Wednesday, September 5, 2007

A Clean Fridge Is A Mold Free Fridge

Cleanliness in the kitchen is one of the most important things that you can train yourself to practice if you want to keep not only a healthy home, but also a slightly more padded wallet. The medical issues that can come about because of moldy or spoiled food in your refrigerator are not pleasant in any way and if they are severe or common enough, it can start to drain your bank account. Salmonella poisoning is not fun to deal with and it can possibly lead to death if you are not careful, but one of the most commonly occurring things that you do not want in your refrigerator is mold.

Mold starts to grow inside jelly jars or tubs of sour cream after they have been in your refrigerator for a while and if you are in the habit of buying a larger jar of something that you need, try buying a smaller one if it exists. Also clean out your refrigerator of outdated and spoiled items often.

One of the most important things that you can do to keep a clean kitchen is to keep a clean and well organized refrigerator. Keep Ziploc bags to store things like meat that do not have re-sealable containers, such as packs of bologna that you have to cut open with a knife. The longer a food remains uncovered, the sooner it will dry out and no one will want to eat it except the mold and bacteria that exist in your refrigerator. The unwanted top piece is left in the refrigerator in the hopes that someone else will eat it, but this rarely happens.

Produce like vegetables and fruits that are put into plastic sacks when you are gathering them in the produce aisle at the grocery store should be removed from these sacks when you put them in your refrigerator. Always refrigerate vegetables if possible; leaving them out at room temperature will encourage mold to grow on them. If you have grains such as flour or cornmeal (and you should), putting them in the refrigerator or freezer can also help keep mice, bugs, and mold away from them. However, remembering to allow the necessary portions of these to warm to room temperature before cooking with them is essential to good food.

Clean your refrigerator and wash it on both the inside and outside as often as you need to. Doing this will help keep your refrigerator as bacteria and mold free as possible and your food will taste better and be healthier for you because of it.


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Facts About Toxic Black Mold That You Need To Know

One of the most dangerous molds that a person can have growing in their home or place of business is the one that we have all come to associate with the term “toxic black mold”. This is Stachybotrys chartarum and it is sometimes simply called “stachy” for short. The media has made it famous in the past few years and it has been largely responsible for the resurgence of the awareness of the dangers of mold. The health consequences of this mold living in your home are fairly dangerous and can even end in death in some extreme cases.

This mold is fond of growing on such things as wood that has been water damaged or in some cases, on paper or cardboard that has been piled up and allowed to be wet. It does not grow on plastic or on non-porous surfaces such as tile in the bathroom or the kitchen or on concrete or counter tops. Any wood or cellulose-based items that have been wetted and let to dry naturally will eventually become contaminated with mold and will probably end up spreading to the rest of your household. This particular kind of mold needs almost non-stop moisture or humidity to continue to live. It is typically a greenish-black color, slimy, and wet when it is found in the home and it needs such things as cotton, wood, or paper to grow for very long. Even though the wet spores of this mold do not get into the air very easily, if it is let to try, these spores will enter the air in your home as soon as the air is stirred by a fan or an air conditioner and this can be very hazardous.

This is one of the most dangerous kinds of mold that you can come into contact with. It has been known to kill a person’s brain cells and cause sicknesses that can have a similar effect as Alzheimer’s Disease. Symptoms of this include dizziness or disorientation of any kind, such as blanking out or forgetting what you were doing while you were in the middle of doing it or memory loss. If you are not old enough to be at risk to have Alzheimer’s Disease, it is advised that you see your doctor as soon as possible. If you are concerned that mold may exist, conduct some do-it-yourself mold tests in your home in order to rule out or identify mold as the cause.

Some common symptoms of mold exposure have been known to be pneumonia, headaches, bloody noses, or any other kind of respiratory issue. Mold also aggravates pre-existing conditions such as asthma or emphysema. Exposure for long periods of time can cause kidney failure, liver failure, or bleeding of the lungs in babies.


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North Carolina Mold Remediation

Some Notes About Mold For homeowners And Tenants

No matter whether you are a landlord, tenant, homeowner, or an employer, there are some general facts about mold that everyone should be aware of. Everyone knows that exposure to mold can be a very dangerous thing, but not everyone knows the most important things about it that can be the difference between a mold infested home, a lot of lost money, bad health and a healthy, happy home.

One of the most important things that you should realize is the fact that no matter what you do, you cannot remove all of the mold from your home. Mold has existed for millions of years and will continue to exist for millions more; you cannot completely stamp it out from where you live or work because it is truly everywhere. The only thing that you can do is stop it from taking root in your home and becoming a nuisance.

Make sure that the ground at the base of your home slopes away from it so water flows away from the foundation. Water that is allowed to settle at the foundation will seep inside the home and allow mold to begin to grow.

Pay attention to the mold warnings that you see on the news sometimes. If you are elderly or have small children, especially those with asthma or other respiratory conditions, you should not go outside if the spore count is high.

In order to discover just what kind of mold you are dealing with in your home, you need to have a mold laboratory test the mold that you have sampled into a do-it-yourself mold kit. Only they can tell you just what kind of mold you are dealing with and whether or not it is dangerous.

Something important to remember is that mold is not always visible and does not really need standing water in order to grow. Actually, most kinds of mold do not need any more than the condensation that can form on the cold pipes in your basement or on your windows. It requires only some high amounts of humidity, food, and warmth.

Lastly, if you move into a home or an apartment and mold exists on the property, you should understand that it is not your responsibility to have the mold removed, it is the owner’s simply because if you choose to move out, the mold will still be there.


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Is Mold Affecting Your Allergies

So many people in the world suffer from allergies that it is often hard to completely get away from them, no matter what kind of medications you might be prescribed by your physician. Most allergy symptoms can be seen from spring to the late fall because the majority of allergies can be attributed to grasses, pollens, and different kinds of mold. Most grasses, flowers, and molds cannot grow during the winter time. Even though some types of mold can withstand cold temperatures, most cannot continue to live in temperatures that are below freezing, though they can lie dormant for quite a long time. If they are allowed to thaw, they can be just as live and dangerous as before they were frozen.

Unfortunately, not all places in the world are touched by freezing temperatures and so mold often grows year round, affecting not only the allergies, but also the general health of the people who live in a building infected by it. The allergy symptoms caused by mold can be anything from sneezing to runny noses to skin rashes. Perennial allergic rhinitis can also be brought about by the presence of mold, however mold usually causes allergy symptoms only when it is present in a fairly high amount. Mold allergy symptoms are often made worse by the consumption of any kind of food that has been made with a fungus such as mushrooms or even foods like bread and beer. Cheese made with mold, particularly bleu cheese, can also bring about the occurrence of these symptoms.

Compared to the number of species of mold on the planet, there are not too many kinds of it that are highly allergenic, but there are a few dozen. Cladosporium, Alternaria, and Penicillium are three kinds of molds that tend to cause many allergic reactions. Penicillium is the only genus that has both a medicine and a disease named after it, however.

If you have allergies, something that you probably do on a regular basis is watch for the grass, pollen, and mold spore counts that appear on the news every day. These are important to pay attention to because if you are elderly or have a small child who is allergic, going out into a day when there is a high count of anything you may be allergic to could be either an irritating day or end up aggravating your allergy until you need to go to the hospital. Severe allergic reactions are rare, but they can happen.

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