Bleaching household mold helps breathing

[slayadragon]

Professional and researcher views about using bleach for remediation are mixed.

It seems clear that bleach can kill environmental bacteria, which are present in many moldy buildings and create toxins such as LPS (which has been shown to interact especially with trichothecenes made by molds such as Stachybotrys to cause more severe health symptoms in humans). So I wonder if this could be related to why someone might feel better when using bleach for cleaning purposes in certain problematic environments.

Bleach does not seem to have any appreciable effect on the toxins made by environmental molds. So if the mold is left in place rather than physically removed, sensitized people especially will likely continue to have problems.

The jury seems to be out on whether bleach can kill mold. Most seem to think that it just removes the color, making it less noticeable that it is still present. I suspect possibly that it could slow it down a bit, but that in general, it would be far more likely to kill humans before it permanently killed the mold.

I personally am increasingly interested in the idea that alterations in gut flora may be an integral part of ME as well as many other diseases.

For instance, mold toxin is made by mold in order to kill environmental bacteria (so that the mold can grow more freely all of the environment). Increasing numbers of studies suggest that mold does this in the body of humans and other mammals as well: kills off good bacteria and allows bad pathogens (such as salmonella and HIV-1) to grow more unchecked.

However, since chlorine is added to the water supply specifically to kill off microorganisms, I don't see how we can reasonably think that it would not be doing the same thing in the gut. It concerns me a great deal that none of the many news media articles that have discussed the microbiome in the past year or two have discussed this.

I've never felt comfortable with the idea of taking MMS but don't have an opinion beyond that about it.

Here's a page of information with various links on remediation, with some mentions of the use of bleach.

http://www.paradigmchange.me/mold-illness-info/flooding-and-water-events/

Good luck,

Lisa Petrison

 

[xchocoholic]

Hi @slayadragon,

Thanks for replying. I appreciate your info.

Fwiw, I used to have black thick mold growing on my patio stones. It was all over the base of a neighbors palm so I couldn't get rid of the source. Not legally anyway. ; )

I tried vinegar and cheap bleach Walmart brands and those didn't affect it.

But Clorox, sp?, made it bubble and disappear. Since it was thick it was obvious that the bleach killed it and didn't just turn it clear. And yes, I enjoyed watching it bubble. ; )

Bleach worked best on whatever was growing in my a/c ducts too. The difference in my ability to breath made it clear that the area needed to be treated. Less is better when dealing with bleach tho. Stronger solutions irritated my lungs.

Tc .. x

 

[slayadragon]

I'm pretty strongly opposed as a matter of principle to using chemicals of any sort outdoors. We have only one earth and it seems to me a mistake to muck it up. And I personally feel so much better in places where no chemicals ever have been used that I think that the spreading of chemicals on the earth is doing something horrible to it.

I realize that position puts me in the minority. So far.

But probably in terms of the short-run safety for humans, it would be more possible to use bleach in the concentrations needed to kill mold outdoors than it would be indoors.

Note that I know a great many people who are especially sensitive to bleach as well as mold, after exposure to a bad building. My suspicion is that large quantities of bleach may have been used to attempt to kill the mold, and that that is what sensitized them.

So in general, regardless of whether bleach is capable of killing mold, I never would suggest it.

 

[MeSci]

I avoid artificial chemicals where possible too. I wonder whether @xchocoholic's mould was actually algae, or even lichen, which seems more likely on paving stones.

There are usually environmentally-friendly (and healthier) ways of dealing with things.

 

[xchocoholic]

I couldn't find a friendly way of dealing with this but I only tried vinegar and sunshine. Those didn't work.

I Googled mold vs fungus and it sounded like I'd needed someone with expertise in both to know the difference. It grew as quickly as the plant mold I had inside my apt. It appeared to be slow growing so I ignored it. That's when it made it's move. It was everywhere after that.

 

[MeSci]

I couldn't find a friendly way of dealing with this but I only tried vinegar and sunshine. Those didn't work.

I Googled mold vs fungus and it sounded like I'd needed someone with expertise in both to know the difference. It grew as quickly as the plant mold I had inside my apt. It appeared to be slow growing so I ignored it. That's when it made it's move. It was everywhere after that.

Mould is a type of fungus.

 

[xchocoholic]

Isn't black mold considered different from black fungus tho ?

I had too much to do yesterday to really get into this. I'm focusing on learning more about my neurological problems too.

For now I'll continue using bleach since everything else I tried using to kill whatever was growing in those ducts didn't work and I needed to bleach to kill of the leftovers kombucha scobies and needed it to kill off the black "x".

If bleach is killing "x" and killing "x" is helping me breathe that's all that matters right now.

I even tried baking soda on those plants and that failed.

It seems natural remedies aren't always as good as non natural.

tc ... x

 

[MeSci]

Isn't black mold considered different from black fungus tho ?

I had too much to do yesterday to really get into this. I'm focusing on learning more about my neurological problems too.

For now I'll continue using bleach since everything else I tried using to kill whatever was growing in those ducts didn't work and I needed to bleach to kill of the leftovers kombucha scobies and needed it to kill off the black "x".

If bleach is killing "x" and killing "x" is helping me breathe that's all that matters right now.

I even tried baking soda on those plants and that failed.

It seems natural remedies aren't always as good as non natural.

tc ... x

You probably have different names for stuff in the US from what I know in the UK - after all, we don't even spell mould/mold the same!

It would be a good idea to make sure what your paving is made of. If it's concrete, beware of using anything acidic or you may dissolve the concrete! (Think acid rain). Then maybe do some image searches and see if you get any images showing the stuff you have.

 

[Little Bluestem]

Has anyone tried hydrogen peroxide on mold? It should be harmless to humans and the environment, if it would kill the mold.

 

[Little Bluestem]

thanks. Are they saying these dead spores can be a problem too ?

The spores may not be dead. They can be dormant but alive for a very long time.

 

[taniaaust1]

Fwiw, I used to have black thick mold growing on my patio stones. It was all over the base of a neighbors palm so I couldn't get rid of the source.

Im thinking you may have something other then what people often refer to as being black mold.

Black mold (the one people talk about as being extremely bad) as far as Im aware is a very fine mold (I used to have what I think was black mold in my house)

New
Has anyone tried hydrogen peroxide on mold?

I think that works on mold..but it probably wouldnt get into the air enough.
..........

With using bleach with this illness... also consider that it may end up giving you severe MCS if you expose yourself too much to it (that's how I developed MCS.. exposure to too much chemicals as I was doing part time housecleaning).