products, solutions, sprays, cleaners, or other approaches to mold cleaning systems. How to clean or remove mold properly. Mold clearance inspections after cleanup. Use of ammonia, bleach, surface cleaning, media blasting, CO2, quat compounds & other cleaners and disinfectants for mold cleaning, santizing, disinfection, of surfaces, clothing, & in the indoor environment. POST a QUESTION or READ FAQs about the best choices of chemicals or cleaners to clean up or remove mold contamination This document describes choices among common cleaning substances and methods used for mold cleanup of building surfaces and contents.This article series provides an easy to understand step-by-step guide for dealing with toxic or allergenic indoor mold and other indoor contaminants: what to do about mold.
If you are asthmatic, immune impaired, sick, elderly, or an infant, it would be smart to have an expert clean up your mold while you stay out of the moldy area or building. The U.S. EPA recommends these mold cleanup safety tips [our comments are in brackets] See MOLD CLEANUP GUIDE- HOW TO GET RID OF MOLD for details. We have no financial interest in any of these products. This data was discovered by internet search. scientific data as yet regarding the effectiveness, toxicity, chemical composition, nor durability of these products. We do not recommend using thick plaster or cementious coatings as these are more likely to later crack or leak, trapping moisture inside against the wood and promoting worse mold growth. Bleaching or "killing" mold is not the objective. Bleach will not kill all of the mold anyway - we can tease viable spores out of lots of "bleached mold" samples we see in the lab. The object of mold removal is to clean the surface, to remove loose moldy material, not to try to sterilize the surface.
Certain mold-contaminated materials that cannot be cleaned (drywall, carpeting, curtains) should be discarded. Clothing and bedding linens or towels can be washed or dry-cleaned. Keep that in mind. If you want to use bleach as a cleaning agent instead of other cleaners (soap and water would work just fine) here are some mold cleanup suggestions for homeowners from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation CMHC. see BLEACHING MOLD, Advice about for details of how to mix and use bleach to clean a hard surface in a building as well as warnings about where bleaching mold is a cosmetic band-aid that just won't work. I’m planning to give my clothing to clean at this cleaners as they use CO2 cleaning. This is some documentation on its mold disinfection powers. Do you have any opinion if CO2 is ideal or another method? Using scholarly research tools and terms ammonia, mycotoxin, CO2, cleaning, clothing, etc. I have not been able to find a single scholarly article nor research defending the use of CO2 for addressing mold cleaning, mold odors, nor myxotoxin removal.
I did find a paper discussing using CO2 in cleaning up recycled paper (below). CO2 is discussed as a "green" method for dry cleaning clothing as it avoids using more ecologically harmful solvents. The article you cite is of course scholarly research but focuses on bacterial contaminants and does not mention mold, fungi, nor mycotoxins. Further, as we have discussed, "dead mold" may still be harmful, allergenic, toxic, or may contain mycotoxins. More important, we have not demonstrated by careful testing that the skin irritations you discussed earlier are related to mold as opposed to other environmental particles (such as insulation or insect fragments). Blood tests for mold or mycotoxin exposure are an important tool in use by your physician but don't establish a link between illness and actual location or source of the exposure. I have not been able to find scholarly articles nor research defending the use of ammonia for mycotoxin removal from clothing, furnishings, nor buildings, and I'd be grateful if your doctor who made that assertion could point us to a citation, journal article, research or some other source.
Perhaps this view originated with some experiments with mycotoxin treatments in food cereals and grains as I cite below. Ammonia in quaternary compounds is used in some sanitizers (as doubtless you already knew). Continue reading at MOLD CLEANUP GUIDE or select a topic from the More Reading links or topic ARTICLE INDEX shown below. Or see MOLD CLEANUP COMPANIES - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice. Green link shows where you are in this article series. OR use the Search Box found below at Ask a Question or Search InspectApedia Click to Show or Hide FAQs Use the "Click to Show or Hide FAQs" link just above to see recently-posted questions, comments, replies, try the search box just below, or if you prefer, post a question or comment in the Comments box below and we will respond promptly. Click to Show or Hide Citations & References Publisher's Google+ Page by Daniel Friedman